Inc.: International Trade Could Boost Small Business

By Meredith Maines

International trade could be the key to jump starting a stagnate economy, believes Sen. Mary Landrieu, D–La.

Landrieu, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, presented a bill June 8 that calls for the creation of an assistant U.S. trade representative with a small business focus.

"By creating jobs and lessening the trade deficit, an increase in small business trade will lead us out of this recession and make our country better able to compete," Landrieu said at the bill's introduction.

Even though small businesses represent about 97 percent of the country's exporters, the committee says the market is still dominated by large firms. And because every $1 billion created by exporting produces 14,000 high-paying jobs, Landrieu is working to improve the SBA's Office of International Trade. (more)