MDCP Completed Awards

Export of Recorded Music by U.S. Independent Labels

As noted in ITA’s Top Markets report, the American music industry is integral to the United States economy and its culture. The growth of the U.S. music industry has a multiplier effect, impacting businesses in other industries, including manufacturing, television, film, and gaming.

Recognizing the importance of music to the U.S. economy and its potential for growth in the international market, the International Trade Administration (ITA) partnered with The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM). Thanks to funding from a Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) award, A2IM was able to support its members’ participation in trade events around the world, generating over $40 million in business for over fifty member companies.

MDCP Partner and Strategic Partner

Based in New York City, A2IM is a trade organization that supports the growth of its more than 390 members of independently-owned record labels. A2IM began working with ITA in 2010. In the fall of 2011, A2IM took a trade mission to Asia via the STEP grant, and with support from ITA. After learning about MDCP, A2IM applied for an award in cooperation with The Recording Academy, and was awarded MDCP funding in August 2012. In 2015, A2IM became a Strategic Partner with ITA.

The A2IM MDCP partnership established and expanded trade missions for American independent music labels and created American pavilions at global industry conferences. Since the inception of the MDCP project, A2IM member companies have taken advantage of financial assistance to attend the world’s largest music industry trade shows and participate in trade missions in key markets that were identified in coordination with ITA.

Using its MDCP financial assistance award, A2IM typically offers a discount to U.S. firms of up to 50% off the normal cost of participating. A2IM has focused these discounts on U.S. firms that have not participated at the targeted shows previously.

Monetization of Music Continues to Evolve

Since A2IM applied for MDCP funding in 2012, the challenge to the industry of how to monetize output has grown. From physical platforms like CDs, the market moved to downloads, and then to streaming and other platforms. This constant change has made it all the more important for U.S. firms to adapt how their music is sold. In some markets, CDs and downloads are still popular. In others, streaming leads the way, but there continue to be other opportunities as well.

Tourism’s Economic Benefit to Indian Country

International travel and tourism accounts for over one tenth of all U.S. exports of goods and services and supports well over a million U.S. jobs. In Indian Country, the many self-governing Native American communities throughout the United States, tourism is a unique part of the international visitor experience.

Tourism is an economic driver, but Indian Country is just beginning to benefit from tourism as an export. It is estimated that 5% or 1,652,000 of the 34 million overseas visitors to the United States in 2015 visited Indian Country. Indian Country has seen its visitors grow from 693,000 international visitors in 2007 to the record total of 1,652,000 in 2014.

The National Travel and Tourism Office estimates that overseas travelers who visit Indian Country stay 12 nights longer in the U.S. than the average traveler, visit more states and more cities, take more domestic flights, rent more cars, visit more national parks and monuments, visit more small towns and rural areas and visit more historical areas, cultural and heritage sites, art galleries and museums.

Tourism Exports and Target Markets

The United Kingdom is the #3 overseas spending source market for the United States—2015 figures. The UK economy is the fastest growing in the developed world.

Like the British, Italians also have a distinct interest in visiting Indian Country with a peak 8.5% interest rate by their 936,000 visitors. Italians spend an average of $4,315 when on travel. Italian arrivals have grown year on year and are projected to increase between 4%-5% in 2016.

American Indian communities saw a 10% increase in international visitors from 2013 to 2014, from 1,506,000 to 1,652,000. But, while Indian Country has seen growth from international visitors, at the local level tribes still suffer from the need for funding infrastructure, capacity building and marketing. The MDCP partnership and assistance from ITA goes far in helping market Indian Country venues as destinations for international visitors.

Working on behalf of all 567 federally recognized tribes and Native Hawaiians, the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA) works to advance Indian Country tourism across the United States. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, AIANTA provides technical assistance, training, and resources to tribes, and works to ensure that tribal tourism has a voice at the national level.

Standards and the Feed Machinery Industry

ASABE and the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) have recruited U.S. companies and technical delegates from other countries to participate in standards-developing activities for feed machinery through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The ISO standards on feed machinery that are being developed and will determine, in large part, the competitiveness of the U.S. feed machinery industry. This U.S. industry has a reputation for high quality and reliability. As the demand for meat, milk, and eggs rises in more and more countries around the world, the demand for quality feed machinery equipment will also increase. Accordingly, growth opportunities for the U.S. firms will be mostly from exporting.

U.S. Firm Involvement Is Key to Standards Development

In 2016, ASABE received a Market Development Cooperator (MDCP) award to support the U.S. feed industry’s participation in international standards development. Because international standards often form the basis for technical regulations, U.S. industry representatives need to be at the table as the standards are written to ensure future access to export markets.

The ASABE MDCP award covers a web site, outreach and training efforts to industry experts, some delegate travel costs to international standards meetings, and the hosting of an international meeting in the United States.

Founded in 1907, ASABE is a member-driven technical and educational organization based in Saint Joseph, Michigan. ASABE’s 9,000-members are engineers and other professionals who work in laboratories, educational institutions, manufacturing and processing facilities. Founded in 1909, AFIA, based in Arlington, Va., is the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to representing the business, legislative, and regulatory interests of the U.S. animal feed industry and its suppliers.

A2IM contact: Scott Cedarquest

Award No: IT16INA1120001

ASAB520

Developing World Needs Water Technology

The global market for water and wastewater treatment and distribution for domestic and industrial users is worth about $600 billion annually. Growth rates in the developing world are driving the continued growth in the industry worldwide. This means that U.S. water technology companies that seek new clients in developing countries are more likely to experience robust growth themselves.

Interest by developing countries in water technology goes back decades. For example, an AWWA journal article in 1967 called for partnerships with industry in “friendly countries” to help address the scarcity of water in India.

Like much of the developing world, the India of today is now ready to partner with private companies and non-profits to face the water challenges. AWWA’s MDCP project is designed to help countries address these challenges and benefit U.S. firms in the process.

Presence In India

In opening its office in India in 2015 as part of the MDCP project, AWWA created the first community of water professionals outside of North America.

The office is a base from which AWWA can educate government, utility, and engineering officials. The AWWA India office also provides a marketing effort to foment this relationship and actively contract and provide packaged training services directly to utilities.

U.S. Pavilions at Key Expos

It is impractical for AWWA to establish a physical presence in every promising developing market. One effective way to reach buyers worldwide is to recruit U.S. firms to exhibit at key trade fairs. AWWA is helping U.S. firms reach international buyers by hosting U.S. pavilions at select shows.

AWWA is in a unique position to promote the U.S. brand working in coordination with ITA to remedy what the industry has described as a deficit of U.S. pavilions at key international water technology exhibitions.

Established in 1881, the American Water Works Association (AWWA) is the largest nonprofit, scientific and educational association dedicated to managing and treating water. While structured as a professional association, over 900 of AWWA’s 50,000 members are manufacturers. AWWA is headquartered in Denver.

Brazil: Still a Big Market with Opportunities

In 2012, when AMT applied for MDCP funding, the largest markets for machine tools and other manufacturing technology were the United States, Japan, Germany, and China. Other mature markets are to be found in Europe. There were several less mature growing markets where demand for manufacturing technology was growing fast and the market potential was great. India and Mexico are two examples. But AMT previously established technical centers in China, India, and Mexico. The next logical market for AMT to undertake a similar initiative was Brazil.

By 2013, AMT’s Sao Paulo Technology Center became operational. AMT helped its members establish operations within Brazil to build relationships and explore the market’s potential. AMT offered sales support, marketing assistance, and other services for reaching customers in Brazil; HR support such as employee proxy hiring for sales, service, and engineering positions; office space for meeting with customers and prospects; field service support for a U.S. firm’s equipment in Brazil; and in-depth assistance for navigating Brazilian business practices. AMT appointed Achilles Arbex as General Manager of the Sao Paulo Technology Center.

In February 2022, AMT decided to relinquish the center as a physical location, but continues to support member firms pursuing new and existing business in Brazil. 

AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology represents and promotes U.S.-based manufacturing technology and its members—those who design, build, sell, and service the continuously evolving technology that lies at the heart of manufacturing. Founded in 1902 and based in Virginia, the association specializes in providing targeted business assistance, extensive global support, and business intelligence systems and analysis. AMT communicates the importance of policies and programs that encourage research and innovation, and the development of workforce-development initiatives. AMT owns and manages IMTS — The International Manufacturing Technology Show.

The Key to Helping U.S. Manufacturing Technology Firms to Compete in China

As China has become a manufacturing powerhouse, demand there for machine tools and other manufacturing technology products has soared. Large U.S. manufacturing-technology companies have been able to get into the market and establish themselves. For most smaller firms, the challenges of selling into such a large market abroad is more daunting.

