Export Promotion

Renewable energy technologies generate electricity or heat through the use of renewable resources, such as sunlight, wind, underground steam and heat, and hydropower. Congress created the Committee on Renewable Energy, Commerce and Trade in 1984 to gather and disseminate information to U.S. manufacturers of renewable energy technologies on potential overseas business opportunities; organize trade missions, fairs, and conferences; and coordinate export assistance programs. This report (1) discusses what activities the committee has undertaken to increase U.S. exports of these technologies; (2) describes guidelines recommended by the committee for financing such exports, including simplifying the application process for seeking export assistance; (3) provides information on how the committee suggested specific markets in the Caribbean and Pacific and its identification of future export markets; and (4) discusses how the committee followed through on trade opportunities in certain countries.

GAO found that CORECT: (1) has carried out such key export promotion activities as identifying major export barriers and commissioning numerous studies on energy policy and technologies, market conditions, and export assistance; (2) has recommended and is beginning to implement guidelines for financing exports and is attempting to get federal, international, and private organizations to contribute funds for training, trade promotion events, technical studies, and other activities; (3) is developing new financing mechanisms for the Pacific Rim and other selected markets; (4) lacks the export information necessary to assess its progress or track exports associated with its activities; (5) streamlined its assistance application form for renewable energy companies; and (6) identified four Caribbean Basin countries and two Pacific Rim countries as potential markets for exports and plans to focus on Eastern Europe and Mexico as future markets. GAO also found that: (1) factors affecting CORECT effectiveness include its lack of influence over member agencies' activities and the fact that foreign companies that receive government subsidies are competing with the U.S. industry; and (2) since the creation of CORECT, the President has formed the interagency Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC), which is mandated to do for all industries what CORECT is attempting to do for the renewable energy technology industry.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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