North Carolina DEC's Plan To Bolster Local CS Export Promotion Efforts
North Carolina DEC’s Plan To Bolster Local CS Export Promotion Efforts
This episode of Export Nation features the North Carolina District Export Council (DEC) Chair, Audrey Garrett, and North Carolina DEC member, Paul Wyatt. We’re also joined by Shirreef Loza, director of U.S. Commercial Service Raleigh. We discuss how the North Carolina DEC contributes its leadership and international trade expertise to complement the U.S. Commercial Services export promotion efforts and more.
Relevant Links
Company Information: North Carolina DEC - https://www.nc-dec.us/
Office: U.S. Commercial Service Raleigh
Export Expert: Shirreef Loza - Shirreef.Loza@trade.gov
Podcast Transcript
Speakers: Derrick Small, Audrey Garett, Paul Wyatt and Shirreef Loza
[music]
Derrick Small: On this episode of Export Nation, we speak to North Carolina District Export Council Chair and Flowserve Corporation Trade Compliance Manager for the Americas, Audrey Garrett, as well as North Carolina DEC member and BASF Corporation Foreign Trade Representative, Paul Wyatt. We’re also joined by Shirreef Loza, Director of US Commercial Service, Raleigh. We discuss how the North Carolina DEC contributes its leadership and international trade expertise to complement the US Commercial Services export promotion efforts and more.
Well, great to have everyone on this call. I truly appreciate your time. Audrey and Paul, really wonderful to have you on the show. Why don’t we start with Audrey, if you could please, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you’re connected to the US Commercial Service?
Audrey Garrett: Hello, Derrick. Very nice to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I am Audrey Garrett. I work for Flowserve Corporation, which is a global business doing business in over 50 countries. In my role there, I am the trade compliance manager for the Americas representing the corporate office. We currently cover 11 countries and about 62 different sites in those different countries. I am here today representing actually the North Carolina District Export Council or short, and we call that the NC DEC, which is part of a larger organization, the National Association of District Export Councils. I am currently the chair of the NC DEC. I am tickled pink to be here today.
Derrick: Wonderful. Nice to have you. Paul, real quick, same question to you. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How you came to connect with the US Commercial Service?
Paul Wyatt: Yes. Thank you so much you guys for having me here today. My name is Paul Wyatt. I’m currently the Foreign Trade Representative for BASF Corporation here in RTP, North Carolina. I work as the main point of contact between our manufacturing sites here in North America and our BASF subsidiaries internationally. I handle all the movements, order management, supply chain and logistics, forecasting, as well as product launches. Just to go in a little bit more detail, I know you guys might know that BASF we have our hands on a lot of different industries, but here in my site we work mainly with agricultural products and chemicals.
I’m also a proud member of the DEC here in North Carolina as of this year, a newly tenured member of the DEC. My connection with US Commercial Services is, of course, via the DEC. Also, before working at BASF, I work with the North Carolina Department of Commerce in our International Trade Export team. I held a role very similar to the [unintelligible 00:03:35] on a State-level, where I worked with small and mid-sized companies here in North Carolina, helping them launch their products or expand their footprint internationally as well as walk them through best practices of export compliance, vetting different opportunities.
Also, leading and arranging inbound and outbound trade missions to different countries utilizing our North Carolina trade offices. Also, a good part of that has been some of the partnerships that I’ve made with Shirreef and some of our international US Commercial Service offices.
Derrick: Thank you. Shirreef , maybe you tell us a little bit about yourself as well?
Shirreef Loza: Thanks, Derrick, and thanks Audrey and Paul for being a part of this. My first time doing anything like this. I’m excited to share the story of the things that are taking place in North Carolina connecting our community to global opportunities. For my part, a lot like RTP, I came at a time when it was transforming from more of a traditional economy to a knowledge-based economy. My parents are from Egypt. My dad started working in Canada for a large telecommunications firm called Nortel, which then opened up a huge presence in the Research Triangle Park.
That’s how my family got here. Like so many others, once we got here we never left. It was just a great place to be. It’s continued to grow at a nice rate where we can retain a lot of great talent and make a good living. For my part, I started working in the private sector in a couple of roles. What I found most interesting was the internationalization of a particular company I was working with at the time, PPD. They’re a contract research organization that does global trials. I thought I was going to be more interested in the R&D side and science.