AMT—The Association for Manufacturing Technology addressed this challenge in 2004 when it opened its Shanghai Technology and Service Center. The centerpiece of STC is the 70 square meter showroom, pictured above. Instead of having to find their own venue to demonstrate products to potential buyers in China, AMT member companies can use the STC showroom.

Use of the showroom for training, technical seminars, and live demonstrations is not the only benefit to setting up at STC. U.S. firms can warehouse machines in China without having to return them to the United States. STC is located in a free trade zone. It is not until a company sells a demo machine that it has to pay import duties and taxes.

STC also helps participating companies with field service. The firms can start by training an STC technician to service their machines. And STC can advise participating U.S. firms on hiring their own technicians.

U.S. firms can also reserve STC office space short-term or long-term for local employees. STC’s Market Access and Sales Service, MASS, allows firms to get market intelligence and qualified sales leads. U.S. firms can arrange customer meetings at STC as well.

Scores of U.S. Firms Now Have Their Own China Presence

STC continues to be a great venue where U.S. firms can showcase their machines and other manufacturing-technology products. Perhaps a more significant measure of success is who is no longer warehousing parts and dispatching field service technicians from STC. AMT’s policy of encouraging U.S. firms to get their own physical presence apart from STC has been effective.

Scores of U.S. firms have “graduated” from STC and established their own facilities for parts, service, and/or marketing, administration and final assembly. A lot of these firms with newly-established in-country presence now do product demonstrations at their own facility.

Some continue to demo at STC to take advantage of its location in a free trade zone. Most continue to take advantage of the many services STC continues to offer U.S. firms in China. The difference is that these firms are now much more independent and confident about successfully doing business in China.

AMT has since replicated its success with STC in Mexico, India and Brazil. Not long after STC opened, AMT launched the Monterrey Technology Center. AMT followed a few years later with the Chennai Technology Centre. The Sao Paulo Technology and Service Center followed in 2013, part of another successful MDCP partnership between AMT and ITA.

AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology represents and promotes U.S.-based manufacturing technology and its members—those who design, build, sell, and service the continuously evolving technology that lies at the heart of manufacturing. Founded in 1902 and based in Virginia, the association specializes in providing targeted business assistance, extensive global support, and business intelligence systems and analysis. AMT communicates the importance of policies and programs that encourage research and innovation, and the development of workforce-development initiatives. AMT owns and manages IMTS — The International Manufacturing Technology Show.

Boundless Opportunities in Indonesia

New technologies continue to update the print industry. This innovation has kept the industry relevant in mature markets like the United States, but there is even greater promise outside the country. Rising GDP in the Asia Pacific region is estimated to lead global growth in the print market. Indonesia, with its rapidly growing print market, is expected to offer heightened opportunities for U.S. print industry firms.

To take advantage of these opportunities, APTech, the Association for print Technologies competed for and won a 2015 Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) award. APTech kicked off its new MDCP project in early 2016. Its goal is to generate $28 million in exports by the end of 2018.

As part of the MDCP project APTech launched its “Indonesia Market Access Program”. Through IMAP, APTech is matching Indonesian customers with the right U.S. technology. The association is taking U.S. firms to Indonesia on missions to establish business relationships and to educate potential Indonesian buyers about the latest U.S. technological solutions to print and related applications. IMAP includes training by Indonesian buyers on U.S. equipment and the recruiting of Indonesian buyer delegations to attend GRAPHEXPO and PRINT shows in the United States.

Series of Trade Missions

APTech launched the first outbound Indonesia mission in March 2016 to connect APTech members to Indonesian printers, dealers/distributors/and agents, and for APTech members to learn about the Indonesian market and business potentials. Partnering with ITA, APTech also offered to mission participants the APTech-International Color Consortium (ICC) Color Management Conference. Nearly 200 print leaders from throughout Indonesia attended this popular event.

APTech built on this early project activity by offering its members and other U.S. manufacturers to conduct technical presentations at the October 2016 Printpack Outlook Conference. This October trade mission was the second APTech offered to Indonesia in 2016, which included tours of prominent players in the packaging segment.

Indonesia Office

APTech ramped up its in-country support capacity by opening an office in Jakarta in April 2016. From this base APTech’s Indonesia operations manager Marco Gandasubrata provides in-market expertise and arranges trade activities.

APTech’s IMAP initiative, backed by ITA financial and technical support, is helping U.S. printing, publishing and converting companies to capitalize on the unique growth opportunities in Indonesia.

The Association for print Technologies (APTech) is a Reston, Virginia-based trade association of over 600 companies which manufacture and distribute equipment, systems, software, supplies used in printing, publishing and converting. Founded in 1933, today APTech represents manufacturers, importers and distributors of equipment, supplies, systems and software used in every printing, publishing and converting process from design to distribution. Prior to January 2018, the association was known as NPES.

Facilitating Trade: Standards Provide a Common Language

International standards create certainty in trade. When a standard is specified, both buyer and seller know what a conforming product or process will deliver. Building codes address the whole building and include standards for products and processes across multiple construction disciplines.

In 2014, ITA partnered with ASTM International to showcase international standards and model building codes for sustainable construction, and their development approaches, to Gulf leaders.

Targeted to Regional Requirements

The Gulf Cooperation Council seeks to develop a regional building code and is committed to more sustainable construction. Solutions to Gulf construction challenges exist with U.S.-domiciled organizations. The timing is right for ASTM International and International Code Council to highlight these solutions via the MDCP.

Development of a regional Gulf building code based on codes and international standards from U.S. organizations strengthens the competitiveness of domestic suppliers. U.S. product and service providers are familiar with these requirements and are highly capable of delivering solutions.

The MDCP project has enabled an integrated program for building levels of knowledge and productive, collaborative relationships. This foundation is critical for future success in U.S. exports. Initiatives since October 2014:

• Doha, Qatar – Gulf officials workshop on standards and codes for sustainable construction
• United States - Gulf officials delegation technical and policy training visit
• Multiple hands-on and virtual technical trainings for Gulf participants on the International Green Construction Code (IgCC) model green building code
• United States - Gulf delegation engagement in ASTM International Committee Week standard development processes
• Dubai, UAE – Gulf officials follow-on workshop on standards and codes for sustainable construction

ASTM International is a globally recognized leader in the development and delivery of voluntary consensus standards. Over 12,000 ASTM standards are in use worldwide to improve product quality, enhance health and safety, strengthen market access and trade and build consumer confidence. ASTM is headquartered in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.

International Code Council (ICC) is a leading U.S. developer of model building codes. ASTM standards are an integral part of ICC’s model codes.

Speaking the Same Parts Catalog Language

Doing business electronically today requires vast libraries of content from hundreds of sources. Without one agreed-upon language for this content, automotive aftermarket parts manufacturers and their distribution partners would not be able to efficiently exchange millions of pages of catalog content, such as product images, packaging sizes and country of origin, to name a few.

This is possible in North America, where there is one agreed-upon automotive “language” when referring to a vehicle and the spare parts.

The common “language” now in use in the United States, Canada, and Mexico does not refer to English, but rather to a consistent protocol for identifying and describing auto parts. With one common protocol or standard, the description can mean the same thing whether the catalog is published in English, French, or Spanish.

Auto Care Association has led the industry in creating standards for the management and exchange of automotive catalog application data. With Auto Care Association’s Aftermarket Catalog Enhanced Standard (ACES), suppliers can publish automotive data with standardized vehicle attributes, parts classifications and qualifier statements.

Standards Education Through Technical Seminars

Auto Care Association has developed standards training materials in Spanish. In the targeted Latin American markets, Spanish-speaking Auto Care Association staff, assisted by Auto Care Association member companies and ITA staff, are educating trade associations and companies about the advantages of using ACES.

Much of this education happens in the form of technical seminars held in the international target markets. The technical seminars highlight the lack of standardization of parts catalogs that plagues much of the Americas. So it these events are natural opportunities to showcase the ACES standards used in North America.

But the technical seminars are also effective at establishing relationships with potential buyers of U.S. automotive parts. Starting with the base of technical seminar participants, it becomes easier for U.S. firms to venture abroad. And it is likely that some seminar participants will become new clients.

The Auto Care Association advocates for the auto care industry. There are 2600 Auto Care Association members, representing 150,000 independent automotive businesses including independent manufacturers, distributors, parts stores and repair shops. Auto Care Association is headquarterd in Bethesda, Maryland. 

Korea Makes Sense as Target Market for California Processed Food Firms

Growing demand has positioned South Korea as the sixth largest export market for processed foods from the United States. California, with its Mediterranean climate and access to its own prodigious output of agricultural commodities, is also a top producer of processed food.

