Israel Hernandez, director general of the U.S. Commercial Service, admits that it’s hard to convince the public of the value of free trade. “It takes 30 seconds to scare someone about trade, but it takes 30 minutes to explain the benefits,” he said at the annual National District Export Council Conference last month.

Referring to criticisms that free trade is responsible for millions of lost jobs, Hernandez said most job losses have resulted from increased productivity by U.S. manufacturers.

Hernandez said the question he gets asked most often when he travels around the world is “Where are the U.S. companies?” That’s because many U.S. companies are complacent about exporting and make little or no effort to sell their products in foreign markets.

The Commercial Service, the Commerce Department’s export arm, seeks to help them. Its primary mission is to help small and medium-sized companies that are either new to exporting or seek to enter foreign markets that are new to them.

The Commercial Service has staff members at 107 Export Assistance Centers it operates around the United States and at its network of nearly 80 commercial offices at U.S. embassies and consulates overseas.

District Export Councils are composed of private-sector volunteers who work in conjunction with the Export Assistance Centers.

Meanwhile, the Commercial Service is stepping up its efforts to help small and midsize companies find credit to finance their exports, he said.

“We’re reaching out to our sister agencies to see how we can help,” Hernandez said, referring to the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Hernandez noted that the credit crisis is affecting supply chains. If one party in the supply chain runs into financial difficulties, it affects everyone, he said.

Diane Farrell, a director of the Ex-Im Bank, said collaborative plans to help exporters overcome the credit crunch are still in development.