Matt Kennedy is the Director of Strategic Partnerships in the U.S. Commercial Service, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce
This past week at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, I had the honor of being present as Secretary Bryson and COO and President, International of FedEx Express, Mr. Michael Ducker partnered in marking the commencement of the Global Buyers Initiative – a new program that aims to help expand U.S. exports abroad and create jobs here at home.
An expansion of our ever-valuable partnership with FedEx, the program will work to identify foreign importers who, while already adept in importation, may not be sourcing from U.S. companies and could benefit from doing so. With the help of our domestic and international teams, we will reach out to these companies, work to connect them with U.S. suppliers, and extend to them the broad resources of the Commercial Service.
To advance the goals of the President’s National Export Initiative, we in the Commercial Service have been working to develop innovative, effective, and efficient ways to help U.S. companies expand their exports abroad. With a current program, the New Market Exporter Initiative, we are focusing on supply. With partners FedEx, the National Association of Manufacturers, the United States Postal Service, and UPS, we are working to identify U.S. companies that export their goods and services abroad, but to only one or two countries. With much of the know-how already there, these companies—with the guidance and resources of the Commercial Service—are entering new markets and expanding their business. The Global Buyers Initiative represents a ramping up of these efforts and an expansion of the strategy to the demand side: the international companies that are potential importers.
And while the strategy may be new, the goal is the same: expand exports, create jobs. We are especially excited about the power of our new program to impact small businesses here at home. By connecting with importers abroad, the Global Buyers Initiative will expand small firms’ reach into these key foreign markets and, in doing so, help grow this vital sector of our economy.
We are excited to roll out the program this year in Canada, France, and Korea, focusing on NEI-priority markets, and have plans to expand it to Australia, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Panama, and Singapore in the near future. We are confident that with the help of this new initiative and the continuing hard work of our domestic and international teams and partners, American exports will be increased and American jobs will be created.
If you’re in the market for American-made products and want to participate in the Global Buyers Initiative you can reach us at partners@trade.gov.
(The email address in the final paragraph of this post was updated on November 7, 2012.)
