PROMOTION OF TRADE AND  INVESTMENT
TRADE PROMOTION

Government International Trade Promotion Networks

Goals

The primary goal of this course is to familiarize students with government assistance available to US companies in international business, showing how international trade policy is implemented through federal programs in export marketing, trade finance, business dispute resolution and more. As a secondary goal, the class will explore careers with trade promotion agencies of the US federal, state, and foreign governments. Special attention will be given to the Commercial Service of the US Department of Commerce, focusing on the duties and responsibilities of Trade Specialists and Commercial Officers at US Export Assistance Centers and US embassies and consulates around the world.

Topics Covered

The topics covered will include a review of international marketing, trade finance and related concepts; an overview of the federal and state agencies involved in promoting and regulating international trade; a comparison with support offered by other countries such as Japan, Germany, and Hong Kong to their exporting firms; and a detailed study of the programs offered by the Commercial Service of the US Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration and the Export-Import Bank of the US through Export Assistance Centers and the commercial sections of US embassies and consulates. Case materials will focus on the actual experiences of private companies using this assistance, the daily work on behalf of those companies by Trade Specialists and Commercial Officers around the world and the political environment's effect on the current results and the fixture prospects of that work.

Key Books and Articles

A Basic Guide to Exporting, US Department of Commerce.

Breaking into International Trade (Handout to be provided by instructor).

Articles from Business America, World Trade Magazine, and other periodicals.

Case Material

Materials and verbal accounts will examine (a) the experiences of actual companies that have made use of US government international trade assistance, fib) the choices and decisions faced by Commercial Officers overseas in promoting US products or representing US companies in business disputes, (c) and current political attitudes and trends for the future.

Criteria for Evaluating Teaching and Student Performance

Students should be able to summarize the key issues that concern international business people, and to describe the government support networks that exist to help their companies. Students should be able to argue for or against government involvement in international trade promotion, illustrating their arguments with actual results or problems created by this involvement. Most important, students will be expected to be able to offer advice to companies on where to turn for information on this assistance, and to have gained some ideas about what role they might fill in private- or public-sector international trade organizations after graduation.