I turned out to be more interested in the globalization and decided to get a master’s in NC State in International Studies, and got an internship with the Commercial Service. Like so many clients I talk to every day, when I got the internship, I said, “I’ve never heard of this. This is amazing. What a great resource. How do I not—” I’ve been here ever since. It’s been 18 years.
Derrick: Perfect. Thank you. I feel like we have a lot to unpack here because both Audrey and Paul, you have worked with businesses that are exporting. The DEC is very integral to the commercial service. Audrey, maybe, we’ll start with the DEC for a little. Maybe you could tell me a little bit about the DEC and what that work entails?
Audrey: Absolutely, Derrick. Our DEC members, we are not government officials. Our DEC members are just people of the industry that come together on a volunteer basis. They are nominated and vetted by the Department of Commerce to be a member, actually. What the members will do is we have, I believe, 56 different DECs nationally. Again, we are in the mid-Atlantic region, which is basically the East Coast region. The DECs in every region will get together generally meeting on a quarterly basis.
Our goal is really to facilitate the development of the ability for small and mid-sized companies to be able to have an effective network of support with the expansion of their export opportunities. We want to give these small and medium-sized companies some leverage to have the ability to have access to resources that your larger companies just automatically have. Most of your small businesses are not going to have an entire floor of attorneys say like my company happens to, but they don’t have a floor of attorneys that half of them can be related to trade or whatever the case may be.
They’re small; they’re generally very limited number of employees less than 50. A lot of times, it could be just three or four. This is the businesses that we try to reach, and that we try to help and serve as a communication link between the business community, US Commercial Services, and just assist these companies in their environment, in their local community to be able to export and promoting growth in their particular region.
Derrick: Thank you. I wasn’t cutting you off, was I?
Audrey: No, no, no.
Derrick: Thank you. Yes, perfect explanation of the DEC. Paul, I’ll pass to you, maybe why do you feel that connection is valuable?
Paul: Yes, thank you. The DEC connection is valuable because having worked internationally for all of my career, I can empathize a lot with some of the members on our DEC team, as well as the companies that we serve. When it comes to communication, I’ve lived it. I grew up here in North Carolina, went to school at Davidson, and then I decided to go to China. When I lived in China, when I went to China, I didn’t necessarily have the game plan of living there as long as I did. I ended up living there for about nine years.
Within that time, I learned the language, adapted to the culture, fell right into the international business landscape. I work with two different multinational companies doing everything from international sales, business development, supply chain, setting up different offices, and setting up our sales networks, and launching different products internationally. I understand the communication aspect and the importance of having that link of support when you’re doing business internationally.
When I came back to North Carolina after a successful career in China and the immersion of culture and business, I was drawn to working with the North Carolina Department of Commerce in the form of the EDPNC, the partnership, and working with the DEC and the US Commercial Services because I ultimately have gone through these experiences, either as the importer or the exporter. It was exciting as local, as a native here in North Carolina, see that the area is growing. There’s a lot of interest in export both on some of the larger companies and the smaller companies.
I was honored to be a local kid who went abroad to China, came back, and could give his time and his experience and know-how to make sure companies here in North Carolina didn’t make the same mistakes that I have experienced and ultimately, set them up for success long term. Working internationally interacting with these cultures can be very eye-opening experience not just for your business. I think it’s something that nowadays having that lens of globalization, you can’t rely on not just domestic business, but business here in North America. You just can’t rely on that.
I think with some of the challenges that we’ve had in the last 10 years, we’ve seen the landscape change to, “You can’t just be dependent on just one market.” That communication, I feel like I can leverage my background to ultimately, continue to give back, even in my new role having been removed from the Department of Commerce for a couple of years now. My work here on the DEC, I’m looking forward to continuing that passion that I have for international business and helping to work with companies to educate them and to continue that communication to help them succeed internationally.
Derrick: Wonderful, thank you. Shirreef , I’d like you to add to that because when I came on board, the DECs were already going. I don’t know if you know the history or not. I don’t want to put you on the spot for that history necessarily, but what do you gauge is the importance of the DEC from the US Commercial Service, Department of Commerce side?
Shirreef : I’ve done this for 18 years. The more of I’ve worked with the DEC, the more I understand the important role that it plays in helping the US Commercial Service execute its mission. In a very mundane way of saying it, I can tell the US Commercial Service story and that’s great.
