Impact of USTDA on US Economy and Job Creation

The United States Trade and Development Agency The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), formed in 1961, is an Independent Federal Level Agency located in Rosslyn, Virginia. Its primary mission is to help companies create jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services. The agency does this by funding projects, creating partnerships, and laying the groundwork to help in the development of infrastructure and economic growth in other countries. USTDA now stretches to 66 countries, creating over 56 billion dollars in revenue and supporting approximately 300,000 U.S. jobs this past fiscal year. Through a lengthy evaluation process, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency assesses its funded projects based on two factors: (1) Priority

dollars. Looking at past annual budgets, the USTDA’s has increased year to year due to an increase in revenue with only a few downfall years due to national economic issues. The annual budget is used to fund activities that cover various forms of technical assistance, investment analysis, training, orientation visits, and workshops in the areas surrounding trade and development. There are other federal governmental agencies that focus on similar issues such as, the United States Agency for International Development, which also focuses on building/developing foreign countries. However, USTDA differs by primarily focusing on projects that lead to an increase of revenue in United States export. Along with funding workshops, training, visits, etc., in other countries, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency also has programs known as, “Reverse Trade Missions” which allow foreign decision makers to come to the U.S. and observe design, operation, and manufacturing of United States trade and products. This allows other countries to use the U.S. as a model to take back to their own countries. It also gives the United States the opportunity to build relationships with large foreign trade partners/counties. USTDA also has a large evaluation team that looks over U.S. exports, along with independent

The USTDA is not praised by the public as much as other agencies. Many people view their work as “unnecessary”. This was never directly stated, but some U.S. citizens feel the U.S. should stay out of other countries business. An example of this is the differing political views on U.S. soldiers in the Middle East. No one takes time to look at the facts and how much revenue this agency is bringing the U.S. This past year, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency has generated 85 United States dollars for every 1 dollar they put into these emerging projects; and anyone who finds that illegitimate, or inefficient, needs to be further informed about the Agency’s mission. It runs as effectively and efficiently as any governmental agency can, while running into conflict and corruption as previously stated. The USTDA attempts to respond to the needs of groups in the U.S. by targeting the countries they sponsor to make every American happy. Although there is always room for improvement, which is true in any situation, USTDA runs swiftly and sets up a gateway for civil foreign relations in outside