32 



ucts under our agricultural export programs and outlays under do- 

 mestic programs. 



Mr. CONDIT. Mr. Groldthwait, I am also interested in the progress 

 in implementing the "Long-Term Trade Strategy." This document 

 was over a year late in being produced. Can you give us some rea- 

 sons why it was a year late and maybe make some comments about 

 the long-term strategy? 



Mr. GOLDTHWAIT. Well, the document was a very difficult one. In 

 point of fact, we started from about two or three different ap- 

 proaches with respect to completing that strategy before we found 

 one that really satisfied us. What resulted was a general umbrella, 

 a general statement of the overall theory behind our promotion ef- 

 forts and the overall effort in which we want to see them. It is a 

 document that we certainly plan to review from time to time. And, 

 indeed, some of the more specific things that I have said this morn- 

 ing about the direction in which we want to see our promotions 

 programs go, I think show that we have some very clear ideas 

 about what we want to do next and the overall direction in which 

 we want to see our strategic focus of all the programs proceed. 



Mr. CONDIT. I think, Mr. Mendelowitz, you might want to com- 

 ment on this. You stated more specifics are needed in the Depart- 

 ment plans on "Long-Term Trade Strategy." Could you give us 

 some specifics on what should be contained in this document? 



Mr. Mendelowitz. Well, let me give you an example from the 

 non-USDA programs included in the TPCC strategic plan, which I 

 believe highlights the way we need to go about looking at these 

 programs. 



There was an explicit recognition in the TPCC process that there 

 was a problem in the delivery of the export assistance programs 

 that are run by the nonagriculture agencies. The Commerce De- 

 partment has a network of trained trade counselors in its district 

 offices, but no resources to provide exporters. The Eximbank has 

 resources in the form of loans to support exports, and credit guar- 

 antees to support exports, but no field structure for delivering its 

 programs. The Small Business Administration has a large field net- 

 work, a lot of resources, and programs designed to help exporters. 

 However, the resources and programs weren't being used much be- 

 cause there wasn't much direction in the agency to help exporting 

 and there was little training of the staff to be able to effectively de- 

 liver the export programs. The TPCC process confronted this defi- 

 ciency across the agencies directly, identified the causes of the 

 problem, and came up with, I think, a very creative solution that 

 required no increase in expenditure. 



The solution was to meld the programs of three different agen- 

 cies and deliver them through a series of "pne-stop shops" at the 

 local level. Under this initiative, SBA folks in the field and Com- 

 merce folks in the field, will be brought together into local offices 

 and they will form unified teams to provide Grovemment assistance 

 to exporters. They will represent and provide jointly the programs 

 of Eximbank, Commerce, and SBA. No comparable assessment of 

 how to improve the programs in the farm area or the agricultural 

 area was either included in the LATS or in the TPCC strategy. And 

 it is that kind of no-holds barred, really open-minded approach that 

 is needed to improve the programs and to make better use of the 