The audience a lot of time wants to hear a second opinion on that. They want to hear that from people that are in their seats in the private sector, or as a service provider to the export world, or other stakeholders in the community like Foreign Trade Zones and things that are relevant to become a global business. The DEC becomes a great way to advocate for the commercial service and tell our story with a softer touch. Beyond that in North Carolina, I’ll say we’ve been very active in educating the small business community and mentoring the small business community. That’s what I’ve seen in the 18 years that I’ve been there.
Things like Export University, which was created in Florida, in part by one of our colleagues here in North Carolina, Stephanie Bethel. They found great success in that model. She came up to North Carolina to relocate closer to her family in Greensboro. We took Export University and ran with it. We do three or four of those a year. In that regard, very directly the DEC has been a very good advocate for the commercial service. What I’ve also seen in the last say 5 to 10 years under the leadership of Greg Sizemore, who’s in our Charlotte office, who is the Executive Secretary for the DEC, was an active effort to diversify what our DEC looked like prior to Greg leadership.
We would have a company like SAS software, which employs thousands of people around the world, but wouldn’t be considered within the traditional manufactured good profile and therefore, wasn’t really ever participating in DEC meetings or discussions are really what exports meant to North Carolina. Clearly, services and software is something that’s relevant to the exporting community in North Carolina so the DEC has been adaptive to the environment. We brought in a lot of different profiles that weren’t there traditionally including education. I also, want to highlight that it’s included diversification of our DEC members.
We have a pretty lively DEC. When I say lively, it’s present and adapting, which is a good thing. Under Audrey’s leadership, she’s taken it a step further and expanded that outreach to an even deeper level within our community, making priority to reach out to educational institutions that are traditionally disregarded like historically Black colleges. Also, middle schools, elementary schools, and in sharing to folks at a young age, what globalization means in their community. The DEC has been just a terrific advocate. It’s hard to imagine working in States where they don’t have as close a relationship with the District Export Council in their community.
Derrick: Sounds good. Audrey that throws back to you, an interesting question just popped in mind. You’ve spoken to different chairs over the years, but I’ve never quite asked maybe what their goals were, especially as it relates to North Carolina for you? What are some of, I guess, your ideas and ways in which you want to use the DEC to connect with the business community?
Audrey: Well, Derrick, yes, well, that’s where I have to be really careful.
[laughter]
Derrick: May I know why?
Audrey: I have all ideas but, in particular, coming off of a pandemic and lots of other things, you have to move forward slowly but surely. What we have put in place for 2021 for the North Carolina DEC, is we’ve got a couple of initiatives. One is an Education Outreach Initiative. One is a Service Provider Outreach Initiative, and another is the National Debt Trade Policy and Legislative Outreach Initiative. What I’ve challenged the members to do is to pick one of those three items. We’ve gone through that process. We’re going to have to split the team up so that we can do more faster, as opposed to the whole team working on all three items. Everyone has chosen a team that they want to be on.
Then what we’re going to do is lay plans to make something happen. Team leads will decide and that’s what we will do, I believe it is next month. What is this thing that we’re going to do? With the education, what we’re trying to do is to make sure that we don’t lose touch. Again, in particular, coming off from pandemic, with reaching our young, working with K through graduate school, keeping the international program in front of them, letting them know what the options are, letting them know that this is a path that you can consider. Again, just an awareness-type situation. For the service provider outreach, we’re going to do just that.
We’re going to reach out to service providers being forwarders, being brokers, being accountants, being attorneys, being consultants. These are the people that actually come into direct contact with someone that needs assistance. Most of the time when a business is need of assistance; they don’t know where to start. They may go to any one of those individuals just mentioned and say, “What can you help me with?”
We want those individuals to be able to tell them, “You can do a one-and-done. Contact your DEC and your DEC will put you in touch with commercial services as well as other partners that we work with, that can give you assistance that is not only excellent but also it is free,” which is a huge piece in particular when you’re talking about a small mid-sized business. Then our third initiative, which is working with the national DEC with their trade policies and the legislative outreach, we feel it’s very important that our local Congress people, they are aware of the trade that is going on, the import and export that’s happening locally here in North Carolina.
