Export Promotion: Initial Assessment of Governmentwide Strategic Plan

GAO discussed the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee's (TPCC) report on the federal strategic planning effort to promote exports. GAO noted that: (1) the TPCC strategic plan includes specific actions to improve individual agency programs and export promotion efforts, set governmenwide priorities, and create a unified export promotion budget by fiscal year 1995; (2) TPCC believes that interagency consensus could be easily achieved by centralizing management of federally-sponsored trade events, improving cooperation with state trade-promotion efforts, consolidating responsibility for most federal feasibility study grants for major capital projects, and providing additional training for trade promotion staff in the field; (3) the TPCC plan is committed to establishing one-stop shop trade promotion centers for providing services to U.S. businesses, and strengthening coordination between trade promotion and policy agencies; (4) the plan proposes to consolidate all export finance assistance for working capital purposes in the Export-Import Bank if the Small Business Administration cannot resolve problems with its Export Revolving Line of Credit program; and (5) the TPCC effort will require continued high-level administration support, particularly from the five core agencies involved in trade promotion.