The U.S. Suppliers List (USL) is designed to help small to medium sized U.S. exporters make contact with export agents, trading companies, importers and foreign buyers and create an opportunity to sell their products in overseas markets. The 1999 survey results for the USL program shows that, of the 2800 companies surveyed who use the program, over 2000 companies (70%) had fewer than 100 employees and accounted for 60 percent of the export sales attributed to the program, as shown on the chart. The service offers these smaller exporters, at no cost, the ability to put basic information about their company and products on a USDA-maintained database that is accessed by over 17,000 foreign companies worldwide.

The U.S. Supplier List is a searchable database containing U.S. firms, who are considered as export ready, which is used by USDA/FAS to specifically facilitate connecting potential buyers with U.S. suppliers. It contains over 500 product categories for companies to select from to include in their listing. The database is primarily used by more than 85 USDA/FAS Overseas and Washington offices and is used to respond to inquiries from export agents, trading companies, importers and foreign buyers to locate U.S. suppliers. And, it is used to recruit U.S. exporters to participate in market development activities sponsored by USDA and federal export programs.