We try to meet with them as often as they will allow us to go into their space and give them metrics and statistics on, “This is what you have moving in and out of North Carolina. This is yet one of many reasons why this should always be a priority of the list of things that you’re working on.” Those are the things that we’ll be doing. Again, speaking to the point of the DEC’s role, it’s really interesting because now the North Carolina DEC has this initiative Education Outreach. Well, just in working on this, Paul, Shirreef , and I, have found out that each one of us are working on some type of education program in 2021.
Just in having that conversation, why can’t we partner together? Rather than each one of us doing your thing here, your thing over there, the North Carolina DEC thing over here. Let’s work on this together and really make this a powerful punch. Again, that’s the pro to being part of the DEC and working with commercial services. You have the ability to have these conversations with other people and make these connections. I just I’m excited. I just think we can make a lot of really great stuff happen.
Shirreef : If I could, Derrick-
Derrick: Of course.
Shirreef : -to add to that, as we all know, it’s easy to end up in silos where private sector is talking to themselves, government is talking to themselves, and nobody is really listening. As Audrey says, when we take a community approach to this like the DEC does, and it’s an NGO. It’s a 501(c)(3), I’m almost certain. It is a community-based organization that is trying to build a platform for dialogue, for what’s in the best interest of the State.
Sometimes that can mean informing the US trade representative on what issues are relevant to North Carolina. It can also be things that are happening at a DNA level like community outreach to schools like Audrey is talking about. It’s just good to have some mechanism to promote dialogue across professional cultures.
Derrick: Wonderful. Audrey, I wanted to throw two follow-ups your way. A lot of times the focus is on, what can you get now? You said from K to graduate level, why so young? Then if you could elaborate a little bit more on why it’s important for that legislative outreach. Those are the two different questions, but—
[laughter]
Audrey: I’ll tackle them well. In addressing the first one, why so young? We want to catch them at those very impressionable ages. When you speak to most young kids and you ask them, “What do you want to be?” “Well, I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a fireman.” You’re not going to ever not once hear a person say, “I want to be a trade compliance manager. “
[laughter]
Not ever. Again, this is why we want to catch kids when they are young, again, to give them another avenue to think about. If you go into businesses right now, the trade person that’s in there really is almost like they have a disease. No one over there wants to touch anything trade. They hate it. They just don’t want it. “Give it to Paul. If it’s international, give it to Paul.” Again, that’s why we want to start at those early ages to say, “This is okay. It’s not anything wrong with this. Not only is it okay, it’s a piece of the future that’s going to happen whether you like it or not.”
I think Paul mentioned earlier that if you’re in business now, it’s imperative that you know the global piece. Even if you are only dealing domestic, you may have suppliers that are providing you with items that come from overseas. Well, when you get hit with that 25% additional tariff because your item is coming from China by your supplier, then you’re going to try to be, “Well, what’s going on? This is not fair. Why?” If you have the awareness, then, again, you can navigate and be proactive in catching some of those things. Now, as far as Congress is concerned, again, we need them to recognize, one, what is going on in their State.
They are in a position to bring this information to the table in those political arenas where we the exporter cannot do, they need to be made aware, they need to be made aware of the importance. They need to be made aware of the impact of the decisions they’re making. What is this going to do to your local economy? If you vote yes or no, what does that mean? What is the sign that you’re giving to the people that you’re representing in your State? Do you not care? Is it not important to you? Again, it’s awareness, and that’s really what we’re trying to do more than anything else.
Derrick: Wonderful. Thank you. I feel like I have Shirreef just mention really quickly before I throw it to Paul. What is our role? I feel like we walk a fine line when it comes to Congressional and dealing with our political members. Can you maybe talk to that a little bit?
Shirreef : Sure. In North Carolina, we’re a nice purple State. That’s tight rope, a tight rope you walk. Honestly, I think the way we’ve always approached it is everybody is the governor’s son, everybody is the senator’s son. We’re a tax-paid organization. We serve all of our constituents. Whatever political party you’re from, we focus on, “Your active constituents, these are the successes they’re having. These are the number of employees they retain because they’re global success.” As such, I don’t think we’ve ever run into any issue with where things could go wrong.
We’ve had Republican Senator Burr come out and recognize Ford’s Foods for their global canned and jammed products. We’ve also had Congressman David Price come out and recognize small chemical design firm that was building a lab in India. Senator Burr, I know is big on North Carolina education. Routinely highlights that we graduate more graduate-level students in North Carolina than other States in the union except California. Rhetorically speaking, it sounds nice the way he says it.
