| 
|
Press Releases
July 1, 2009
ASSOCIATION DIRECTOR EMPHASIZES SUCCESS OF EXPORT PROGRAMS
FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
NEW ORLEANS, LA – At a hearing yesterday before the Senate Committee on Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship, Jerry Hingle, Executive Director of the Southern U.S. Trade Association, discussed how thousands of small firms across the U.S. are taking advantage of opportunities to export their food and agricultural products, thanks to assistance from the USDA's Market Access Program. "As a result of this program, the small companies we work with made export sales of $87.5 million last year," said Hingle. "Many of these companies weren't even considering exporting just a few years ago."
Yesterday's field hearing, entitled "Keeping America Competitive: Federal Programs that Promote Small Business Exports," saw testimony from international trade experts at both local and national levels. Hingle, as well as United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg, and World Trade Center New Orleans Director Eugene Schreiber, testified before U.S. Senate Small Business Committee Chair Mary Landrieu.
Hingle stressed the importance of U.S. small business exports to the nation's economic recovery, underscoring the critical nature of federal trade development programs like MAP, which provide small firms with the additional resources they need to become successful exporters. He expressed concern over proposals in Washington to cut funding for MAP by 20 percent, adding that in today's economy it appears counterintuitive to scale back a program that clearly helps small businesses grow internationally and create jobs locally.
"Since MAP's creation in 1985, U.S. agricultural exports have increased by nearly 300 percent," he said. "These programs have proven to be highly effective at supporting American jobs and encouraging spending in the private sector. We are working to help our representatives in Congress understand that by bringing new companies into the export arena using MAP, we lay the foundation for American small businesses to prosper in the years to come."
Back to Press Releases
|
|
