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A Message from Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance
Dear Stakeholder,
On behalf of the Market Access and Compliance (MAC) division of the International Trade Administration, I would like to thank you for taking the time to learn more about how MAC helps American businesses to export goods and services, and invest abroad.
Competition in the global marketplace is fierce; the margin for success is increasingly thin. It is more important now than ever before that the United States Government does all that it can to help American businesses compete on a level playing field.
That is exactly what MAC does—we defend, expand and promote market access for U.S. goods, services, and investment abroad to help American businesses thrive and create jobs here at home. MAC’s mandate is to overcome trade barriers that negatively impact American businesses so they can compete more effectively abroad. Specifically,
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We defend U.S. rights under trade agreements, ensuring that American businesses benefit, by vigilantly monitoring whether our trading partners fulfill their trade agreement commitments and taking action if they do not;
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We expand markets for American businesses by overcoming trade restrictions that inhibit their ability to participate in our trading partners’ markets; and
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We promote favorable business environments in foreign markets focusing on areas where the lack of good policies or enforcement creates trade barriers for American exports.
MAC executes this mission in two principal ways: 1) by developing specific and tailored country engagement strategies; and 2) by pursuing a range of cross-cutting policy initiatives to address international market access challenges, such as corruption, failure to enforce intellectual property rights, and discriminatory standards and regulations that unfairly restrict American exports.
Through the National Export Initiative (NEI), President Obama has set the ambitious goal of doubling exports by 2014 to support millions of American jobs. To help accomplish that goal, MAC has prioritized markets and issues that will best support this effort and sharpened its focus with respect to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Despite all of our work, we are always interested in how we can do more to serve American businesses. If you have ideas about how we can better do so, I hope that you will contact us.
Sincerely,
Michael C. Camuñez
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance
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