Executive Order to Streamline Small Biz Exporting

On Wednesday, Feb. 19, President Barack Obama signed an executive order mandating the government finish work on an electronic portal for small businesses to submit import and export information by the end of his second term. The order will mandate that federal agencies complete work on the International Trade Data System, a so-called “single-window” system that will allow businesses to submit in a centralized location all data required by the government to move goods across international borders, by December 2016.

The new system is designed reduce processing times from days to minutes for businesses that export or import products, and will allow American companies to better compete in the global economy.

According to the NSBA/SBEA 2013 Small Business Exporting Survey, there was broad agreement that the U.S. exporting system and assistance resources can be overly complex. Two of the top three responses among both exporters and non-exporters when asked what types of federal government support would be most beneficial to their company had to do with better availability of information (not to be confused with more information) and consolidating federal agencies to provide a one-stop-shop, two issues NSBA and SBEA have raised for many years. This most recent Executive Order takes a positive step in that direction.

Please click here to read the full Executive Order.