The US Commercial Service will encourage American small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to export to Asia to broaden their markets and beat the economic downturn at home, officials said yesterday.
Officers of the US government's trade promotion body from the US and 14 Asia-Pacific countries and cities gathered for the first time here to hammer out a blueprint for promoting the region to American SMEs.
Of the 23 million SMEs in the US, only one percent or about 230,000 firms, export their products, said Douglas Barry, director for marketing and communications of the US Commercial Service in Washington.
Of this number, 65 percent export to Canada and Mexico, he said on the sides of the meeting.
"Many [US SMEs] are also experiencing competition from companies from abroad that are selling in the US market. You can't afford to be parochial in your outlook, you have to think more globally and internationally," he said.
The meeting gathered US commercial officers attached to US embassies throughtout Asia.
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