California boasts the largest concentration Korean-Americans in the United States. The family and cultural connections that characterize this community make it especially well-placed to help the hundreds of California’s processed food and food processing equipment companies to export to South Korea. The implementation of the Korea-United States Trade Agreement makes the project timely as well.

Project to Exploit Online Distribution Opportunities

Online marketing is likely to be a good way to sell to South Koreans whose daily lives have become more and more digitized. Supported by the highest average network connection speed (205 MBPS) in the world, 90% of the South Koreans use the Internet to access information, share data, participate in social media, and purchase items.

When it comes to social media, South Korea leads the world for having the highest percentage of population using social media. Seventy-six (76) percent of all South Koreans are active social media users. They often use distinctly Korean IT tools and platforms. For example, Korean IT firm Naver handles more than 3/4 of the online searching by Koreans.

CalAsian Chamber plans to help U.S. firms to market products with a combination of an active presence in Naver, both blog and café, and regular postings on the social media platforms popular in South Korea. The blogging and social media activities can generate interest of potential consumers who may be looking for trendy California products that may not be well-known to South Koreans. This is likely to lead to direct online purchases, especially for items not readily available through other channels in South Korea.

Based in Sacramento, the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce (CAPCC or CalAsian Chamber) was founded to give a voice to the over 600,000 Asian Pacific Islander (API) owned businesses in California. API-owned businesses generate over $181 billion in annual revenue and employ over 910,135 Californians with an annual payroll of over $26 billion.

Diversifying Diet In China

In China, the traditional diet of vegetables, rice, noodles, and small portions of meat—a diet hailed as one of the world’s healthiest—is disappearing. Chinese people are eating more Western food, more meat, and on top of that, more packaged, on-the-go types of processed foods and beverages.

While some traditional processed foods and beverages products – including products like cookies, chips, and soda – are always in demand, there is a particularly hearty market growing in China for processed foods and beverages that offer new and different alternatives. The Chinese market is now the US’s number one export market for agriculture exports in the world. The growing demand represents a great opportunity for US processed foods and beverages manufacturers including California-based companies.

Chamber Brings Buyers & Sellers Together at China Expo

A big part of the CalAsian Chamber’s strategy is to help small and medium-sized manufacturers get exposure to as many buyers in China as possible. The best place to find such buyers is, of course, in China. Since 2014 the CalAsian Chamber has organized 3 trips to China with U.S. companies to exhibit at food and related equipment trade shows.

In 2015, the SIAL Annual Asian Food Marketplace in Shanghai had about 3,000 exhibitors and more than 60,000 attendees. There are plenty of opportunities for US companies to meet buyers in China and in the Asia-Pacific region while on the Chamber’s trips.

Based in Sacramento, the California Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce (CAPCC or CalAsian Chamber) was founded to give a voice to the over 600,000 Asian Pacific Islander (API) owned businesses in California. API-owned businesses generate over $181 billion in annual revenue and employ over 910,135 Californians with an annual payroll of over $26 billion. The CalAsian Chamber is planning future trips to Vietnam and back to China and South Korea as well as several U.S. export seminars and other activities.

CA-ETEC Opens Student Recruiting Office in Ho Chi Minh City

CA ETEC teamed with ITA through its Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) to build upon past market development efforts to establish a Vietnam education and Training Export Center (VETEC). The Government of Vietnam has placed top priority on the rapid modernization of its education system, offering significant opportunities for U.S. higher education and training providers.

CA-ETEC located its facility in Ho Chi Minh City. There, VETEC provides a sustained marketing presence for U.S. higher education and training providers, promotes U.S. higher education opportunities to qualified Vietnamese students, and proactively supports U.S. education and training providers seeking to begin or expand exporting activities. VETEC was also established as a launching point to promote U.S. education in emerging markets in Thailand and elsewhere Southeast Asia.

Demand for U.S. Education is High

“Vietnam has been among the fastest growing source countries for overseas study in the United States,” said VETEC Director Mark Matsumoto. “It has the potential to become one of the three most significant export markets in the world for U.S. education and training service exports within the next ten years…”

Education comprises a large portion of U.S. exports in the service industry. In 2011-2012, more than 15,000 students from Vietnam enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, making the United States the eighth-largest host market for Vietnamese students. Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training reported that as of December 2012, 106,000 Vietnamese students were studying abroad. VETEC is there to support, increase, and sustain these numbers, well beyond the life of the cooperative agreement with ITA.

Since the launch of VETEC in Spring 2013, Vietnam has been one of the fastest growing regions for student visa expansion. The latest Open Doors Reports notes more than 21,500 students from Vietnam were being hosted on either F-1 or J-1 visas. Vietnam has now leapfrogged Japan and Taiwan to become the 6th largest host country for international students in the U.S. The export of education services is clearly among the most important U.S. exports to Vietnam- and one offering clear short-term and long-term benefits for the U.S. economy.

Scores of U.S. Schools Partner with VETEC

Since opening in Spring 2013, VETEC has provided service to more than 250 U.S high schools, community colleges, universities and vocational training programs. Over 100 of these schools of participated in their first in-country recruitment events in Vietnam and in the neighboring countries of Myanmar and Thailand. U.S. schools have traditionally had limited resources to effectively promote and recruit students in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

U.S. schools seeking to begin or expand their student recruitment efforts in Vietnam and South East Asia can now tap into a range of services VETEC offers including:

• Localization program- translation of marketing collateral and digital media
• On-line and Offline Marketing Campaigns- coordination of in-country marketing campaigns to grow school profile and target qualified students
• Participation in high impact regional recruitment events – U.S. Study Fairs, visits to leading high schools, and agent matchmaking events ( bi-annual events)
• In-country student advising and follow up support
• Turn-key recruitment programs- Regional marketing representation for new schools or those seeking accelerated recruitment growth
• Facilitation of in-country delivery opportunities

VETEC Director Mark Matsumodo summed up that, with its office in Vietnam, the organization can “provide U.S. schools an on-the-ground resource in Vietnam to actively engage students and parents.”

California Education and Training Export Center CA-ETEC was founded in 2003 as partnership between the Riverside Center for International Trade (CITD) and the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration under a Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) award that provided the initial funding to launch an organization dedicated the export of California Education and Training Services. CA-ETEC is head-quartered in Irvine, California.

Clean Trucks and Buses: U.S. Technology Helps China in the Race to Zero

The partnership between the International Trade Administration and CALSTART resulting in the US-China Clean Truck and Bus Forum (“the Forum”) resulted in solid successes for the industry. Its primary goal was to drive $28.5 million in U.S. exports in the clean transportation segment, but by the end of its third year it already accounted for more than $29 million.

The Forum has helped U.S. companies secure partners for export, as well as helped dozens of U.S. companies better understand the China market for their products and how to do business there. Overall, more than 37 U.S. companies directly attended Forum Summits in China.

Perhaps as important, the Forum clearly identified those market and technology segments of greatest opportunity for U.S. and Chinese cooperation, and spurred promising follow-on activities for electric and advanced transit buses, and medium- and heavy-duty natural gas engine and fuel systems.

CALSTART has been able to directly leverage its Forum market knowledge, relationships and partners to create a new project between the U.S. and China called “Race to Zero.” The project is supported by the U.S. Departments of State and Transportation to focus on spurring a friendly competition between U.S. and Chinese cities to deploy and support zero emission and advanced technology transit buses and support vehicles. 

U.S. Firms Showcased in China

The Forum Summits performed well in terms of their role in the overall project: they outlined China’s need for and commitment to new energy vehicles (“NEVs”); highlighted business opportunities in China; showcased U.S. companies and their technology value and availability; and brought together end users and Chinese company partners with U.S. companies.

The rapid strides being made by China in NEVs and the scope of its deployment goals have astonished many policy and industry leaders. There had been a perception that much of the Chinese NEV technology was at a rudimentary stage. While some of the early NEV deployments were not successes, China persisted and maintained a strong pace of investment and deployment, resulting in accelerated iterative improvement.

The Forum project has led to related follow-on activities besides the Race to Zero program. The Forum’s China Business Opportunity Guide continues to be used as a tool for learning about China export opportunities and market structure for CALSTART member companies and it serves as the framework CALSTART used to better quantify and assess opportunities for company success and future program endeavors in China. Combined with the Forum Summits, it has helped spur CALSTART’s next phase of work between the United States and China.

CALSTART is based in Pasadena, California. It is a member-supported organization of more than 160 firms, fleets and agencies worldwide dedicated to supporting a growing high-tech, clean transportation industry that cleans the air, creates jobs, cuts imported oil and reduces global warming emissions. CALSTART provides services and consulting to spur advanced transportation technologies, fuels, systems and the companies that make them.

