Governments also pursue trade policy advocacy as a means to remove external barriers. Many

governments catalogue trade barriers cited by their exporters in foreign markets and periodically issue

reports (such as the U.S. National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers or the Report on

Compliance by Major Trading Partners with Trade Agreements issued by the Japanese Ministry of

Economy, Trade and Industry). Moreover, governments can play an active role in assisting exporters

overcome trade barriers by directly interceding on exporters’ behalf with foreign government officials.

This can entail various actions including active in-market representation by consular staff, meetings by

high-level government officials or discussion in multilateral fora (Fliess and Busquets, 2006). In the

United States, for instance, the Advocacy Center helps U.S. firms in various industry sectors win

government contracts across the globe. Once a firm’s request has been qualified for assistance, the

Advocacy Center works with relevant agencies to devise an appropriate advocacy strategy, which may

range from Embassy and Consulate assistance to Sub-Cabinet and Cabinet messages delivered through a

variety of media (e.g., letters, phone calls, or face-to-face meetings)1.

2.4.2.Policies related to business environment barriers

Collecting and supplying local market information to SMEs is a common approach to address barriers

stemming from the foreign business environment (“Customer and Foreign Competitor Barriers” and

“Business Environment Barriers”), which often combine with the information constraints of SMEs that

can dedicate limited resources to explore and understand complex and different environments. This type

of support can take several forms, including the organization of trade fairs to approach the foreign or the

preparation of sector specific market analysis. Recently, many OECD countries have opened offices or

support desks in foreign markets, aimed at supplying firms willing to enter the market with the required

business information (see Table 2.1). Where local points to feed foreign market information existed, these

have often been strengthened and the services of offices in foreign markets improved. The direct presence

in foreign markets allows gathering high-quality information on the local business environment or

bureaucratic procedures, which may be collected with more difficulties from abroad. For instance, the

Australian Trade Commission (Austrade), the Australian Government’s trade and investment

development agency, has a network of foreign offices which covers 104 countries, through which

Austrade assists Australian companies to grow their international business (see Box 2.7).

Apart from providing information to potential entrants, these offices may also assist firms which have

already entered the market. For example, if firms face legal disputes or want to expand their activities in

foreign markets, these local offices may supply the necessary information. This is the case of the EU

SME Centre, which opened in China in 2010 to support SMEs navigating in the complex local system

(Box 2.3), thus to addressing also regulatory barriers.

See