Overview

Welcome to the second edition of the Trade Finance Guide: A Quick Reference for U.S. Exporters. This guide is designed to help U.S. companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), learn the basic fundamentals of trade finance so that they can turn their export opportunities into actual sales and achieve the ultimate goal of getting paid-especially on time-for those sales. This guide provides general information about common techniques of export financing. Accordingly, you are advised to assess each technique in light of specific situations or needs. This edition includes a new chapter on foreign exchange risk management. The Trade Finance Guide will be revised and updated as needed. Future editions may include new chapters that discuss other trade finance techniques and related topics.