The US secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross presented R&M International, a textiles company, with the President’s ‘E’ Award for Exports recently in Washington, D.C. Ross honoured a select group of US companies with the Presidential Award, the highest recognition any US entity can receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of US exports. R&M’s business is based on helping primary producers of raw materials in the textiles and plastics arena dispose of over production, substandard, or waste materials. These materials are then either traded, repurposed, or recycled into new market opportunities. Although close to 90 per cent of R&M’s suppliers are domestic, 79 per cent of its sales are to export markets, according to a press release by the company. “The President’s ‘E’ Award for Export is a great recognition of a long history of working very hard in developing export markets for raw materials in textiles and plastics. It speaks to the importance we place on logistics, efficiency, and excellence. Foreign buyers want quality products from the US and we are honoured to receive the ‘E’ Award,” Stephen Rawson, partner at R&M said. In 2018, US exports were the highest on record with US services at $821.1 billion and US exports of goods reaching $1.7 trillion, demonstrating how American private enterprise can not only survive, but thrive, in the international market. American companies are nominated for ‘E’ Awards through the US and foreign commercial service office network, located within the US department of commerce’s international trade administration. Record years of successive export growth and an applicant’s demonstration of an innovative international marketing plan that led to the increase in exports is a significant factor in selecting the overall winners. “R&M has demonstrated a sustained commitment to export expansion. The ‘E’ Awards Committee was very impressed with R&M’s near doubling of export sales over the past four years. I was impressed with your company’s more than 40-year history of exporting. R&M’s achievements have undoubtedly contributed to national export expansion efforts that support the US economy and create American jobs,” Ross said.
