Global Opportunities and New Markets

“It’s Brazil’s Time!”  I still can hear the clarion call of Rick Fedrizzi, President of the U.S. Green Building Council, from his opening speech during the Green Building Conference Brasil in São Paulo last week.  I was in Brazil to foster expanded commercial ties between Brazilian and American firms in the green building and energy sectors and advance the objectives of the U.S.-Brazil Strategic Energy Dialogue.  For a portion of the trip, I accompanied 14 companies participating in the Department of Commerce-certified, Brazil-U.S. Business Council-organized Trade Mission. These are innovative and forward-thinking small and medium companies interested and ready to export green building products to Brazil.

Fedrizzi also pointed out that Brazil was among the top five countries for LEED certifications, so there is definitely a market opportunity for these companies. It also helps that financing is available for construction of buildings designed to LEED specifications.  Brazil is rushing to get ready for the 2012 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

The president’s trip to Brazil earlier this year laid the groundwork for wider U.S. participation in Brazil’s rapidly growing green energy sector.  I was excited to be able to participate with the companies as they are primed to take advantage of these incredible opportunities in the Brazilian market, especially the green building sector. This is a priority area for the President’s National Export Initiative, not only because it can generate new sales for American industry but also because it is a powerful way to grow green jobs in the United States. U.S. goods exports to Brazil in 2010 were $35.4 billion, up 36 percent from 2009. In 2010, Brazil was the eighth-largest export market for U.S. goods.

Business owners aren't always aware of all the resources the government makes available for them. For example, the Department of Commerce has tools to directly help companies at every point in the business life cycle. And we’re particularly focused on helping the small and medium-sized businesses that create over half of all new jobs.

A best-kept secret is that domestic trade shows are great places to meet and sell to international buyers. U.S. businesses that have discovered this relatively low-cost channel for drumming up new sales claim that exhibiting at the “right” shows can fill their order books for the entire year.

It may sound counter intuitive to make international sales without leaving the U.S., but the fact is that international buyers are attracted to large trade shows in the U.S. And let’s not forget the draw of Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami and other big trade show venues.

You don’t need a boat to go where most small businesses export. China’s economy may get a lot of our press, but our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, get a lot more of our exports. Total U.S. exports of goods to Canada and Mexico in 2009 were $154.8 billion and $116.4 billion, respectively, while exports to China were $65.6 billion.

The International Trade Administration’s recently released Small & Medium-Sized Exporting Companies: Statistical Overview, 2009 finds 275,843 exporters in 2009. Of this number, 269,269 or 97.6 percent were small businesses. But small businesses only accounted for 32.8 percent or $308 billion of the total export revenue in 2009.

For both small and large exporters, most of the exports came from the manufacturing and wholesale trade industries, which is not surprising considering the data does not cover services exports. These two industries combined represented about 85 percent of exporting value and 60 percent of the exporting businesses.