EU, U.S. to Boost Efforts on Small Business Trade Promotion

05 December 2012

Assistant Secretary of Commerce Michael Camuñez says both sides want to eliminate bureauratic delays to help boost small business growth.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) and the European Commission Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (DGE) have agreed to work together to support and promote trans-Atlantic trade among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

At the fourth U.S.-EU SME Workshop December 3, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance Michael Camuñez and Director-General for Enterprise and Industry Daniel Calleja Crespo signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to formalize efforts between ITA and DGE to collaborate on a wide range of trade promotion, information sharing and policy initiatives that will boost the ability of SMEs to access EU, U.S. and third-country markets.

“While an important focus of our efforts under the MOU will be exploring how to better collaborate on sector-specific and other trade promotion initiatives, we envision a comprehensive effort that will endeavor to address a wide range of concerns affecting SME trade,” Camuñez said December 3.

Camuñez said both sides want to work closely with the private sector to better understand the trade promotion, trade finance and market access challenges SMEs are facing. “We realize that SMEs do not have the resources nor the time to wait for what has become an increasingly slow and sometimes lethargic process for handling issues in our respective bureaucracies and regulatory bodies,” Camuñez added. “SMEs need governments to provide solutions to their market access problems in terms of months, not years. If we want to effectively help SMEs, we need to find ways to obtain results more quickly than many current processes allow.

The enhancement of U.S.-EU trade among SMEs has been a priority for the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC), the principal bilateral economic platform between the United States and the European Union. As a result, the SME Workshop was launched in 2011 by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration.

“The MOU we signed this week reflects a concrete commitment on the part of our governments to support SMEs as they engage in trans-Atlantic trade,” Camuñez said. “It also further advances a TEC priority to better address the particular challenges SMEs face in our respective markets and globally.”

Among other things, the MOU between ITA and the DGE’s Enterprise Europe Network is intended to facilitate the exchange of information about SMEs and promote international trade and business cooperation between U.S. and European SMEs. In addition, the MOU will facilitate the undertaking of specific initiatives to address market access and other barriers that constrain the growth of SME trade and investment.

Participants in the U.S.-EU workshop also discussed intellectual property rights protection for small business, the impact of standards on small business access to markets, SME financing tools, geographic clusters with a specific industry focus (including SME suppliers), and best practices in entrepreneurial programs for women and youth.