Commerce Deputy Secretary Dennis Hightower Promotes Export Opportunities to Small Businesses in the Detroit Area

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Commerce Deputy Secretary Dennis F. Hightower today met with small business owners in Detroit to discuss the key role exports will play in Detroit’s economic recovery. During his address at the “ExportsLive! Real Deals—Real Profits” seminar, Hightower stressed that exports will help revive businesses and create good paying jobs. The gathering of small business leaders is geared to help companies grow and expand in global markets.

“Exports are already a growing and substantial part of the U.S. economy and account for almost 13 percent of our GDP and over six million manufacturing jobs alone,” said Hightower.

“We want to ensure that American companies, especially the small- and mid-sized firms that account for over half of all new jobs, have fair and frequent access to foreign markets.”

In 2008, Commerce’s Commercial Service worked with nearly 24,000 active clients to help them achieve their export goals.

For example, in early 2009, the Commercial Service staff helped counsel MedArray on its first export sale to Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, MedArray has successfully exported to Australia, Canada, France and South Africa.

The Detroit seminar, organized by the Export-Import Bank, with participation from six federal agencies, follows events in New York, Boston, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Detroit is the final stop of the eight-city seminar series. More than 1,300 small businesses, lenders, brokers and trade specialists have attended the seminars.

Representatives of the federal government organizations providing these export services offered one-on-one consultations. Ex-Im Bank, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative were all on hand in a united effort to show how the government can assist small- and medium-size companies to expand the markets in which they do business.