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ITA's Trade Agreements Compliance Program Helps Small Pennsylvania Company - YouTube
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>>NARRATOR: Billions of
dollars worth of goods
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and services change hands
every day around the world.
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Much of this commerce
is governed
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by international
agreements between countries
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that help ensure a framework
for predictable fair trade.
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If you're a U.S.
exporter or investor
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who has encountered a
trade barrier caused
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by a foreign government
policy or procedure,
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these agreements can
be effective tools
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for overcoming that barrier.
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This is the story of one such
problem and how it was resolved
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with the help of specialists
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in the Trade Agreements
Compliance Program
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of the U.S. Commerce
Department's International Trade
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Administration, or ITA.
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[Music]
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>>NARRATOR: Henrik
Klinge and his father came
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to the United States in the
late 1970s from Denmark to work
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as agents for a specialty
refrigeration company
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in York, Pennsylvania.
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In 1984 they purchased
the company
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and Klinge Corporation
was founded.
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Since that day, they have
almost doubled their workforce
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to accommodate large
foreign contracts.
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Eighty-five percent of their
business is from exports.
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Klinge Corporation had just won
a multi-million dollar contract
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with the Australian military to
supply refrigerated containers
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and power-generation equipment.
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Klinge planned to send these
products to China to be mounted
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on containers and then ship
them onward to Australia
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to fulfill the contract, but
Klinge's products were held
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up in Chinese customs for
reasons they did not understand.
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>>ALLAN KLINGE: These goods,
even though we had shipped them
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in many, many times before,
got held up and were sitting
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in customs for one week
and then another week
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and then another week, and
meanwhile we're going back
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and forth with our freight
forwarder trying to understand,
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what is the issue
that has come up.
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So there was quite a bit at
stake with regard to all this,
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and primarily though, the
well-being of the company,
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the reputation of
the company and how
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in the future we might
be seen to be able
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to handle these contracts.
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>>SARAH KLINGE: We actually
received a newsletter
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from the ITA, which described
their export assistance services
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and also provided
instructions on how
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to report a trade
barrier on the website.
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So I submitted the report on
the website, a couple months
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after we initially had
our equipment held,
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and the same afternoon I
heard back from Adam Boltik,
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who put us in touch
with Bryan O'Byrne.
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>>NARRATOR: When a
company reports a problem,
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specialists in ITA's Trade
Agreements Compliance Program
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investigate the issue
and work directly
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with the affected industry
to develop a strategy
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to eliminate the barrier and to
ensure that U.S. rights provided
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by our trade agreements
are protected.
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>>BRYAN O'BYRNE: What the
Chinese were doing were
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misapplying a technical
regulation,
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and making it more trade
restrictive than necessary.
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That falls under the WTO-TBT
Agreement as problematic.
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So what we did is just simply
remind them of those commitments
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and integrate that
into the relationship.
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And usually when that happens,
people remember, oh, yeah,
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we did have an interest in this
trade agreement and we want
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to be known as a country that
lives by its trade agreements.
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>>NARRATOR: How does ITA use the
WTO framework to resolve current
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or potential trade problems
[201]
U.S. industry experiences,
such as this one?
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>>JENNY MAY: I think there
are two sides of the coin.
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First of all, we need to
make sure that the laws
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and regulations on the books
comply with the WTO requirement,
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and secondly we need to look
at in terms of implementation,
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are rules and laws being
implemented evenly?
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>>NARRATOR: The Trade Agreements
Compliance Program uses many
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resources to resolve
trade barriers,
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including
government-to-government
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discussions, such
as a roundtable,
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which includes the participation
of business leaders.
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Bryan O'Byrne was organizing
a roundtable with China
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at the time and invited
Henrik Klinge to participate.
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>>HENRIK KLINGE: In Ningbo, I
met Bryan O'Byrne as the head
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of the delegation
that was there.
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So there was all hands
on deck from the U.S. side.
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>>ALLAN KLINGE: We really valued
that opportunity and we kind
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of joked around here because
we saw the list of attendees.
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I think it was maybe Dell,
Microsoft and then Klinge,
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so we felt pretty involved
and valued at that point.
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>>BRYAN O'BYRNE: We
leveraged these discussions,
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these bilateral discussions
with the Chinese,
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and obtained a commitment from
the Chinese authorities to work
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and work to resolve the issue.
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In the end, Klinge was
able to fill its contract
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with the Australian Government,
so that barrier was eliminated.
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>>SARAH KLINGE: I would
advise small businesses
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to take advantage of the
governmental resources that are
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out there, such as
reporting a trade barrier,
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which was clearly
a success for us.
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I think there is somewhat a
fear if you're a small business
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that you're just
not as important.
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So it was a surprise that
we received all the support
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that we did.
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>>ALLAN KLINGE: The eight
million dollar project
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that we had, everything has
been moving very smoothly
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within that process.
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We really feel like that, as
far as a direct business impact
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in terms of basically money
in everybody's pocket here
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at the company and
jobs for everybody,
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was the greatest takeaway.
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>>NARRATOR: In addition
to challenges
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like the one you just saw get
resolved, we can also help you
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with trade barriers
such as these:
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Intellectual Property
protection, Import Licensing,
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Rules of Origin,
Investment, Services,
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Government Procurement,
and Tariffs.
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Eliminating one barrier
can open opportunities
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for a whole industry.
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Contact us to learn more
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about ITA's Trade
Agreements Compliance Program,
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led by the Market Access
and Compliance Unit.
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[Music]
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