The Foreign Service Journal, January 2003

T HE U.S. C OMMERCIAL S ERVICE HELPS U.S. BUSINESSES , PARTICULARLY SMALL AND MEDIUM - SIZE ONES , SELL THEIR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES GLOBALLY . H ERE ’ S H OW . B Y M ARIA C INO F O C U S O N F C S here are some 23 million small businesses in the United States, but only about 1 per- cent of them sell their goods outside the country. Fortunately, the number of businesses that export is increas- ing, more than tripling in the past seven years. This is good news for the U.S. economy. Exports are key to economic growth. U.S. exports accounted for near- ly 25 percent of economic growth experienced in the past decade. One out of 10 American jobs and one in five manufacturing jobs are supported by exports. Altogether, about 12 million U.S. jobs depend upon exports. And 34 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 3 T Jeff Moores G OING G LOBAL WITH THE U.S. C OMMERCIAL S ERVICE