The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (HR 644), signed into law on February 24, 2016, made the State Trade Expansion Program a permanent provision of the Small Business Act to make grants to States, and the equivalent thereof, to carry out projects that help develop exports by eligible
credit:
small business concerns (ESBCs).
The objective of STEP is to increase the number of US small businesses that export, to increase the dollar value of exports, and new export opportunities.