International Trade committee  Yes, if there were financial resources, we probably could have put them towards that. We couldn't find anyone who could help us get the more specific detail.

International Trade committee  Yes, that would have been helpful. If there were a government resource that had regulatory standards for the Japanese products already in existence that you could find, that would be great, but none of the organizations that we could reach or find had those.

International Trade committee  Right. The official paperwork is not as important to me as the resources that are going to come along with it in terms of making sure there is access to that information. Even if you're looking at finding a consultant or someone in the market, you still need someone who's got practical experience exporting in that market so that you're assured of getting credible information and credible resources as well.

International Trade committee  They were our top individual customer, and it was about 25% of our business that came essentially out of nowhere. As I said, they were in the testing phase of their market. Then, because we're in the process of reformulating, we're in a holding pattern until we present the new formula, because now they estimate it will take a full year to do the testing on the new formula before it will be approved.

International Trade committee  It was probably 25% of our business.

International Trade committee  I've been there.

International Trade committee  Dragons' Den works as a reference as well.

International Trade committee  It's not about how to relate to the other companies. I can get all the advice I might need by flying to Houston to the International Quilt Market, which happens to be a $34 billion industry—yes, quilting—so the president of Olympus Japan can come with his entire team for a meeting, because it's closer than getting to Japan, although I also will go next week, if you have space.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. There were periods of time when I spent months doing nothing but answer questions for my Japanese distributor every day. Now I work late for our Australian distributor. It's easier to just work from seven until midnight than it is to wake up in the morning to 25 more questions.

International Trade committee  I would say it would be to learn as much as you can about where you would find the regulatory variations between what's happening domestically and what's happening in the Japanese market, so that you'll know where to send companies, when they want to go into that market. There's a lot of business to be had for companies that don't have offices in Japan already, so it would be finding out where there are experts who are working there whom we can team up with and work with to get the resources we need.

International Trade committee  To me what matters is what resources come along with signing the agreement. If the agreement comes with a commitment to support businesses as they build their business abroad, then the sooner the better. If it's an agreement that doesn't come with resources for small businesses or resources for business development or resources for building relationships and for building regulatory resources and research resources, then I'd prefer the resources in the bill.

International Trade committee  Yes, most people don't have offices there. It's resources. It's experts who are local, experts in the domestic market who have had experience trading in the Japanese market. Yesterday, I spoke to a colleague who is a skin care consultant in the U.K. and a manufacturer who can point me in the direction of plants and facilities there through my network.

International Trade committee  It needs to be during the development stage. It's one thing if you tell your distributor to just figure it out and do the testing and come back. Further to that, we need education for businesses that are looking at entering the Japanese market so that people don't hear what is published, which is that they value high quality, good standards, trust, and we have those same values so let's export to Japan.

International Trade committee  Right, and it's not representing the country, in whole, as business people. It's resources here on the ground in the marketplace.

International Trade committee  Yes. We require our distributors to manage the tariffs and import duties related to our products, so I would say it's a non-tariff barrier. Much like what is happening according to my limited knowledge on the markup on pork, they're marking up our product to cover all the tariffs and duties in Japan.