As we discussed in our 2002 report, TPCC member agencies perform functions that include identifying export opportunities, providing financing and insurance, and working to create open markets for U.S. exports and investments. Chaired by the Secretary of Commerce, the TPCC currently has a staff of three Commerce trade professionals who work with other member agency officials on trade promotion initiatives and prepare the national export strategy. The TPCC generally meets once or twice a year at the head-of-agency level and quarterly or monthly at the deputy level (e.g., assistant secretary or under secretary); TPCC member agency staff discuss issues frequently but meet on an ad hoc basis. The TPCC’s national export strategies include a table showing member agencies’ budget authority for trade promotion activities. Since 2000, this table has included all or part of the budgets of 11 of the TPCC’s member agencies—the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Labor, State, and the Treasury; Ex-Im Bank; OPIC; SBA; the U.S. Trade and Development Agency; and the U.S. Trade Representative. Although the TPCC, together with the agencies, determines which agencies’ budgets are included in this table, the agencies themselves decide which of their programs or activities constitute trade promotion. However, the tables present only the total trade promotion budget authority for each agency without detailing the programs and activities. The Department of Agriculture counts nine programs as trade promotion, along with salaries and expenses for its Foreign Agricultural Service. The Commerce Department counts three units within its International Trade Administration—Trade Promotion and U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, Manufacturing and Services, and Market Access and Compliance—and a grant for promoting foreign tourism within the United States. The State Department considers a portion of its budget to be related to trade promotion. This portion includes part of State’s budgets for its regional bureaus, some of which have overseas staff in locations with no Foreign Commercial Service officers. It also includes State’s budget for trade capacity building, advocacy, and promotion activities performed by, or funded through, department offices such as the Office of Commercial and Business Affairs. The national export strategies’ trade promotion program budget authority tables also include the entire budgets of Ex-Im Bank, OPIC, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and the U.S. Trade Representative as well as very small amounts of the budgets of the Departments of Energy, Labor, and the Treasury and SBA. To help agencies address barriers to working collaboratively, GAO has previously evaluated efforts such as export promotion that cut across more than one agency. In an October 2005 review of several joint agency efforts that was intended to help agencies address barriers to working collaboratively, we identified eight key practices that can help enhance and sustain interagency collaboration: Define and articulate a common outcome—that is, a measurable goal. Establish mutually reinforcing or joint strategies. Identify and address needs by leveraging resources. Agree on roles and responsibilities. Establish compatible policies, procedures, and other means to operate across agency boundaries. Develop mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and report on results. Reinforce agency accountability for collaborative efforts through agency plans and reports. Reinforce individual accountability for collaborative efforts through performance management systems. GAO reported on the need for an export strategy before the creation of the TPCC: in 1992, we found significant problems associated with inefficiency, overlap, and duplication of U.S. trade promotion efforts. Since its inception, we have reviewed the TPCC’s progress in coordinating trade promotion several times. For example, in 1994, we recommended that the TPCC should establish priorities with a well-reasoned and strong analytical basis, and in 1996, we commented that the TPCC lacked measures of value added by export services and that this limited its ability to contribute to the budget process. We made similar comments in 1998 and 2002. In our 2002 report, we recommended that the Chairman of the TPCC ensure that its national export strategies consistently identify specific goals established by the agencies within the strategies’ broad priorities; identify allocation of agencies’ resources in support of their specific goals; and analyze the progress made in addressing the recommendations in the TPCC’s prior annual strategies. Since 2002, the budget authority for trade promotion reported in the national export strategies has fallen or remained relatively unchanged at TPCC member agencies, but the implication of these trends for agencies’ trade promotion activities is not clear. The total reported budget authority for trade promotion fell by more than one-third between fiscal years 2002 and 2007, primarily owing to decreased authority for Agriculture and Ex- Im Bank. At the same time, the trade promotion budget authority for other key TPCC agencies remained relatively flat. (See fig. 1.) The four agencies named in figure 1 account for more than 90 percent of TPCC member agencies’ combined budget authority related to trade promotion, which ranged from $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2002 