Establishment of an Interagency Task Force on Commercial Advocacy

Executive Order 13630 of December 6, 2012

Establishment of an Interagency Task Force on
                Commercial Advocacy

                By the authority vested in me as President by the
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of
                America, and in order to help level the playing field
                on behalf of U.S. businesses and workers competing for
                international contracts against foreign firms and to
                facilitate the growth of sales of U.S. goods and
                services around the world in support of the National
                Export Initiative, it is hereby ordered as follows:

                Section 1. Policy. Executive Order 13534 of March 11,
                2010, created the National Export Initiative (NEI),
                which provides unprecedented Federal support for
                exports of goods and services by American businesses.
                Executive Order 13534 also established the Export
                Promotion Cabinet to develop and coordinate the
                implementation of the eight priorities of the NEI,
                which include, but are not limited to, improving
                advocacy and trade promotion efforts on behalf of U.S.
                exporters, increasing access to export financing, and
                removing barriers to trade and enforcing U.S. trade
                laws and agreements. As part of these responsibilities,
                the Export Promotion Cabinet, in coordination with the
                Advocacy Center at the Department of Commerce, is
                focused on ensuring that the Federal Government's
                commercial advocacy effectively promotes exports by
                U.S. businesses, particularly by those firms competing
                for international contracts against foreign firms that
                may benefit from strong home government support. The
                creation of a new whole-of-government commercial
                advocacy task force that will provide enhanced Federal
                support for U.S. businesses competing for international
                contracts, coordinate the efforts of executive branch
                leadership in engaging their foreign counterparts on
                commercial advocacy issues, and increase the
                availability of information to the U.S. business
                community about these kinds of export opportunities,
                will ensure that U.S. exporters have more support for
                selling their goods and services in global markets.

                Sec. 2. Establishment and Membership. There is hereby
                established an Interagency Task Force on Commercial
                Advocacy (Task Force).

                (a) The Task Force shall be chaired by the Secretary of
                Commerce (Chair) and consist of senior-level officials
                from the following executive departments and agencies
                (agencies) designated by the heads of those agencies:

(i) Department of State;

(ii) Department of the Treasury;

(iii) Department of Defense;

(iv) Department of Agriculture;

(v) Department of Health and Human Services;

(vi) Department of Transportation;

(vii) Department of Energy;

(viii) Department of Homeland Security;

(ix) United States Agency for International Development;

(x) Export-Import Bank of the United States;

(xi) Millennium Challenge Corporation;

(xii) Overseas Private Investment Corporation;

(xiii) Small Business Administration;

(xiv) United States Trade and Development Agency; and

(xv) such other agencies as the President, or the Chair, may designate.

(b) The Chair shall designate a senior-level official of the Department of
Commerce as the Executive Director of the Task Force, who shall be
responsible for regularly convening and presiding over the meetings of the
Task Force, determining its agenda, and guiding its work in fulfilling its
functions under this order in coordination with the Advocacy Center at the
Department of Commerce.

                Sec. 3. Functions. The Task Force shall perform the
                following functions:

(a) review and prioritize commercial advocacy cases in which the Advocacy
Center at the Department of Commerce has approved the provision of
commercial advocacy services, and coordinate the activities of relevant
agencies to enhance Federal support for such cases, in order to increase
the success of U.S. exporters competing for foreign procurements;

(b) coordinate the engagement of agency leadership with their foreign
counterparts regarding commercial advocacy issues, particularly with
respect to their foreign travel and other occasions for engagement with
foreign officials, and evaluate reports on the outcomes of such engagement,
in order to increase the number of senior-level agency officials regularly
and effectively advocating on behalf of U.S. exporters;

(c) develop strategies to raise the awareness of commercial advocacy
assistance within the U.S. business community in order to increase the
number of U.S. businesses utilizing commercial advocacy services;

(d) institute processes to obtain and distribute information about foreign
procurement opportunities that may be of interest to U.S. businesses in
order to expand awareness of opportunities for U.S. businesses to sell
their goods and services to foreign governments;

(e) facilitate voluntary short-term personnel exchanges, not to exceed 120
days, between the Department of Commerce and other Task Force agencies, in
order to cross-train Federal personnel to better serve U.S. exporters; and

(f) submit a progress report to the Export Promotion Cabinet every 180
days, which should include, but not be limited to, the number of commercial
advocacy cases opened and successfully concluded, the number of commercial
advocacy engagements by senior-level agency officials, and the number of
U.S. businesses utilizing commercial advocacy services. The Advocacy Center
at the Department of Commerce will be responsible for managing and tracking
all commercial advocacy reporting for the Task Force.

                Sec. 4. Definitions. For the purposes of this order:

(a) the term “commercial advocacy” shall mean Federal support for U.S.
firms competing for foreign project or procurement opportunities; and

(b) the term “foreign project or procurement opportunities” shall mean
export opportunities, including defense export opportunities, for U.S.
businesses that involve foreign government decisionmakers, including
foreign government-owned corporations.

                Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) The Commerce Department
                shall provide funding and administrative support for
                the Task Force to the extent permitted by law and
                consistent with existing appropriations.

(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise effect:

(i) the authority granted by law, regulation, Executive Order, or
Presidential Directive to an executive department, agency, or the head
thereof; and

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or
benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party

against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its
officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, December 6, 2012.