June 2005
Printable version

In the world’s increasingly competitive export markets, determining which opportunities to focus on can be a challenge. Tariff and non-tariff barriers, along with other cost components such as transportation and currency exchange rates, have a great bearing on the sustainability or viability of U.S. agricultural exports in many regions worldwide.

The GEMS welcome page and main menu

SUSTA (the Southern U.S. Trade Association) has developed software that helps exporters and program administrators evaluate export opportunities in a few simple steps. The new software, called GEMS (the Global Export Market System), provides:

• vital trade statistics
• transport cost indications for shipping your specific product
• indications of the import tariffs facing you and your foreign competition
• foreign exchange rates to help you calculate costs in any currency

With GEMS, U.S. exporters, planners and program administrators can obtain quickly and easily product-specific information down to a 10-digit HS code level for many food and agricultural products, as well as trade data at the global national, regional and state level.

A sample GEMS results screen showing U.S. fish and seafood exports to Great Britain

With over 500,000 result screens, GEMS helps answer such questions as:

• Where is the largest market for my specific product?
• Who are my competitors in that country?
• What is the approximate cost to ship my product?
• What are the approximate tariffs that my competitors or I would have to pay?

Using GEMS is a simple four-step process.

Users select search criteria from drop-down menus. A particularly helpful feature of the system allows the user to change any selected search criteria (for example, the market) without having to start the search process over from the beginning–useful if you need to do lots of related searches.

GEMS was designed by SUSTA specifically for the departments of agriculture and qualified U.S. food and agriculture suppliers in its region that are exporting or are interested in exporting. The SUSTA region consists of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico.

SUSTA’s GEMS may be used only by governments and businesses in the SUSTA region. However, the basic software could be adapted for other users and their needs. For more information about GEMS, please contact SUSTA.