to $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2006 (enacted) and $1.3 (requested) in fiscal year 2007. The Agriculture Department has consistently held the largest share, more than 40 percent over the last 4 years. During this period, Agriculture’s share dropped from a high of 63 percent to 44 percent in fiscal year 2007 as funding was reduced or eliminated in three program areas: export credit guarantee programs, Public Law 480 Title I food assistance, and the Market Access Program. The budget authorities related to trade promotion at the Departments of Commerce and State, while remaining relatively steady in dollar terms, rose from 15 to 27 percent and 6 to 15 percent of the total, respectively. Ex-Im Bank’s share of the total dropped sharply, from 38 percent in fiscal year 2002 to 4 percent in fiscal year 2004, and has remained at less than 10 percent since then. It is difficult to determine the effect of these budgetary trends on the availability of trade promotion resources. For example: Although Commerce’s trade promotion budget authority has not changed significantly, its trade promotion activities may nonetheless be affected by increases in related costs. According to Commerce officials, the Commerce budget data includes budget authority for security at overseas offices. The officials provided us with information showing that security costs for these offices have risen by 8 percent since fiscal year 2005, leaving fewer resources available for trade promotion activities. The decline in Ex-Im Bank’s budget authority, shown in figure 1, did not reduce its ability to provide export financing. OMB changed its method for determining expected loss rates for U.S. international credits, which took effect after fiscal year 2002 and contributed to lower Ex-Im Bank projections of subsidy costs and budget needs. Also, Ex-Im Bank had accumulated carryovers from prior years, which resulted in its requesting zero program appropriations beyond administrative expenses in fiscal year 2004 and program appropriations of less than $100 million in fiscal years 2005-2007. In addition, reasons for the national export strategies’ inclusion or exclusion of agencies’ budget authority as related to trade promotion are not always apparent. For example, until fiscal year 2007, Agriculture’s trade promotion budget authority reported in the strategies included Public Law 480 Title I food assistance, although the primary objective of this program is to assist developing countries in obtaining needed resources, rather than promoting trade. Similarly, since 2000, the strategies have excluded the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from the program budget authority table, stating that the agency’s activities “support trade promotion indirectly through broad economic growth and reform, unlike other activities that more directly fund trade finance or promotion.” However, the 2002 national export strategy included USAID in a letter from 10 key TPCC agencies and portions of the 2002, 2003, and 2004 strategies were devoted to a possible joint USAID– Ex-Im Bank program to support capital projects in developing countries. In addition, the strategies’ budget tables include agencies such as the U.S. Trade Representative, Treasury, and Labor, which do not directly fund trade promotion activities. Coordination among TPCC agencies has improved, although there is still room for improvement. However, the national export strategies continue to provide little information on which to base future efforts to establish consistent, shared, measurable goals and align resources in agencies’ export promotion programs to focus on results. TPCC’s member agencies have pursued a number of efforts to improve coordination of trade promotion activities, responding to recommendations in its 2002 national export strategy. These recommendations resulted from a 2001-2002 survey of more than 3,000 small businesses and other research commissioned by the secretariat. According to agency officials, these efforts included several successful initiatives such as joint training and other activities that leverage resources from other TPCC agencies. For example: Interagency training. Since 2003, the TPCC has sponsored three annual interagency training sessions, attended by a total of 297 people. The sessions have included participants and presenters from a variety of member agencies, including Agriculture, Commerce, Ex-Im Bank, OPIC, SBA, State, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and USAID, and according to agency officials have fostered greater cooperation through the sharing of information. In one instance, a State Department official recounted how a training session led by a colleague resulted in collaboration between Commerce and State that (1) improved service to companies seeking U.S. visas for their foreign partners and (2) produced a list of State Foreign Service contacts who could assist exporters in important markets such as Africa, where many countries have no Foreign Commercial Service presence. Joint outreach. Ex-Im Bank and OPIC have partnered with SBA to improve outreach and service to small- and medium-sized businesses. In May 2002, Ex-Im Bank and SBA signed a memorandum of cooperation to increase small businesses’ awareness and use of each agency’s financing products, and the agencies share the same application form for their respective products.