Over the past several months, at least two Small Business Exporters Association (SBEA) members have been highlighted by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke as the administration begins rolling out their National Export Initiative (NEI).

In a Feb. 4 speech at the National Press Club, Secretary Locke unveiled a proposal put forth by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address. At that time, Obama announced a series of new proposals aimed at helping put Americans back to work and putting our nation on a path to sustainable economic growth. A key element in helping to meet that goal is a new National Export Initiative (NEI), which aims to double American exports over the next five years and support two million jobs here at home. To read a related article about the NEI, please click here.

During this speech, Sec. Locke emphasized his goal of improving interagency cooperation on export promotion. To that end, the Commerce Department revitalized the Trade Promotion Coordination Committee, which had been ignored in recent years. The coordinating committee brings together 20 federal agencies and departments to work on export expansion efforts and will now help in reaching the goals of NEI.

Sec. Locke highlighted the success of Air Tractor located in Wichita Falls, Texas, a company operated by SBEA member and former SBEA Chair, David Ickert. Working with the Export-Import Bank and the Commerce Department’s Export Assistance Center in Fort Worth, Air Tractor relied on growing foreign sales to not only survive, but thrive in the midst of last year's recession. Over the last decade, the company has seen its exports grow from 10 to 45 percent of its business and they have doubled their workforce from 100 to 200.

The Secretary went on to say that this small company in a rural area of Texas is now selling its crop-dusters and firefighting aircraft to countries like Spain, Brazil and Australia. And along the way, they have relied on the Export-Import Bank to provide financing for their customers that private sector banks would not. To date, Export-Import has assisted with the completion of some 70 deals.

On the heels of that speech, Sec. Locke continued to promote the NEI during a tour of a local manufacturing facility, Ellicott Dredges in Baltimore, Md. SBEA member and former SBEA Chair, Peter Bowe is president of Ellicott Dredges and was cited by the secretary as an "iconic" American exporter which had "survived and even thrived despite an unbelievably difficult environment" because it had "the market covered" in "making the best dredges in the world.

Ellicott Dredge is a 125-year-old dredge manufacturer that has nearly doubled its workforce to over 200 employees since 2006—and that growth can be almost entirely attributed to the increase in exports.

Ellicott has worked closely with the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration’s U.S. Export Assistance Center in Baltimore to export to Iraq, the Philippines and Bangladesh. With financing assistance from the Export-Import Bank, Ellicott has been able to do deals in Nigeria, Mexico, Malaysia and Argentina.

Secretary Locke cited Ellicott as an excellent example of how U.S. exports create well paying jobs, and make goods and services that are desired all over the world.

The NEI is focused on creating a more robust effort to expand trade advocacy in all its forms, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This effort includes educating U.S. companies about opportunities overseas, directly connecting them with new customers and advocating more forcefully for their interests.