Global trade agreements bolster small businesses in Nevada

Long ago, if you wanted to buy a product, like a tin of tea leaves, you would go down to your local general store and see what they had for sale. If they had the product you wanted, great; but if not, you were out of luck. You were bound by the confines of your local marketplace.

But now, tea is shipped from the United Kingdom through the Port of New York-New Jersey, by a tea import company headquartered in Dallas that found an online customer in San Francisco. And my small company based here in Nevada helped them navigate the complex web of customs, tariffs and freight schedules.

Because of international trade, this tea company — one of many small businesses I work with to ensure its getting a fair price on the international market — has expanded greatly. So has the economy of Nevada, where my company is based, and that of every stop along this supply chain. It created jobs for the client's headquarters in Texas, jobs for the customer fulfillment center that processes orders in New York and jobs for the dock workers at the port in New York.

This is just one of many success stories made possible by international trade. International trade supports more than 350,000 jobs here in Nevada — one in five. These trade-related jobs grew five times faster than total employment over the past decade, and increasing international trade is our best hope for continuing Nevada's economic growth.

This is the world we live in. This is the international economy, where even small businesses have the power to be global businesses.

But it is not a seamless economy. There are still challenges. Barriers include delays at customs because of exams, government holds and costly tariffs and duties. These challenges are particularly hard on small businesses. Small business owners are frequently disadvantaged in the world of freight. They can be decimated by a general rate increase, which raises the price of their goods exponentially, or they can be forced to seek the help of a large brokerage firm that they can't afford. As a result, these businesses move fewer products than they want to. Further, many small businesses are afraid of exporting. They don't know how to do it, don't know much about the market overseas and are afraid of being on the hook if their goods are damaged in transit.

Trade agreements make the world fairer for small businesses. We've already seen this with the Korea Free Trade Agreement, which lowered the barriers to entering the Korean market and gave American companies easier access to do business there, such as importing Korean toys to sell to U.S. toy stores and online.

Two significant trade agreements, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, would continue to reduce trade barriers. American small businesses stand to benefit from these agreements, from exporting textiles to Vietnam to importing mealworms from China. No longer would they have to worry about high duties and other added costs and delays that blow their profit margin and ruin their shipping schedule. It could also help to increase efficiency at customs in the receiving countries, so that there are fewer issues with paperwork. These businesses would be able to find new markets more easily, and our entire economy would benefit up and down the supply chain.

These trade agreements would help more Nevada small businesses grow and help the U.S. economy compete in this global age. They are major steps toward a level playing field for our small businesses. It is encouraging that this has been a policy issue with bipartisan support, which is no small feat in today's gridlocked Washington. As final details of the TPP are released in the coming weeks, I hope Washington continues to stay supportive of the trade agreements. Nevada jobs depend on it.

— Kimberly Daniels is president of Mercantile Logistics & International Trade Inc. in Henderson.