[chuckling]
For us the outreach at the federal level, has never been anything that gave us pause. Where we do take pause is when we reach out to State-level. That is something that we’ve just been more cautious about. Having said that, I think that’s the role the US Commercial Service. The DEC is very well aligned to being able to reach out to State-level administrators and tell the message and inform and educate Congress at the State-level.
Derrick: You hear a lot about California exports in New York and the strength of maybe Texas’ ability to export. Can you talk to some of the advantages of being a North Carolina exporter?
Shirreef : Well, for sure. Every one of those States that you mentioned have strong programs, much longer history cultivating that community. North Carolina, no, speak to RTP in particular. You could universalize this for North Carolina, but specifically in RTP, global engagement is about 50 years old. I guess you could really go back to late 1950s. About 50 years is when North Carolina, aside from major exporting tobacco or major exporting of wood, small business exports has really picked up in the last 20 years. Real global engagement through the universities, 50 years.
One of the strategic things that RTP did and it sounds contrary, but Brookings Institute talks about the relationship between bilateral trade and the way all boats rise in that. North Carolina is very aggressive about pursuing foreign direct investment and doing what it can to internationalize its airport, making those global connections that way to attract and retain the best talent. I mentioned Nortel, but there are several others. With assets like Duke University, North Carolina State University, and UNC-Chapel Hill, which are in each of their respective studies, some of the best in the world and a strong global brand, we in RTP, tried to transform its economy to a knowledge-based economy.
They’ve done that successfully. I think it’s through the competitive advantage of not a textile product. We don’t necessarily have a competitive advantage of a textile product over something that’s produced in Pakistan or Indonesia or Mexico. When we apply IP technology and advanced material science to it, that’s our competitive advantage. What we’ve done in RTP through the universities is apply science to traditional manufacturing really took to address but also grow niche markets. Your Clorox wipes, that’s a textile that was manufactured or that was designed in NC State.
It’s amazing when you talk to textiles experts in the global supply chain, how they can align it with the production of diapers. Like, “Wait. What? Oh, no, no, no.” You can tell so much about the economy by diaper production and all the patents that go into it and all that. North Carolina to assert itself on the global stage, whether it’s foreign direct investment or education or in its business, it usually has some smart component to it, some sort of technology, some sort of patent that makes it unique and competitive
Paul: I have a question. Sorry to interrupt that, Derrick. This is both for you Shirreef and Audrey. What are some of the trends that you see in the future for our State when it comes to exports and continuing to leverage our image and our brand internationally to promote North Carolina products, services, and even foreign direct investment?
Shirreef : That’s a good question. Let’s speculate. Let’s speculate. We’re now post-COVID. That’s a game-changer. You have to understand, I would think somehow all of this is going to become more virtualized the way we approach things. From my personal experience, what I’ve seen as this virtual environment, and while it might not last forever, that it’s going to trend. I think it’s going to trend. What I’ve noticed in the virtual environment is I can be at home and making unique connections that are across silos.
It’s opened up the way we look at doing things the innovative way. I would say consortium approaches to promoting North Carolina products is something that I could see in the next couple of years where the District Export Council, the UNC school system, and the DEC get together to promote North Carolina as a destination for international students and doing that with say the Gulf region or Europe.
If we were to do North Carolina infrastructure industries and target say, Saudi Arabia, huge market where construction is taking place. We talk about North Carolina lumber. We talk about North Carolina, applied material sciences, ballistics, fire retardants. Non-competitive space, but promoting industries at the State-level, talking about it as a one-stop-shop for all your needs, that’s one thought.
Audrey: Thanks, Paul. That’s an excellent question. I think the COVID vaccine itself has already afforded North Carolina quite an impact when it comes to importing and exporting. As you know, the RTP area, there is a strong pharmaceutical presence. That being the case, I think moving forward with all the lessons learned, just that piece alone there will be a tremendous increase in activity as these pharmaceutical companies continue to try to produce and provide vaccines for, not only continue with COVID but all of those things are coming from vacs.
The remnants of COVID itself, other vaccines, and trying to be proactive in what may come in the future. Again, even if you are currently just in the domestic market, I truly believe that the global piece will be a part of your life regardless.
