International trade officials discuss ways to improve small business exporting

5/18/2011

Officials from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation are gathering at a forum on Thursday to discuss different strategies to encourage American small businesses to export their goods and services to other countries, Voice of America reports.

The group plans to look at possible options - such as cutting tariffs and reducing legal, regulatory and bureaucratic obstacles to trade - to get more American companies interested in international trading. In particular, the group intends to amend the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which sets regulations for the United States and several Asian countries.

"This is a negotiation between high-income advanced countries and still low-income developing countries. In the Trans-Pacific Partnership for example, you have the United States and Vietnam. That’s a sharp divergence in levels of economic development and sophistication and economic systems, which makes it challenging," APEC expert Fred Bergsten told the source.

Reducing legal regulations could help small businesses become more involved with exporting their goods - according to a recent American Express survey, the majority of small businesses cite "red tape" as a reason they aren't trading internationally.