Capital Region USA and ITA Open Doors to Inbound Tourism to Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland

Through its collaboration with ITA, the Capital Region USA (CRUSA) created strong marketing partnerships with overseas tour operators in select markets in Europe, Latin America, and Korea resulting in more than 204,000 hotel room night bookings in Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland during 2009-2013.

CRUSA’s MDCP was to create a multi-year cooperative marketing fund to execute marketing campaigns with tour operators to sell existing and new CRUSA travel packages to consumers. These campaigns included internet promotions, print and electronic advertising, direct mail, public relations, training programs and joint participation in consumer travel shows, essentially using marketing tactics that have proven to work best for each operator.

To receive CRUSA funding and to instill competition into the process, tour operators were required to submit a marketing plan and budget and agreed to provide full campaign results, including room-night booking figures, at the conclusion of each campaign. To further leverage the investment by CRUSA and MDCP, tour operators were also required to match CRUSA’s investment by at least 2:1 in Europe and 1:1 in Latin America.

Destination Marketing Organizations

CRUSA’s target SMEs were Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) operating within the region. DMOs are multiplier organizations responsible for the promotion of travel and tourism to individual destinations. On average, DMOs across the United States maintain membership bases of more than five hundred, largely consisting of accommodations, attractions, cultural entities, event service suppliers, restaurants, and retail.

CRUSA set a goal of creating five new DMO partnerships annually, with the potential to involve (directly and indirectly) up to 2,860 new-to-market, small and medium sized businesses from across the region in CRUSA’s export development efforts. The MDCP resulted in partnerships with an annual average of fourteen Destination Marketing Organizations and forty-six other travel related businesses across all CRUSA marketing programs.

Huge Market for Small Upstate Firms

With a combined GDP of nearly $3 trillion, the ten Southeast Asian member nations of ASEAN would rank as the sixth largest economy in the world after Germany.

Before applying for MDCP financial assistance, CenterState CEO studied regional surveys of Central New York businesses and found that Singapore, the epicenter of ASEAN, was one of the leading markets for Central New York products, including its electronic products.

Mentoring Makes Up for Size and Experience

One of the unique elements that CenterState CEO built into its MDCP project was to create a “mentoring program”. The goal is to have experienced export firms from Central New York mentor and provide technical support for less-experienced, new-to-export firms.

CenterState CEO has found that many of the successful regional exporters are enthusiastic about passing on knowledge of their techniques, contacts, and experience to benefit new-to-export firms. Because the diverse array of businesses in the Central New York electronics cluster few of the firms directly compete against one another, so they are willing to help other firms get off to good starts in their export programs.

Travel to the Region

After benefiting from the mentoring, CenterState CEO has helped several small firms to find new ASEAN customers. With only rare exceptions, finding and maintaining new clients abroad requires travel abroad. This is something that CenterState CEO has helped several U.S. firms do on several occasions.

Travel to the region might be to attend a trade show. Singapore is the most popular ASEAN site for expos, such as the Singapore Air Show. Or, it could be a trade mission. These generally require more planning, but they can yield focused results, especially when match-making tools like the Gold Key Service are used.

Singapore’s Biggest Expo Venue

Singapore is perhaps the epicenter of much international commerce in Southeast Asia. The Marina Bay Sands Hotel pictured above, is a popular venue for trade shows and other large events.

At one Singapore trade event, CenterState CEO and ITA’s Commercial Service Singapore introduced a Singapore installer of refrigeration equipment to Air Innovations. The result is that this North Syracuse’s Wine Guardian equipment for maintaining ideal humidity and temperature is installed in the Bread Street restaurant at the Sands and at three other locations in Southeast Asia.

CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity (CenterState CEO) is an independent economic development organization and chamber of commerce dedicated to the success of its members across Central and Northern New York. CenterState CEO members get access to business development assistance and connections to nearly 2,000 member businesses of all sizes across Central and Northern New York over $26 billion.

Capitalizing on Free Trade Agreements and Trade Association Relationship

The Duquesne University SBDC, partnering with Smaller Manufacturing Councils, received an MDCP financial assistance award in 2014 to help US firms sell their construction products to the burgeoning economies of Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia.

Known as the Pacific Alliance, these four countries all have Free Trade Agreements with the United States. They are the fastest growing nations of Latin America. Their expanding infrastructure needs are a key opportunity for U.S. firms with high-quality, technology-driven construction products.

Trade shows like ConExpo are a major venue for construction firms to showcase and market their products. ConExpo has been a show hosted in Las Vegas for decades. ConExpo Latin America 2015 was the first such show in the region. DUSBDC partnered with show organizer the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). The partnership gave DUSBDC much more exposure to construction firms than it would have had otherwise.

Different Markets Help Firms Manage Demand Fluctuations

The exhibiting firms received numerous leads. DUSBDC’s outreach and participation in ConExpo Latin America was a springboard for one of the U.S. firms to set up its own sales office in Santiago. Other participants were enthusiastic about the opportunities they learned about at the show.

An official from another U.S. company observed that having international clients, particularly in more than one market abroad, allows their firm to have a more constant demand. When one market is down demand in another may be high. So, more markets can actually help firms to manage fluctuations in demand.

Duquesne University Small Business Development Center (DUSBC) offers no-cost, confidential consulting services and training workshops for small businesses and those who are thinking of starting a business in southwestern Pennsylvania. DUSBDC’s main office is located at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. It is one of several SBDC’s chartered by the Small Business Administration that serve businesses in Pennsylvania.

Quality-Conscious Japanese Value U.S. Products

U.S. products are valued in Japan for their quality, third-party certification, and consistent supply. Several U.S. lumber mills actually produce a superior grade lumber with the Japanese market in mind. Japan is one of a handful of U.S. trading partners that will pay a premium for high quality products.

In one case, softwood lumber, Japan consumers pay 145% more for U.S. product compared to that sourced in China, specifically, Japanese imports of U.S softwood lumber average $624 per cubic meter, compared to $254 for China. This constitutes a great opportunity for U.S. suppliers, even though they are twelve times farther from Japan than is China.

Earthquakes and Energy Fuel a Remodel Boom

The Government of Japan has says 10 million Japanese homes need to be rebuilt or modified. It has implemented programs to encourage retrofit and remodeling employing energy-saving designs and earthquake resistant products.

Japanese home owners expend 1.5 times the portion of household income on energy for hot water and lighting & home appliances as do home owners in other industrialized nations. Even when compared only to the United States, the energy costs of a home in Japan are high. In 2012, Japanese consumers spent 6.2% of their household income on home energy bills, compared to the 4.1% in the United States.

Education Precedes Export Sales

While Japan’s remodeling industry is poised to grow exponentially, there is no regulatory supervision for remodel projects. This results in frequent incidences of substandard construction. EBPA reports seeing a jump in requests from Japanese associations for information about U.S. remodeling building codes, inspection systems, business models, designs and materials.

With MDCP help, through print and on-line media, EBPA supplies a two-way stream of information, informing U.S. companies about export opportunities and creating opportunities to promote U.S. products. At the same time EBPA is educating Japanese buyers and end-users about new products, applications and construction technology from U.S. companies. The end result of such activity should be increased exports by U.S. producers to customers in Japan.

EBPA is a non-profit building products trade association that promotes U.S. building materials and design services internationally. EBPA is made up of businesses, government agencies, universities, and trade associations who are interested in promoting western-style construction, U.S. building products, and related services in international markets. While based in the Pacific Northwest, EBPA represents companies from throughout the United States. The International Trade Administration has been cooperating with EBPA since 2001 to provide affordable and effective promotional activities.

China’s Demand for Better Housing

Each year 20 million people in China need new homes. This is roughly equivalent to the entire population of Australia buying or renting a new home each year. China’s demand  for housing, building materials, and design services is robust. Through its MDCP partnership with ITA, EBPA set out to help U.S. makers of building materials take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity.

U.S. firms will not get export orders if they do not understand the market. EBPA and ITA help these firms to offer what Chinese homebuyers, planners, designers, and builders want. For example, while much of the demand is driven by people leaving the countryside to live in urban areas, a significant portion of the opportunities arise from the country’s growing middle class. They already have homes but want to upgrade.

Age and Energy

Another part of the demand is driven by the greying of China’s population. As residents of China live longer, they and their children, who are likely to provide for them, need long-term housing solutions. Currently, adequate senior living arrangements in China do not come close to meeting the demand. U.S. firms that can provide design as well as building-material solutions will profit well by understanding the market..

