North American Trade: Not Just for Big Businesses

Trade is not just for big business. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of not only the U.S. economy, but also of the broader North American production platform. Efforts to boost direct exports by these companies would offer not just economic gains, but also political benefits at a time when trade remains a controversial subject, even 20 years after the entry into force of the landmark North American Free Trade Agreement.

Both President Barack Obama and senior Republicans have cited international trade as ripe for bipartisan cooperation in the wake of the midterm elections. With a narrow window before the political calendar inhibits controversial votes, it’s time for Washington to highlight the benefits of trade for not only the traditional constituency of big corporations, but also for small and medium-sized businesses, especially in the context of the North American trading space. The progress that the White House and Congress claim they want will depend on making these benefits more apparent to a skeptical public.

Although small and medium-sized businesses have long been recognized as drivers of job creation and innovation, most Americans regard international trade as the domain of large multinational companies. Yet as Small Business Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet explained at a recent Council of the Americas event, technology has lowered the threshold for exporting. Small and medium enterprises accounted for 98 percent of all exporting firms and 33 percent of U.S. exporting value in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau....

Read the full article in U.S. News & World Report's online opinion section.