International Trade Administration (ITA)

The Textiles, Consumer Goods, and Materials (TCGM) strives to advance the global competitiveness of our assigned industries through the development and execution of international trade and investment policies and promotion strategies. TCGM is comprised of four industry offices; the Office of Consumer Goods, the Office of Textiles 

SelectUSA is the U.S. government program led by the U.S. Department of Commerce that focuses on facilitating job-creating business investment into the United States and raising awareness of the critical role that economic development plays in the U.S. economy. Since its inception, SelectUSA has facilitated more than $200 billion in investment, creating and/or retaining over 200,000 U.S. jobs. 

The Advocacy Center can help exporters of U.S. goods and services compete for and win foreign government procurements. Assistance is available to U.S. businesses across industry for projects ranging from small contracts to large multi-year efforts. Each year, trillions of dollars in foreign government procurement opportunities are put out for competitive bidding.

The Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations program enforces the U.S. trade laws by conducting investigations, administrative reviews, new shipper reviews, sunset reviews, changed circumstances reviews, and scope and anticircumvention inquiries. The program also assists in the defense of determinations made by the Enforcement and Compliance office in U.S. courts, the World Trade Organization, and in North American Free Trade Agreement dispute settlement panels, according to program officials. The program conducts investigations in response to U.S. industry petitions alleging that imports are being dumped or unfairly subsidized and that those imports are materially injuring, or threatening material injury to, competing U.S. industry. 

Whether you are new to exporting or expanding to new markets, the U.S. Commercial Service (CS), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, offers companies a full range of expertise in international trade. Companies can find assistance locally in more than 100 U.S. Commercial Service offices nationwide and in more than 70 international offices.

Foreign-trade zones are designated sites licensed by the Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) Board (Commerce Secretary is Chairperson) at which special customs procedures may be used. These procedures allow domestic activity involving foreign items to take place prior to formal customs entry. Duty-free treatment is accorded to items that are re-exported, and duty payment is deferred on items sold in the U.S. market, thus offsetting customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with producers located in the United States. Subzones/usage-driven sites are approved for a specific company/use. A site that has been granted zone status may not be used for zone activity until the site, or a section thereof has been separately approved for FTZ activation by local U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials and the zone activity remains under the supervision of CBP. FTZ sites and facilities remain within the jurisdiction of local, state, or federal governments or agencies.