Derrick: Regarding Flowserve, maybe tell us a little bit more about that company. I know you told us a little bit. Tell us a little bit more and maybe you could expound on how your company goes about exporting or deals with exporting, any hurdles you may have faced.
Shirreef : Derrick before Audrey starts, she tends to be modest. Just let me get this thing going.
Derrick: Go ahead, yes.
Shirreef : Like she says, “Oh, we do valves,” she’s talking about nuclear valves that are couple of tons that you walk through. It’s an impressive factory tour. This is some serious, serious stuff that is highly regulated in every sense of the word. Let me start there and stop there.
[laughter]
Audrey: Well, thank you, Shirreef . That is quite accurate. The pumps and the valves of the seals that Flowserve manufacture, they are industrial and they are highly engineered. These are not items that you would ever find if you walked into a Lowe’s Home Improvement Center. You won’t find our valves on your kitchen sinks or anything of that nature. They do tend to be extremely large. The platforms that we serve are predominantly oil and gas. We also service chemicals as Shirreef noted, nuclear power, of course, geothermal power, water. We do a lot of agricultural work with water and desalination. Of course, we have the general industry, which is mining, and pulp and paper.
Those are the
industries that we service most and actually we have provided all of our products to Pfizer with the COVID-19 vaccine because, of course, they have to very quickly expand their operations. In doing so we did and are continuing to provide them with equipment and machinery in the form of [unintelligible 00:40:26] in order to help them increase that output which goes back to the question of export we can see where that is going. That’s not a temporary adjustment they’re making. They are making a hard footprint in their equipment in order to be able to mass-produce on a multiple level and in that I see that export coming.
Flowserve the way we are set up when it comes to trade and each of our facilities we will have one to four what we call trade compliance coordinators. Of course, that one to four varies depending on the size and those coordinators are my eyes and ears on the ground. They handle all of the import and export activities or not necessarily handle themselves, but oversee those activities at the site. Again, I call them boots on the ground because they are there they know exactly what’s going on. As we develop and implement our policies and procedures we rely on them to get those things implemented at the facilities and then that’s where I come in.
I work with that group of trade compliance coordinators and we try to— Well, we don’t try. We do a very good job. We have a very robust compliance team. Again, it is global with my region being in the Americas. Of course, we also have a manager in the APAC region. We have a manager in the EMEA region. We meet quarterly. Excuse me. We have regional meetings on a monthly basis but we meet with our TTCs on quarterly basis. Again, it’s very important to have people on the ground. Again, if you pull this back to the small business you have to have people that are in place that you allow time and energy to actually know what’s going on the international level.
Finally, they had a lot of companies want to [unintelligible 00:42:54]. They have a trade program but they don’t want to really implement a trade program and that’s the difference. That’s what I said a person that is in trade it can be difficult because you sometimes have to tell people, “No. You can’t do that.” Because they’ve done it that way for 25 years they don’t want to hear that. It takes a special person again back to something else. That’s what we want to get them when they’re younger and make sure that they know.
You can do this. This is not evil. Again the beauty in that is that these are not rules and regulations that we as the company [unintelligible 00:43:38] make up. These are rules and regulations that are written by the government. It is the law which is another reason why it’s impaired to that. The new exporter is very clear on what the rules are if they decide to play that game of global.
Derrick: Any memorable hurdles and how you overcame them or anything that you could talk of?
Audrey: Derrick, I have a hurdle every day. Paul will probably say the same. There are just so many to choose from. I will just pick one of the latest. I’ve been doing this since college. I’ve been with Flowserve for 25 years. I have a lot that I could pick from, but just recently talking about how the market changes I had to mitigate a $15,000 penalty with the government due to a very slight error on an AES filing. It doesn’t matter how big or how little it was, it was an error. Anyway, it was a win. I was able to mitigate it down to just $1000. That’s the type of thing that you run into daily when you’re exporting and again that’s why that or— With the support of commercial services we want to do everything we can to try those things from happening.
Derrick: Thank you. Paul, maybe the same question to you going to a little bit about how BASF handles exporting. I know you talked about them a little bit in the beginning. Any hurdles you face and how you overcame them?
