Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Small Business Committee ranking member Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk on Jan. 12 urging that he designate an assistant USTR to address the trade-related needs of the small business community. According to the senators, USTR is largely focused on export growth, but only 1 percent of U.S. small businesses export any product and the number has decreased over the last decade. In making the request for a small business USTR, the senators hoped to see an individual appointed who would remove trade barriers and make meaningful foreign markets accessible to small business. USTR will hold a Jan. 21 conference on ways to improve U.S. trade policy to assist small- and medium-sized businesses.
For more information on the conference, visit
www.ustr.gov/SMEconference.