[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 43 (Tuesday, April 19, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            BRING SBA INTO THE TRADE POLICYMAKING STRUCTURE

                                 ______


                          HON. JOHN J. LaFALCE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 19, 1994

  Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, much has been said regarding the 
substantial contribution of small business in the United States. Small 
businesses frequently are called the backbone of the U.S. economy. They 
constitute nearly two-thirds of the work force. They have created the 
vast majority of new jobs over the last decade--nearly 9 million since 
1985. Indeed, much of the recent good news on economic growth in this 
country is owed to the dynamism of small business, as large 
corporations have restructured by cutting employment.
  On the international front, it has been U.S. policy to encourage 
small businesses to export as one means to reduce our trade deficit. We 
have opened one-stop export assistance centers, provided counseling, 
and mandated that portions of U.S. trade finance and other support be 
directed to small business. The administration has developed a program 
for improving the flow of technology to small business as a means to 
enhance its competitiveness. Last fall, the President announced the 
administration's export promotion program as developed by the 
interagency Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, and the Small 
Business Administration was a part of that effort.
  The Small Business Committee, which I chair, held a hearing in 
February on small business initiatives recently undertaken by two 
international organizations--the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation 
[APEC] and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 
[OECD]. In preparations for meetings of these organizations on the 
small-business issue, executive branch departments--State, USTR, 
Commerce--called on SBA for its expertise, and rightly so. I was 
surprised to learn that the Small Business Administration does not 
participate in the existing interagency structures that deliberate on 
and decide trade policy issues.

  The mechanism for trade policy deliberations is the Trade Policy 
Review Group [TPRG] chaired by the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. 
This interagency trade-coordinating mechanism is established by law and 
specific agencies are named as participants, that is, USTR, State, 
Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, and Labor. Legislation states that the 
U.S. Trade Representatives ``may invite representatives from other 
agencies * * *.'' Over the years, Justice, Defense, Transportation, the 
NSC, the White House, OMB, and CEA have become regular members. Under 
the Clinton administration, EPA and HHS have been invited to 
participate. According to USTR, the Small Business Administration has 
never been invited to participate in the deliberations of the TPRG. Why 
is it that the sector of the U.S. economy that is consistently promoted 
as the backbone, the essence of U.S. economic strength, the new force 
in exporting, has never been invited to a seat at the trade table?
  Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a bill to amend the Trade 
Expansion Act of 1962 by specifically naming the Administrator of the 
Small Business Administration as a permanent member of the Interagency 
Trade Organization. In this way, the voice of small business will be 
heard consistently in the deliberations of U.S. trade policy. It is 
past time to recognize the importance of small business, not only in 
our domestic programs but in our trade-policy decisions as well. The 
Trade Policy Review Group is the place to do it, and now is the time.

                               H.R. ----

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled, Section 
     242 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. 1872) is 
     amended by inserting before the penultimate sentence in 
     subsection (a) the following:
       ``(G) the Administrator of the Small Business 
     Administration.''.

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