EVERETT — Within the next few months, the government will dramatically simplify the rules for doing business overseas in an effort to boost the nation’s exports, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Monday.
Speaking at a welding shop at Everett Community College, Locke responded to questions about the country’s complicated rules for exports, mostly designed to keep technology from getting into the wrong hands.
“A lot of these rules were put in place during the height of the Cold War,” said Locke, a former Washington governor.
Locke said he’s working with other members of the Obama administration to determine which rules make sense and which don’t.
“Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said if you can get a CAD (computer assisted design) drawing of it on the Internet, why restrict it,” Locke said. “In the next few months, I hope to announce incredible progress.”
He said his agency is hoping to unify export rules to make things easier so small- and medium-sized businesses can sell more products overseas and create more jobs.
Joining Locke at the college was Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., and a number of business people who wanted to talk about problems with the nation’s export rules.
Dan McFeely, who works for a division of Esterline, said his business was “absolutely buried” with export regulations.
“We feel like we’re being harassed by the federal government,” he said. “The regulations are incredibly complicated.”
Mark Vorobik, president of a Mount Vernon manufacturer named EDCO Inc., agreed.
He said his business, which employs 50 people, had gone to eight to 10 different locations to learn about export rules. “Even then we weren’t sure we were meeting all the regulations,” he said. “I don’t have the time while I’m running a business to check all this stuff out.”
Locke said the Obama administration has made exports a priority. Washington state, he added, already depends on exports for one of every three jobs.
Larsen agreed that exports are important to the region to help produce jobs. “We need to see the label, ‘Made in America,’ again,” he said.
And he said programs like the EvCC manufacturing center are a key to providing skilled workers for the exporters.
Locke congratulated older workers who had returned to school for retraining.
“It takes a lot of guts,” he said.
Locke said President Barack Obama would like to double exports during the next five years by making more credit available to exporters, eliminating trade barriers, and providing more government promotion of trade.
He said the government will help businesses find customers oversees or help them with their export problems.
Locke noted that Cardiac Science was having problems in Romania and received U.S. help that provided a $1 million sale.
“The services are free,” he said. “We need to do a better job of informing people what those services are.”
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
