Small Business in Florida Gives a Big Welcome to the America Wins With Trade Bus

Week 2 of the America Wins With Trade grassroots tour kicked off in Florida with a Monday morning event at the Port of Miami. As Dan Cole blogged yesterday following our trade bus visit to Charleston, South Carolina, our nations’ ports are buzzing with exports from U.S. companies selling products to consumers around the world. In these economic times, exports are a bright spot in our economy. According to the Commerce Department, U.S. exports were up over 18 percent this year as of May.

Monday afternoon we visited CEA member company Tributaries Cable, based in Orlando. I rode the trade bus to Tributaries’ headquarters and was greeted by founder and President Joe Perfito, who founded Tributaries 17 years ago in his garage.

Tributaries Cable prides itself on producing high quality audio and visual cables, and after touring their facility it became clear why. Highly skilled workers were busy assembling cables, handing them off to another team who conducts a series of quality checks on each individual cable, including additional quality checks, before shipping products – all with pride in the quality and craftsmanship of their work. Joe gave us a tour of the assembly line, testing facility, and then shipping – where a huge pallet of Tributaries cables was packed and ready for shipment to Russia. Joe said he hopes to increase the percentage of his business from exports of his products to overseas consumers four-fold.

Small businesses are the engine of economic growth in this country and nowhere is that more evident than in the consumer electronics industry. More than 80 percent of CEA member companies are small businesses (less than $20 million in annual revenue) and they increasingly rely on free trade agreements to open foreign markets to their products.

Speaking of free trade agreements, do you know how much money in tariffs U.S. companies have had to pay on goods exported from here to Colombia in the two years that Congress has been refusing to act on the Colombia free trade agreements? Over $1.1 billion. And the amount that Colombian companies have paid in U.S. tariffs for Colombian products sent to the U.S.? Zilch – because Colombian goods come into the U.S. tariff-free. That’s not fair, and Congress’ failure to act on free trade agreements is hurting American companies.

www.blog.ce.org