NEI/NEXT Priority Objective: Expand Access to Finance for U.S. Exporters
July 10, 2014This post contains external links. Please review our external linking policy.
Yuki Fujiyama is a trade finance specialist with the Office of Finance and Insurance Services Industries in the International Trade Administration. He serves on the Department’s liaison team to the U.S. Export-Import Bank and he is the author of The Trade Finance Guide: A Quick Reference for U.S. Exporters.
Attendees at the Seminar learned the best ways to get paid from export sales, as part of a continued effort to support U.S. exporters. You can learn about this in our Trade Finance Guide.
The U.S. government is focusing on expanding access to finance for U.S. exporters, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and their foreign buyers.
On June 30, the U.S. Department of Commerce partnered with a number of local organizations and federal agencies to present The Global Connect: Arlington Trade Finance Seminar at Arlington Economic Development in Northern Virginia.
Expanding access to export financing is one of the five priority objectives under NEI/NEXT, the next phase of the President’s National Export Initiative, a customer-focused initiative to ensure that more American businesses can fully capitalize on markets around the world.
Despite recent improvements in the economy, many U.S. businesses, especially SMEs and minority-owned firms, still face significant challenges in financing their export transactions. The Arlington seminar helped local SMEs learn ways to overcome such challenges by following NEI/NEXT’s three key trade finance strategies:
- Engage and educate more commercial lenders and private-sector partners on U.S. government export financing and insurance programs.
- Educate more U.S. businesses on how to utilize the government and commercial trade finance resources that can help turn their export opportunities into actual transactions.
- Streamline services provided by U.S. government export financing and promotion agencies.
In addition to these finance strategies, participants also explored:
- getting paid from export sales;
- getting paid in foreign currencies;
- taking advantage of export assistance resources and U.S. Government export financing programs;
- identifying U.S. export opportunities in Latin America; and,
- finding global business development resources for U.S. Hispanic and Other Minority-Owned Businesses.
With the new knowledge gained from Global Connect Arlington, participants are now more equipped to enter, grow and succeed in global markets!
Do you need more info on trade finance? Our Trade Finance Guide is a great place to start!
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