China’s use of energy for heating, cooling, and lighting buildings has skyrocketed. It overtook the United States as the world’s top energy consumer five years earlier than had been projected.  The government of China plans significant reductions of energy use per unit of gross domestic product. To meet its specific goals, the government is focusing on building more energy-efficient commercial and residential buildings and retrofitting existing buildings. These aspirations cannot be met without updating building codes.

Retrofits Require New Codes

Through its U.S.-China Build program, EBPA is already engaged with China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC). EBPA is leveraging this existing relationship by working with MOC code committees to help gain recognition within the Chinese construction codes for U.S. manufacturing, testing, and design standards for wood building materials and energy efficiency  products.

With EBPA, U.S.-China Build, and its allies continue to participate in the MOC timber construction committee to modify the China Code for Design of Timber Structures, and fire testing committees to promote recognition of U.S. fire standards for glued-laminated wooden structural members. Gaining official recognition of U.S. fire testing standards helps create significant new opportunities for heavy timber construction in public buildings in China. 

MDCP project work also includes helping the Chinese to develop quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) systems. These ensure that materials and systems being used in wood construction in China meet international standards, that U.S. wood product structural grade marks are protected and recognized, and that building practices do not damage the integrity and reputation of wood as a building material.

EBPA is a non-profit building products trade association that promotes U.S. building materials and design services internationally. EBPA is made up of businesses, government agencies, universities, and trade associations interested in promoting western-style construction, U.S. building products, and related services in international markets. While based in the Pacific Northwest, EBPA represents companies from throughout the United States. The International Trade Administration has been cooperating with EBPA since 2001 to provide affordable and effective promotional activities.

EBPA contact: Michelle Burbank

Award No: IT20INA1120008

EBP5520

NOTE: Project work ceased in April 2022 when Ms. Burbank resigned. .EBPA did not replace Ms. Burbank. The award was terminated for cause.

NYC Designs Sell in Western Europe

New York City-based fashion designers got help from ITA’s U.S. Export Assistance Center in Manhattan as well as its Commercial Service posts in Europe to show their apparel at industry events in Paris and other European fashion centers. The three-year project helped several U.S. firms export $26 million in apparel.

ITA’s partner in this MDCP project was the Garment Industry Development Corporation (GIDC), a non profit organization established in 1984 to strengthen and support local apparel manufacturing in New York. GIDC was supported by City of New York, the Garment Workers’ Union (UNITE), and the New York Skirt & Sportswear Association to strengthen New York City’s apparel industry.

Commercial Service Paris Provides Fashion Show Venue

GIDC had trouble finding a suitable venue to display fashion creations by NYC designers during a planned trade mission to Paris. ITA’s Commercial Service staff posted at the U.S. Embassy offered the Hotel Tallyrand, a distinguished former residence in downtown Paris built in 1769 and owned by the U.S. government since 1950.

The fashion showcase event, pictured above, succeeded in grabbing the attention of buyers from scores of Western European apparel retailers. These buyers were in Paris already for other fashion events. Given the choice of events for these buyers, the prestigious Hotel Tallyrand venue was key to drawing a crowd.

Suitcase Logistics

Prior to the GIDC-ITA partnership under the MDCP award, it was harder for foreign buyers to get what they wanted from NYC apparel manufacturers. In one example, while in NYC, a buyer from one of Brazil’s largest department store chains found an entire apparel collection that he was willing to buy on the spot. When the buyer inquired about shipping arrangements, the NYC business owner had no idea how to send their product abroad. This firm was lucky that the Brazilian buyer was highly motivated. He went out and bought several pieces of luggage, filled them with the purchased apparel, and checked them on his flight back to Brazil.

GIDC dubbed the project “New York Fashion International” (NYFI). A major part of NYFI was to coordinate with ITA to educate American businesses about the export process. NYC firms now know much more about logistics. Expecting foreign customers to come to New York, purchase apparel, and escort it back as accompanied luggage is a thing of the past.

One of the firms that took advantage of overseas trade events conducted by GIDC under the MDCP project early on was Jump Apparel Group. At the time, the firm was a small special-occasion dress manufacturer in New York. 

Group Launches American Pavilion at Hong Kong Filmart

The MDCP award was primarily used to support an American Pavilion at the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (Filmart), an annual trade show for the film industry. For the four years of the award IFTA organized and operated the American Pavilion to assist U.S. film and television production and distribution companies. Utilizing the MDCP award, IFTA was able to encourage U.S. exporters to attend Filmart leading to increased U.S. exports. Most importantly, IFTA was able to meet a key objective of the award: the American Pavilion at Filmart was scheduled to continue in 2015 and beyond without continued MDCP support.

The MDCP award was also instrumental in increasing the attendance of foreign film and television buyers at the American Film Market® (“AFM®”), a trade show IFTA produces annually in Santa Monica, California. AFM is a marketplace where distribution deals are made for completed films as well as films in every stage of development and production. Companies exhibiting at AFM, many of which are U.S. small-to medium-sized enterprises, distribute films on a country-by-country basis by means of licensing deals with local distributors. The MDCP award supported a “Hosted Buyer Program” at three AFMs that resulted in the attendance of nearly 100 foreign buyers who had not previously attended. It should also be noted that the AFM was a Department of Commerce International Buyer Program (IBP) show during those years and that all Buyers in the “Hosted Buyer Program” were recruited by ITA’s LES around the world.

The Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) is a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization that represents more than 125 members. These include independent production and distribution companies, sales agents, television companies, studio-affiliated companies and institutions engaged in film finance. IFTA protects and strengthens its members’ ability to finance, produce, market and distribute independent films and television programs in an ever-changing and challenging global marketplace.

For more than 30 years, IFTA Members have produced, distributed and financed many of the world’s most prominent films, 22 of which have won an Academy Award for “Best Picture”. They have included in recent years, “Spotlight”, “12 Years a Slave”, “The Artist”, “The King’s Speech”, “The Hurt Locker” and “Slumdog Millionaire”.

MDCP Partner IAPMO Opens Plumbing Certification Lab in Indonesia

As of May 19, 2016, Bekasi (Jakarta), Jawa Barat in Indonesia is the home of a lab to certify that plumbing products comply with Indonesia’s new plumbing code. The new lab is part of a Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) project. ITA awarded $296,062 to the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) in 2013.

At the lab opening, U.S. Embassy Commercial Officer Julie Carducci was on hand as well as several Indonesian and IAPMO officials including CEO Russ Chaney, who noted, “We’re certainly delighted that The IAPMO Group has completed a three-year effort in collaboration with both the U.S. and Indonesian governments to assist Indonesia in creating enhanced public health and safety provisions via the creation of a world-class plumbing code.”

Prof Dr. Ir. Bambang Prasetya, MSc., Chairman of BSN, Indonesia’s national standards body, noted that the new standard and the certification facility allow manufacturers to demonstrate that their products are safe to use.

With Certification, Standards Provide Certainty That Enables Trade

With Indonesia’s newly adopted national plumbing standard, SNI 8153:2015, the lab certification of plumbing products allows architects, planners, builders, and building owners the certainty they need to choose the right products for the right applications. Prior to the MDCP project, Indonesia lacked a proper plumbing code and certification process or facility. Even before the lab opened the standard alone had a significant effect on trade. Exports for 2017, the year after IAPMO established the code certification lab, U.S. exports to Indonesia tripled compared to 2016.

Brian McFeeters, Deputy Chief of Mission from the U.S. Embassy, said, “The U.S. Embassy is proud to be part of this launch, as U.S. companies have a lot to offer to support this new environmentally friendly plumbing standard. We look forward to continuing to support the government of Indonesia’s effort to gain the adoption of this standard to ensure that all plumbing products and their installation benefit Indonesia and its quest for safe and healthy water.”

The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) is a Crystal Lake, Illinois-based a membership-based association. The IAPMO Group provides code development assistance, education, product testing and certification, building product evaluation and a manufacturer-preferred quality assurance program. IAPMO utilizes an open consensus process in the development of its Uniform Plumbing Code® and Uniform Mechanical Code®.

Joint Efforts Speeds U.S. Technology to Foreign Markets

ITA medical technology and regional experts teamed with the Medical Imaging Technology Association (MITA), a division of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), to allow U.S. firms to export to China and Brazil. (MITA had originally targeted China and India, but, with ITA’s concurrence, dropped India in favor of Brazil due to post-MDCP-selection market conditions in India.)

MITA leveraged its MDCP award to expand patient access to clinically proven diagnostic medical imaging, radiation therapy, and radiopharmaceuticals in Brazil and China. ITA helped MITA to work to streamline government approval processes to reduce the time and cost it takes products and services to reach patients in target markets.

The project goal was to ultimately increase exports of U.S. medical imaging treatment and diagnostic equipment. As a result of MITA’s three-year commitment, international standards are harmonized and superfluous regulation has been cut.

