Locke discusses Commerce resources available to U.S. companies to help grow business and create jobs

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke visited the UPS Global Operations Center in Louisville, Ky., today to highlight opportunities for local Kentucky businesses to sell their goods and services abroad and support job creation in their community. Locke toured the facility and held a discussion with local business owners on how the Commerce Department can help them grow their businesses and create jobs. Expanding on an existing partnership, UPS has joined with the Commerce Department to identify new markets for current exporters and potential candidates to expand their exports with the help of Department resources through the New Market Exporter Initiative.  

Commerce’s partnership with UPS is one way the Department is working to achieve the goals of President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI), which aims to double U.S. exports over the next five years in support of 2 million American jobs. Since 2007, UPS has been a partner with Commerce’s export-promotion arm, the U.S. Commercial Service, a division of the Department’s International Trade Administration.

Last year, UPS partnered with the U.S. Commercial Service on 65 export promotion activities, reaching over one million U.S. businesses. Since October, they’ve partnered on 29 export promotion activities, touching over 2,400 U.S. businesses.

Exports are an integral part of the U.S. economy. In 2008, American exports accounted for nearly seven percent of our total employment and one in three manufacturing jobs. In the first four months of 2010, exports grew almost 17 percent compared to the same period last year.

Since the president announced the NEI, the Department of Commerce’s Advocacy Center has assisted American companies competing for export opportunities, supporting $11.4 billion in exports and an estimated 70,000 jobs. The Department’s commercial service officers stationed around the world have helped more than 2,000 companies generate $3.8 billion worth of exports. To date, the Commerce Department has coordinated 18 trade missions with over 160 companies to 24 countries.