Export Bureau Opens a Branch in Newport Beach

MacroTest Inc. had a customer in Italy who needed testing equipment quick.

Getting the required export license from the U.S. Bureau of Export Administration in Washington would have taken at least two weeks, which could have cost MacroTest its $690,000 order.

The Irvine-based electronics firm was saved when it went to the bureau’s Western regional office, told its urgent tale and got the license in three days. Although the office opened its doors officially on Monday, MacroTest approached officials for help last week.

“They were still unloading boxes, but they knew what our needs were and they went to work for us,” said Jerry Hudspeth, president of Technology Marketing Inc., which operates MacroTest.

California firms, which lead the nation in exports, have needed quick attention from the export licensing bureau for years. But it wasn’t until Monday that the bureau expanded beyond Washington with its official opening of a Western regional office in Newport Beach.

Now Automated

The office will serve California and nine other Western states, which last year accounted for 55% of all licensed export business. California alone had $36 billion in licensed exports last year, or 46% of the total value of U.S. technology products licensed.

“This office will cost the government $600,000 per year. The revenue it will generate will cover that many times over,” said Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), who addressed a crowd of several hundred exporters who turned out for Monday’s opening.

Cranston and other lawmakers have pushed for a California office for several years. But opening an office was slowed because the export bureau’s Washington offices were way behind the times, and an expansion would only have added delay to the operation, according to Paul Freedenberg, Commerce Department under secretary for export administration.

A massive reorganization has brought the bureau up to date, and early this year the Washington operation, which has a $40-million annual budget, became automated.

No longer are export licenses and inquiries handled by extensive paper work being passed back and forth among exporters and the license bureau. Now that the operation is automated, the bureau’s Washington and Newport Beach offices are linked by computer, and even businesses that do a lot of exporting can hook up with the system.

“It’s made us where we need to be,” Freedenberg said. He added that the reorganization has reduced the average license application processing time to 14 days from 62 days over the past three years.

Even with improved service in Washington, West Coast firms still were at a disadvantage until Monday, partly because of the distance that prohibits face-to-face contact. And also because of a three-hour time zone difference, which requires exporters in the West to take care of their business by early afternoon.

“So often their phones in Washington are busy or they’re at lunch when we get in our offices,” said Paul Mosmans, a contract administrator for Excellon Automation, an electronics firm in Torrance.

In addition to being convenient, Freedenberg said the new office will be staffed with managers who are aware of the needs of California’s many high technology firms that are new to exporting.

“Usually we have to worry about losing out if we can’t get our product to another country on time,” Macrotest’s Hudspeth said. “If this is what we can expect, I can’t wait to do more business.”