Linking Standards and Exports

For projects like MITA’s where the focus is on promoting certainty and transparency in standards, conformity assessment and regulation in a foreign market, ITA allows a cooperator to impute some exports to its standards project activity. One method is to claim one (1) percent of all exports of targeted products to the foreign market resulting from standards-related MDCP project activity. This amount is based on a Deutsches Institut fur Normung (DIN) finding that standards-liberalizing activity generally results in a one (1) percent increase in gross domestic product.

MITA began claiming one percent of the exports to China for an affected classification of products after China down-classed x-ray products in 2012. The down-classification resulted from MITA’s standards education and coordination efforts with China government and industry officials.

Through NEMA, MITA is a leading standards-development organization for medical imaging and radiation therapy equipment. These standards are voluntary guidelines that establish commonly accepted methods of design, production, testing and communication for imaging and cancer treatment products. Sound technical standards of this kind improve safety and foster efficiencies in how care is delivered. MITA is located at NEMA headquarters in Rosslyn, Virginia.

In addition to its work as a standards-development organization, MITA functions as a trade association, leading the medical imaging and radiation therapy industries on legislative and regulatory issues at the state, federal and international levels. It serves as an advocate for fair legislative and regulatory proposals that encourage innovation, investment in research and development, as well as the continued global competitiveness of the medical imaging and radiation therapy industries.

Original or Aftermarket: Both Are Safe

“PMA” parts—see PMA definition at the bottom of the page—are essentially aftermarket parts that aircraft owners and operators use in maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) of aircraft. PMA parts are designed and produced to meet strict Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety regulations and quality standards. They are an affordable and safe alternative to replacement parts made by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

PMA parts are commonly used by U.S. aircraft owners and operators and, with rare exceptions, all PMA parts makers are American firms. The concept of using non-OEM parts is not as widely accepted or understood outside the United States. Through its MDCP project, MARPA is promoting the benefits of PMA parts to air carriers and educating potential international customers on the way that PMA parts fit within the regulatory environment related to their own country’s trade in civil aircraft parts with the United States.

Promotion of PMA Parts

Many potential purchasers have never even heard of PMA parts. And those that do know about PMA parts may have been misinformed with misleading statements about safety. Such statements, often provided by non-U.S. OEM suppliers, discourage the use of PMA parts.

In fact, all PMA parts are required, under FAA regulations, to provide a level of safety equivalent to OEM parts. And many PMA parts manufacturers go a step further. They design and produce their products to exceed the tolerances and specifications of the OEM part.

MRO service providers, aircraft owners and operators will not buy PMA parts unless they understand that they are as good or better than the OEM parts. MARPA is addressing this head-on with promotional and educational missions to Belgium, China, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

How U.S. Parts Comply With Regulations Abroad

Even if potential purchasers abroad realize that PMA parts are safe and suitable, they may not know whether or how use of such parts may be allowed in their country’s regulations. They may not know, for example, about Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreements (BASA) that already exist.

A BASA is negotiated between the United States and another country to institutionalize aircraft standards that have already been harmonized and to establish a framework for further harmonization. A BASA can reduce the need for duplicative regulatory oversight. Under some BASAs, certain aircraft parts may be exported from the United States to the destination country with no other approval required. 

Member Companies Are Key

MARPA’s promotional and educational activities include the participation of its member companies. Because they design and manufacture PMA parts, they have a deep understanding of safety and quality requirements.

MARPA-led outbound technical and educational missions are natural springboards to developing new client relationships. But MARPA also leads delegations to trade shows abroad like MRO Middle East and ASET Tokyo. And in addition to the outbound activity, MARPA connects international visitors to U.S. manufacturers at its annual conference in Las Vegas.

MARPA is the non-profit trade association that represents the Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) community. A PMA is an FAA design and production approval that verifies that the design of an aircraft part meets FAA safety regulations, and the fabrication inspection system meets FAA quality standards designed to assure that every part actually produced continues to meet the FAA-approved design. Based in Washington, D.C., MARPA promotes uniform standards within the FAA PMA industry.

Engaging U.S. Medical Centers in International Patient Markets

The U.S. Cooperative for International Patient Programs (USCIPP) is a membership program of The National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) and is composed of U.S. academic medical centers, healthcare systems, and hospitals that operate in the international patient care market. In addition to treating international patients, U.S. hospitals increase their global presence though collaborations for training and management services, and by establishing overseas partnerships for hospitals and specialty clinics.

Directory of U.S. Medical Centers

The centerpiece of the MDCP project is a directory of USCIPP member services in English, Mandarin, and Portuguese. The directory will help international patients and providers seeking care and/or referrals into U.S.-based providers. In addition to basic information, each USCIPP member directory entry will include:

• Services available to international patients
• Standout medical service offerings
• Number of years of experience (program age)
• Profiles of international doctors/staff and languages spoken
• Links to medical document translation services
• Instructions for travel documents specific to Brazil and China
• statistics on survival rates and treatment outcomes

Expensive U.S. Healthcare: Relevant Only If Innovative

U.S.-based healthcare has an international reputation for high quality. But it is expensive. U.S. hospitals find it hard to compete internationally to provide standardized medical treatments. The exception is academic medicine.

USCIPP’s member hospitals, most of which are affiliated with academic institutions, provide innovative treatments that are unavailable in other regions. Such treatments are not standardized. There is no competition based on price.

As these innovative treatments become standardized they become susceptible to cost competition. Over time, USCIPP’s member hospitals will no longer compete to provide the newly-standardized treatment. U.S. academic hospitals move on to create the next innovative treatment not yet available elsewhere in the world.

Demand for Accreditation and Standards Services

With U.S. academic hospitals continually introducing more and more innovative treatments to international patients, they become involved in the process of standardizing the treatments. This reinforces a cycle of development and international partnership leading to international adoption of standards that form the building blocks of Western medicine.

While U.S. medical centers move on to the next innovative treatment, the cycle creates natural opportunities for U.S.-based providers of healthcare standards and accreditation services.

The National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) is a not-for-profit organization that works to ensure that high-quality, relevant, and accountable leadership is available to meet the needs of 21st century healthcare. This Chicago-based group seeks to optimize the health of the public through leadership and organizational excellence. NCHL fostered the creation of the U.S. Cooperative for International Patient Programs (USCIPP).

Matching Up China Travel Agents and U.S. Tour Operators

With ITA help in the form of an MDCP award, NTA established a presence in China in 2010 to match an increasing number of tourists from China with venues and itineraries provided by U.S. tour operators. Prior to NTA’s MDCP project, there simply was no organized effort to connect China travel agents with U.S. tour operators for group leisure travel inbound to the United States.

Working with the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI), predecessor to the National Travel and Tourism Office, in ITA’s Industry & Analysis (I&A), NTA was able to document significant increases in China traveler visits to the United States. In the twelve months ended September 30, 2011, NTA reported that 383,272 more travelers from China visited the United States than in the previous baseline period. Based on data gathered by OTTI, this translates to $2.3 billion in additional tourism exports to China. The export value reported by NTA is the highest ever reported by any MDCP partner. NTA went on to generate a total of $6.5 billion of tourism exports during the project period.

Prerequisite to Success: NTA & ITA Collaboration on MOU with China

NTA’s MDCP project would not have been possible without the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by former Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez in December 2007. The MOU was reached under the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) Travel and Tourism Working Group. The interagency team that achieved this agreement and was led by ITA/I&A/OTTI. The MOU established a cooperative tourism framework without necessitating changes in existing U.S. visa policy. Prior to the MOU, China did not allow travel agencies to sell packaged group travel for leisure purposes to Chinese citizens.

The MOU inspired NTA to launch its MDCP project. As a result, scores of U.S. tour operators, mostly small- and medium-size enterprises, are selling tour packages through partnerships brokered by NTA in China, something not possible before the MOU.

NTA’s MDCP project, which was completed in 2013, is another example of an MDCP project that a cooperator has sustained after the MDCP funding was spent and the project period ended. NTA continues the effort begun during the MDCP project as its China Inbound Program.

The National Tour Association (NTA) is a business association for companies and organizations serving customers traveling to, from and within North America. NTA’s 700 buyer members are tour operators and travel planners who package travel product domestically and around the world. NTA’s seller members — 500 destinations and 1,100 tour suppliers — represent more travel product and more business-to-business networking than any other travel industry association. NTA is headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky.

Standards Needed to Satisfy RV Demand in China

In 2015 the China Association of Automotive Manufacturers predicted that by 2020, annual sales of RVs in China would reach 350,000. Thanks in part to RVIA’s efforts begun in 2012 and supported by a previous MDCP award, China’s Ministry of Transportation is considering loosening restrictions on private automobiles towing trailers on roads and highways. But much remains to be done for RV use to really take off in China.

