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Federal Government Wants To Help Pittsburgh Businesses Export Goods Abroad

On Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews was in Pittsburgh to lead an initiative that will help start-up and early stage businesses conduct business abroad.

“With 96 percent of the world’s customers and 80 percent of the world’s GDP outside of the borders of the United States, there are tremendous opportunities for U.S. businesses around the world, and we want to help companies early in their life cycle and early in their growth to start thinking globally rather than waiting until they’re further along and more developed,” said Andrews.

Andrews spoke at Carnegie Mellon University to a lecture hall of local business owners.

This initiative, Startup Global, is the third of a series of pilot programs. Previous programs have been held in Washington, D.C. and Nashville, Tennessee.

Attendees attended panels on acquiring patents, protecting intellectual property and finding local partners.

“It can be both daunting moving from a domestic-focused company to selling globally, and also there are a number of challenges, and frankly, best practices that if companies can learn and hear from experts early it will really smooth their ability and make it much easier to sell into foreign markets faster in their company life cycle,” said Andrews.  

For companies who are working with other countries for the first time, there are a number of hurdles they may face, from learning how banks work abroad to legal considerations. This initiative aims to help with those hurdles.