From America to Africa: U.S. Exports Are Marking
a DifferenceA message from Under Secretary
of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sánchez. Follow him on Twitter @UnderSecSanchez.
I
have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. In addition to my family and friends, I am so
proud of my colleagues at the International Trade Administration because they
continue to do great work to help American businesses compete overseas. Our
work is making a difference. We’re opening
new doors of opportunity so that American businesses can reach as many
customers as possible, and sell their products in all corners of the world. As a result of this work, we’ve helped
President Obama’s trade agenda reach some important milestones.
In September, U.S.
exports of both goods ($134.0 billion) and services ($53.0 billion) reached
all-time record highs. This is good
for jobs, growth and the overall economy, which is why we continue to push
forward with focus and urgency.
It’s been a busy month at ITA, full of lots of successes and
progress. One notable experience for me
was leading an historic trip to Africa that included the first-ever trade
mission to Zambia. President Obama says
that Africa can be the world’s next great economic success story, and our
delegation saw this promise up close in the form of an expanding middle class
and strong economic growth. U.S. companies have played a role in this
development, and want to continue to do so.
My delegation was comprised of 13 U.S. companies, from a
variety of sectors, and we visited Lusaka in Zambia, as well as Johannesburg
and Cape Town in South Africa. I was also
proud to join Acting Secretary Rebecca Blank when she launched the Doing
Business in Africa Campaign, which will help raise awareness among U.S.
companies about the great trade and investment opportunities in Africa. The launch was received with great
enthusiasm, and ITA looks forward to helping make the effort a success.
Another successful trip was a trade mission I
led to Vietnam and Indonesia, two countries that are considered priority markets
in order to achieve the goals of the National
Export Initiative. Both are growing, and have ambitious plans for
the future. And again, American
businesses offer products that can help make these plans a reality. That’s what our trade mission was all about:
building partnerships that produced mutual benefits. The response was incredible, and we remain
committed to building on this progress.
As you’ll see in this edition of International Trade Update, in addition to our successful trade
missions, there was a lot of good news at
ITA this month, including:
We
are proud of this work, but we aren’t content.
We know there is so much more to be done, and we remain committed to
doing all we can to help American businesses in the global markets. That is our
mission and passion. And we look forward
to helping more businesses sell more goods in more markets.
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