Numerous RV campgrounds are now being planned across China. Continued engagement is needed so that these incorporate standards that allow interoperability with standards used by U.S.-built RVs. China’s motor vehicle code, CCC manufacturing rules, and other regulations also need to be addressed in order for U.S. firms to be able to compete fairly in the market.

RVIA’s agenda for China is directed at both national and provincial levels to advocate the benefits of RVing and camping brings to China’s economy, to promote the RV lifestyle and U.S. RV products, and promote U.S. RV and campground standards.

Specialized Uses in Japan

Unlike China, where recreational use will dominate growing demand, Japan is a niche market where the primary growth potential for U.S.-made towable vehicles is for temporary housing after natural disasters.

With help from ITA’s Commercial Service at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, RVIA held a series of meetings with officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation, local government officials and business leaders from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake area, and the Japan RV Association. RVIA was successful on a small scale in encouraging the use of U.S. disaster relief and recovery units, and continues working with the Japanese government to include these units on a larger scale in the event of a future natural disaster.

Development of Korea as Export Market

RVIA has visited with the Korean Tourism Organization, the government agency responsible for the country’s tourism policies, to educate the officials about RVing and camping. RVIA also attended a camping rally sponsored by the Korean Federation of Camping and Caravanning and gave a presentation to national and provincial government officials. South Korea is a promising market for U.S. RV products with its approximately 2,000 campgrounds.

RVIA also recently held its annual trade show, RVX: The RV Experience, in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 12-14. The show was an International Buyer Program (IBP) Select event, bringing international buyers from China, Korea, and Japan for business-to-business matchmaking. The 2019 event brought together the industry’s leading manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, and campgrounds to showcase the latest RV products and celebrate the RV lifestyle.

The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) is the national trade association representing recreation vehicle manufacturers and their component parts suppliers who together build more than 98 percent of all RVs produced in the U.S. RVIA is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

Hands-On Overseas Means More Export Products

U.S. firms attending SEMA’s business development event in Abu Dhabi in March 2016 took advantage of the opportunity to obtain the relevant measurements of the vehicles pictured above so that they could create customized aftermarket parts for export. This activity is part of SEMA’s second MDCP project. Two years into this three-year project, 98 SEMA member firms participated in measuring sessions.

At SEMA’s annual international business development events held in China and the Middle East, U.S. specialty equipment companies not only have the opportunity to meet potential buyers, but also learn about market-specific vehicle customization trends, and gain access to vehicles not made or sold in the United States. This enables them to make aftermarket products for export. By obtaining the relevant data, U.S. companies can develop, manufacture and export customized aftermarket parts for these international vehicles.

The Toyota Hilux pictured above, in addition to five other vehicles on display at SEMA’s Abu Dhabi event, are popular vehicle models for car owners in the Middle East to have customized. To determine which vehicles to include in the measuring sessions, SEMA surveys auto groups, custom shops, and others familiar with trends in these markets to determine which models are popular for customizing in these markets.

During SEMA’s events, SEMA staff, using a laser scanner, collects the measurements for these selected international vehicles. In addition to SEMA’s overseas measuring sessions, SEMA has also temporarily imported international vehicles for U.S. companies and for SEMA staff to take measurements at their own U.S. facilities or at the SEMA Garage at SEMA’s headquarters in Diamond Bar, California. SEMA now has a library with the compiled CAD files for these international vehicles that U.S. companies can use to develop products for export.

Outreach to U.S. Member Companies

SEMA succeeds in recruiting companies to participate in its overseas events to meet new customers through a comprehensive outreach effort that includes the following:

• A dedicated web portal: Sema.org/international
• Video testimonials from member firms that have participated in SEMA’s overseas events (see links below)
• Three educational roundtables on selling to the Middle East, China and Australia at the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas
• An export fair that includes: a seminar with seasoned exporters, top overseas buyers, and a free consultation with an intellectual property rights (IPR) attorney

At SEMA’s first export fair, 65 attendees from U.S. companies learned about IPR protection, learned of ITA’s services to help U.S. companies to export, and, heard from seasoned exporters and top international buyers from the three priority regions: China, the Middle East (UAE and Saudi Arabia) and Australia.

Overseas Events

SEMA creates overseas events tailored to the needs and interests of its members and the foreign buyers it seeks to attract. In Abu Dhabi and Shanghai, each U.S. company has a booth to meet potential distributors at a trade show that specifically targets buyers interested in automotive specialty equipment and vehicle customization. In Australia, SEMA has a stand-alone event for the U.S. companies to exhibit their products and meet potential buyers.

Every SEMA overseas event includes visits to custom auto shops and specialty distributors, something that is not possible in association with large trade shows. The events also include market briefings from ITA staff. The distributor visits and briefings have contributed to SEMA members gaining a better understanding of the market, including its unique features, opportunities and challenges.

Under its 2014 MDCP project, SEMA has held such events in the UAE three times, in China twice, and once in Australia. Participation has ranged from 12 to 36 U.S. firms per trip.

SEMA members make, buy, sell and use all kinds of specialty parts and accessories to make vehicles more attractive, more unique, more convenient, faster, safer, more fun and like-new again. The trade association represents the interests of hundreds of U.S. companies. SEMA is based in Diamond Bar, California.

ITA Support Helps Trade Association Secure Fair Treatment in Formulation of International Standards

U.S. steel industry experts spotted three quality control standards that did not seem right. The proposed international standards would have required changes in the manufacturing quality process employed by U.S. producers but not those used by producers from other countries.

The proposed changes were not necessary. Existing U.S. quality practices were sufficient to assure the desired quality level. U.S. industry experts raised their concerns during a meeting of the International Organization of Standards (ISO). They reported being able to get ISO to drop the proposed standards thanks to a discussion “in an atmosphere of accommodation.”

The U.S. team was at the November 2005 ISO meeting in Paris thanks to funding from a Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) award.

Initial Export Increase: $88m

Steel Founders Society of America (SFSA) estimates that after many months of increased participation in ISO meetings, U.S. steel firms increased their annual exports by $88 million. SFSA’s strategy was simple: get more U.S. industry representatives involved in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) steel standards development meetings. MDCP award funds of $172,000 helped cover additional travel and personnel costs.

And, SFSA received special access to ITA’s standards liaison group and its standards attachés in Brussels as well as industry experts in Washington, DC. This, plus the support of standards developing organization ASTM International, and industry group the American Iron and Steel Institute, enabled several positive developments that ultimately resulted in liberalized exports for U.S. steel producers:

• Increased by 12, the number of U.S. experts reviewing ISO documents, a 20% increase over the previous number.
• Reactivated a long-dormant committee on steel tubes for pressure purposes.
• Became a participating member on the committee on ferrous metal pipes and fittings.

Thanks to the MDCP partnership, a U.S. standards attaché was able to participate in many of the ISO meetings on steel standards. The bulk of the work on behalf of the United States as a participating member in these ISO committees is done by U.S. industry product experts employed by private industry. The U.S. system is voluntary and driven by standards developed in response to the demands of private industry.

Unlike many countries, the United States does not have a government body that develops or promulgates standards. However, one U.S. industry delegate to an ISO committee reported after his ISO meeting where a U.S. standards attaché was present that it was one of the most constructive he had ever attended. “The atmosphere of the meeting was very accommodating, particularly on the work of harmonizing chemical compositions of approximately 100 grades of stainless steels.”

The International Organization for Standardization is a network of 157 national members with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. Founded in 1902, Steel Founders Society of America (SFSA)is based in Crystal Lake, Illinois. SFSA membership is available to any foundry organization that manufactures steel castings.

eCommerce Bridge Between China Demand and U.S. Supply

The environmental technology (ET) equipment market in USA is mature. Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have limited prospects for domestic sales growth. By contrast, China has a huge market for environmental products. Demand by public sector buyers and industrial buyers is high. Households in China also have a growing appetite for ET products. What’s missing is a bridge that connects this demand in China to the U.S. supply.

EnvGuide (Environmental Educational Information Platform) is UCEEF’s solution to the difficulty that most U.S. ET firms have making eCommerce sales to China clients: a viable China website. EnvGuide will ensure that U.S. ET firms get their products listed on a site with their interests at heart and that the content of the site can be found and easily searched via Alibaba and other China-based web platforms.

While EnvGuide will help match U.S. ET product manufacturers with buyers in China, the site serves to educate buyers in China about the technology and standards. Thus informed, buyers in China usually prefer high-quality, U.S.-made ET products.