Paul: Thank you, Derrick. A lot of people are familiar with BASF as that four-letter word company that you see and maybe on your VHS tapes. I’m going to have to remember VHS tapes but I still have a couple in around here somewhere. BASF we’re a huge chemical company with a global footprint. I think the motto is we just don’t make the things— I forget the motto. I think it goes something we make the things better. We just don’t make things. We make the things you already use better. All products on a lot different things from construction materials to— Sherri, if you mentioned diapers earlier, additives that go into resins, paints, textiles so the division I work in is Ag. It’s agriculture chemicals.
That means we oversee the manufacturing, the distribution in sales of herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides. Although I’m based here in North Carolina or North American headquarters are up in New Jersey in Florham Park. As you can imagine our trade compliance a lot of our larger decisions when it comes to trade compliance and regulatory sets in New Jersey as well as some our regulatory folks here in RTP. I say that being that our exports of Ag or of Ag products are centralized here in North Carolina in RTP [unintelligible 00:47:41] and a lot of those movements, all of those movements happen here. When I say chemicals we’re talking Ag chemicals in fungicides and herbicides.
Next time you go to your Big-box home improvement store take a look at that weed killer or those granule/bits that you sprinkle down to overdose ant hills in your front yard as we all ramp up to cut our grass soon. Take a look at and read the back of those— Read the label. That’s one thing that I’ve learned about working in the highly regulatory environment as chemicals. Read the label. I read the label on everything from ketchup to organic cheese. It’s important to read the label always. Next time even that box read the back of the label and it’s very likely that you’re going to have a BASF product in your hand.
We just don’t make package [unintelligible 00:48:42] that you see in Big-box Stores. We also sell them on larger scales in drums or even ISO tanks that are exported in large containers. All of our export movements are centralized here when it comes to Ag or centralized in RTP here in North Carolina, but our manufacturing sites are all over North America. We have BASF owned manufacturing sites in various different states. In North America is in various different states in the United States as well as in Puerto Rico. In addition to these manufacturing sites we also have some I guess we call them [unintelligible 00:49:29] but they’re contract manufacturers for other items.
When it comes to the movements of exports I don’t deal too much with the ins and outs of the regulatory and compliance and more so working between the business apps in the sales and performance side. I’m making sure that when the orders come in the orders are forecasted, the demands are forecasted correctly and supplies are aligned to make sure that we are meeting not just the production requirement, but also making sure that the items ultimately get shifts out and arrive in their perspective destinations on time.
As you can imagine working from a dozen or so different production sites and export sites internationally, within North America. As you can imagine, those supply chain movements within such a large area a lot can go wrong. There are a lot of hurdles that we’re jumping over constantly, especially in this COVID environment. That’s pretty much the export landscape, the day-to-day that I work in within BSF. I’m just going to stop there. I feel like I’m rambling at this point.
Derrick: That’s good though. That’s Perfect. I’ve held you all pretty long. Let me hit you with one last one. What pieces of advice would you each offer to a company either in the initial stage or thinking about going or developing an international strategy? Over to you first, Audrey.
Audrey: Yes, I would say it would be imperative that they reach out to urbanization like the debt for commercial services, again, because the services are free, but do as much research as possible because it’s a slippery slope. It really is, it can be extremely daunting to someone who’s not familiar with the ins and outs. In addition to those ins and outs, changing a lot on a daily basis. It’s really important that again you know what you’re doing, and just sometimes the cost of global trade. There are some things that I don’t care how good you are at doing it or making it work to Paul’s point, he mentioned earlier, there’s going to be some stuff this is just going to happen.
You must be prepared for that in particular being a smaller, mid-sized business, because $15,000, that’s a big hit for a small company. Again I would implore anyone that’s thinking about getting into the business to definitely take advantage of the services that we offer in just the research, get the information.
Shirreef : Yes, I’ll let go of that real quick, not to plug the commercial service, but look, you got to find somebody that is going to be looking out for your best interest whether you’re a sophisticated exporter or if you’re just getting started rules are constantly changing, regimes, political environments. You might always have a global portfolio, each market is constantly changing. Having a resource like DEC, the commercial service, like state commerce departments they’re there if nothing else to help you check off a due diligence box. Probably more than that something we don’t talk about in one of our metrics hold from harm scenarios.
We try to focus on positive impacts that have happened from the result of commercial service involvement, US Embassy involvement, but holding from harm is a very big deal. Part of our mission is to make sure you don’t get into a bad deal. It’s never a bad thing to engage resources that are there and if it proves to not be helpful fruitful, well, then at least you checked your due diligence box.
