Free Trade Alliance and City of San Antonio Partner on Expanded Export Leaders Program

The Free Trade Alliance (Alliance) and the City of San Antonio today announced a partnership to expand the popular Export Leaders program. Originally launched by the City in 2000 to help San Antonio companies develop their export markets, the Export Leaders program has developed 111 graduates over the past eleven years who have generated a combined excess of $85 million in export sales. Under the new partnership, the Free Trade Alliance will implement the program, which helps participants develop an export strategy and realize increased sales through training and trade missions.
“An estimated 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside of our borders and the International Monetary Fund recently forecasted that nearly 87 percent of world economic growth over the next five years will take place outside of the United States,“ said Kyle Burns, President and CEO of the Free Trade Alliance. “U.S. businesses seeking to find their next customer should consider exporting their goods and services and the Export Leaders program is their gateway to those markets,” he added. “The Export Leaders program has been a tremendous economic generator for San Antonio businesses and further diversifies our economy through exports, providing a more stable and growing employment base.“ Rene Dominguez, Director of the City’s Economic Development Department said. “Manufacturing jobs related to exports also typically pay 13 to 18 percent more than the national average, which helps San Antonio families improve their quality of life,” he added.
The Export Leaders program was recently recognized in President Obama’s National Export Initiative. The program particularly helps serve small and medium-sized enterprises, which often face hurdles when trying to close an export sale, due to lack of readily available information, market research, challenges obtaining export financing, strong competition from foreign companies and obstacles thrown up by foreign governments. The Alliance will work closely with the CASA San Antonio program on the trade mission to Mexico and the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on the trade mission to Spain. Hispanic Chamber President, Ramiro Cavazos stated “we are glad to partner with Free Trade Alliance and the City of San Antonio in building stronger ties to Spain while helping San Antonio companies expand their sales base around the world.” Additional information and program applications are available at www.freetradealliance.org.