Households As Well As Institutional Buyers

Much environmental quality assurance and pollution mitigation happens at the company, institutional, or local government level. This is largely true in China as it is in North America. However, in China, there is also great demand for many ET solutions designed for household use.

In China, polluted water, smog, contaminated soil, and unsafe food make households look for reliable and functional products that can be deployed at home. For example, it is hard in Beijing to find a household that does not use a small water purifier. More and more renters and homeowners seek air purification systems for their apartments or homes as well.

The U.S.-China Environmental Education Foundation Incorporated (UCEEF) was formed as a 501 (c) (3) Corporation in January of 2013. UCEEF seeks to establish better understanding of the need for environmental education by supporting students interested in environmental studies, researching projects that further environmental protection, and engaging in public education on environmental awareness and protection. In particular, UCEEF seeks to foster cooperation between U.S. and China environmental organizations and industries through the understanding of cultures and business.

UCEEF contact: Yuhong Jiang

Award No: IT16INA1120006

USCE520

Choosing U.S. Venues for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE)

Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) constitutes a substantial portion of the international travel and tourism trade. U.S. Travel Association (U.S. Travel or USTA) has had great success in helping representatives of various U.S. venues to convince foreign meeting planners to choose U.S. destinations.

The average overseas visitor to the United States spends about five times more than domestic travelers. Additionally, international MICE travelers are generally the highest per capita revenue generators of any category of visitors, often spending 2-3 times as much as leisure tourists.

Leveraging Attractive U.S. Destinations for International Meetings

Of the top ten cities named the “Best Cities in the World for Business Meetings,” five were in the United States. The U.S. has an abundance of large meeting venues and conference centers capable of hosting very large MICE events. Cities like New York, Orlando and Las Vegas are specifically built to service the meetings industry and host thousands of MICE events every year. (Las Vegas hosted over 18,000 meetings and conventions in 2010.) Most of these destinations have huge convention centers and are convenient gateway cities offering non-stop flights to international attendees.

$856 Million in Exports Generated Exceeds Goal

In its MDCP application, U.S. Travel estimated that its project would generate $420 million in service exports by 2018. With several months to go in its project, the association has already more than doubled its goal.

Some of the export success has come from relatively small markets like Estonia, Iceland, and Denmark. This results, in part, from U.S. Travel’s strategy to meet with potential clients close to their homes abroad. Supported by ITA’s staff posted abroad and its Washington D.C.-based National Travel and Tourism Office, U.S. Travel has reached out directly to meeting planners and others in Western Europe and elsewhere who make decisions about where to hold meetings, conventions, and exhibitions.

This travel-intensive outreach complements the work U.S. Travel does each year at its own trade show in the United States, IPW. U.S. Travel has used the MDCP award funds to help MICE buyers who attend IPW. Through meetings conducted at IPW, these MICE buyers find more opportunities to send their business to the United States. MICE buyers receive such benefits in exchange for commitment to help track quarterly MICE business booked at U.S. venues.

U.S. Travel Association runs IPW, the U.S. travel industry’s annual trade show. U.S. Travel Association is the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the travel industry that generates $2.1 trillion in economic output and supports 15.1 million American jobs. U.S. Travel is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Brazil Needs to Upgrade Its Grid, But Where to Start?

Brazil is ranked eighth in the world for electrical power generation. While the country benefits from significant renewable resources— almost a third of that comes from hydro-electric generation sites like dams—Brazil struggles to keep up with growing demand for electricity.

Like utilities in the United States, utilities in Brazil encourage their consumers to conserve electricity. This allows a utility to avoid spending to build expensive new power-generation capacity. But Brazil has challenges that are not common in North America. For example, Brazil has a high incidence of “non-technical losses”. In effect, this is mostly due to theft of service. Conservation outreach to customers will not reduce this drain on Brazil’s utilities. So, while generation and conservation may be part of the mix, Brazil needs to focus on metering and distribution.

Using UTC’s Utility Modernization Advisor (UMA), a Brazilian utility can identify and justify a vision for changes it seeks, develop procurement processes likely to result in good solutions at a reasonable cost, create schedules, and implement and manage projects. Creating UMA for the Brazil market is at the core of UTC’s strategy for the MDCP project.

Familiarization with Technology Builds Demand

Getting Brazilian utilities to use UMA is not enough. UTC has participated in several technical conferences in Brazil to raise awareness of utilities of the latest technologies and services that could transform an electrical distribution system from one easy to cheat, to one too smart to beat. Here, UTC was able to reach 13 times as many Brazilian utilities and power-oriented companies as it had projected when it started the MDCP project. Brazilian utilities are interested in what UTC has to offer. The technical webinars proved to be very popular, with well over 1000 Brazilian firms participating.

On at least three different occasions during the MDCP project, UTC also helped Brazilian officials to see potential U.S.-developed solutions by connecting them to firms and organizations in the United States that had solutions to meet their challenges. Fortunately, UTC did not have to do all the “heavy lifting” in bringing Brazilian delegations. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) made resources available to bring Brazilian utilities officials and regulators to the United States.

Seeing U.S. technology and services tends to increase the likelihood that they will be the solution that potential customers will purchase. This has been an efficient way to leverage both USTDA and ITA resources to make export success by U.S. firms in Brazil more likely.

The Utilities Technology Council (UTC) is a global trade association serving critical infrastructure providers. UTC was founded in 1948, to advocate for the allocation of additional radio spectrum for power utilities. Over the last 65 years, UTC has evolved into an industry organization that represents electric, gas, and water utilities, as well as natural gas pipelines, critical infrastructure companies and other industry stakeholders.

Weight Loss Motivation

Weight-loss products represent a sector within the food products industry. The same could be said of aerospace. Owners and operators focus on flying aircraft that are as light as they can safely and comfortably be. The lighter weight reduces the amount of fuel required per mile flown. The lower the cost to operate, the more seats an airline can provide to travelers.

When seeking to supply aerospace manufacturers, firms that use composite materials have a leg up because they are lighter than those made of traditional materials. Whether from composites or other materials, products made by Washington-based companies are just as attractive to aerospace contractors outside the United States. All such non-U.S. firms, from Embraer to Airbus, want the lightest, most advanced components they can find. Through the MDCP partnership, WDOC and ITA are working together to ensure that these capable, Washington-based firms do, in fact, get found by new international customers.

Vouchers Help Connect Small Firms With Non-U.S. Customers

Washington Department of Commerce (WDOC) realized that many firms that have competitive products, like those made of composite materials, find the initial cost of competing for international contracts to be too expensive. In order to get such firms “over the hump”, WDOC provides “Aerospace Accelerator Vouchers” to offset some of the cost of participating in trade shows, trade missions and other events.

WDOC uses its MDCP award to offer small grants up to $5,000 to support translation of marketing materials, international marketing campaigns, outbound sales meetings, trade show registration and airfare, and enrollment in the Gold Key program. Vouchers help companies that are ready to begin exporting but find it difficult to make the initial investment in getting out to trade events.

Trade Event Support & Staffing

WDOC is using its MDCP financial award, plus its own matching funds, to provide enhanced services to small companies attending large aerospace trade shows. ITA, through its Global Markets/Commercial Service and Industry & Analysis units, provides support for Washington companies at established aerospace trade shows such as the Paris Air Show and Farnborough Air Show.

This support includes shared booth space, market research, partner searches, match-making meetings, presentations and individual meetings with the heads of procurement from large aerospace producers, and receptions with industry clusters from specific geographic regions. Many smaller firms would otherwise find it challenging to do business at the large trade shows. But with ITA’s help, they get the contacts, information, on-the-ground assistance, and exposure they need to have a successful trade show experience.

Another significant use of the MDCP award and matching funds is hiring of a Commerce Aerospace Business Development Coordinator. Because this position is 100 percent to the project, participating exporters have had market research, event support, and post-event follow-up that has helped them make export sales that they would not have been able to make alone.

The Washington Department of Commerce (WDOC) is an agency of the government of the State of Washington. WDOC’s activities touch affect various areas of community and economic development including international trade.

Global Business Services in the Middle East

World Trade Center Utah (WTC Utah) “Global Business Services in the Middle East” (GBS) will help Utah’s small- and medium-size enterprises export into the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Through GBS, WTC Utah’s will pursue the following key project elements:
1. Conduct export readiness assessment of participating firms.
2. Provide technical assistance to firms in partnership with service providers.
3. Market entry services, including translation/localization/E-Commerce.
4. Facilitate sales channel development: trade show, trade mission, and reverse trade missions.
5. Conduct after-action impact surveys for outcomes and impressions, along with post-export assistance.

WTC-UT contact: 

Award No: IT21INA1120009

WUT1520

NOTE: This award was terminated for convenience at the request of WTC Utah in April 2022.