Audrey: To add to that we work with commercial services and the DEC, we work with other offices and departments that do the same thing that we’re all trying to do. There’s all this demonstration, it’s in bank. The economic development partnership, small business, and technology development. These are all avenues that can assist anyone that’s looking going into international trade.
Paul: That’s great that you brought that up, Audrey. I feel like there’s a phrase that we’re all familiar with. It’s, you don’t know what you don’t know, and you really need to just continue to ask questions. I feel like having those being involved in these organizations and just sitting back and listening, I feel like we can all even the meeting we had last week, I feel like we can being in an area where you can have an open forum ask questions, there’s no bad questions, there’s no silly questions. I feel like everything’s up for grabs because 9 times out of 10, someone else in that room has experienced that before and they’re just not comfortable asking it.
The resources that are available are super strong. When I worked at the economic development partnership. I’ve had wonderful conversations with individuals who go through our portfolio of services, as well as core key searches and other things underneath the US commercial services umbrella. I just see people’s jaw drop when I say, “All this is free,” or there’s an SBA subsidy behind it to take some of the financial burden off of you, if not all of it. I just really employ people, if you have the resources, just reach out to other exporters, you reach out to the DEC for sure and reach out to your local representative within your state, within your region just to learn about your resources.
Because 9 times out of 10, they’re going to have something that you haven’t utilized before that you can easily plug and play from the experienced savvy exporter to the exporter that hasn’t exported before, or has had that bad experience. I feel like you need to give it another shot, but we have resources that are available from Exim Bank to SBA to US commercial services, as well as the partnership here in North Carolina that can really add value to pretty much any company, regardless of your size. You just have to ask the right questions and be open with your time and your resources.
Derrick: Wonderful. I think there’s a lot of value in everything you all have imparted today. I feel like there was so much more we could do as well, though we’re obviously over an hour, mark, this is the longest I’ve ever been on, and it didn’t quite feel like that amount of time had passed. I do want to thank you for sharing your experience and expertise today. Also, I’d like to normally let people say how people can reach out to them. You could use your DEC or your company, whichever one. Audrey, would you tell us how people can reach you if they wanted to connect?
Audrey: Absolutely, I can be reached directly at agarret@slowserve.com, the DEC, of course, you can go online to the National Association of Export Council, and that will be at usaexporter.org and you can find your local DEC. Or again, you can contact me directly and I can get you in touch with whom you need to reach out there to locally.
Derrick: Perfect, Paul.
Paul: Thank you. My contact details at BASF are paul.wyatt@basf.com W-Y-A-T-T but I also encourage folks to find me on LinkedIn, reach out to me on LinkedIn. You can search by my name P-A-U-L W-Y-A-T-T Paul Wyatt and I’d love to connect as well as share my network and resources with you. I would encourage folks also to connect with me on LinkedIn, as well as reach out to me through my BASF email.
Derrick: Sounds good, Shirreef . I’ll give you the last word before we stop for today.
Shirreef : All right. Yes, just good luck Googling my name. Shirreef Losa.
[laughter]
If you say export.gov and my last name is Losa, that should get you there. I’m happy to talk if you just call my line directly, if you want to shoot me an email, hit me on Linkedin. Bottom line is my job is to help US organizations and communities get globally engaged. You’ve paid for it, through your taxes. Thank you very much. Please, use it. I’m happy to help. If you don’t find me in North Carolina, I’m going to have colleagues across the United States that are doing the same thing that I’m happy to connect you with, who are also then going to connect you with state resources, other federal resources that are going to be relevant to your immediate and or long term needs. Don’t be shy to just holler at any time.
Derrick: This podcast is intended to provide information that may be of assistance to US companies. Statements made by Export Nation podcast guests reflect the views and opinions of that individual. This podcast does not constitute an endorsement by the US Commercial Service of the individual, his or her employer, or affiliated entity. The specific information provided resources mentioned or products or services endorsed are offered by that individual and his or her employer or affiliated entity.
The US Commercial Service assumes no responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information provided by the guests or for the decisions made in reliance on any information provided by the guest in this podcast. The information provided in this podcast does not constitute legal advice. Thank you for listening to this episode of Export Nation brought to you by the US Commercial Service. For more information on how you can get started exporting please visit www.trade.gov.
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