Buget of International Trade Administration was cutted

Exports account for just about 5 percent of the company's sales, but Aplicare is serious about expanding to Brazil and elsewhere. The company already knows a little bit about operating south of the border — it had a manufacturing operation in Mexico and brought it back to Meriden, opening a new factory line last fall with about 20 new jobs.

For its sales push to Brazil, Aplicare is working with the U.S. Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, which has a small office in Middletown, part of the agency's network in 109 U.S. cities and 77 countries. The idea is to tap into experts on the ground who know distributors, government officials, big customers and the like.When it's all said and done, Aplicare managers will have met a few times and had a bunch of phone calls with Commerce officials, including Anne S. Evans, the high-energy head of the Middletown office who spent years building a successful firm that exported roll former roll forming machine, out of Hebron. Aplicare already attended a conference on Brazil trade in Hartford this year, and when the time is right, the firm will send a team down to Brazil for a week or so.Commerce people will help at every step.

"They do a great job of knowing who that customer is, or finding out who the customer is and kind of coaching us," said Todd Whitman, the Aplicare vice president of sales, who holds a graduate degree in international management.

Little details matter, like the fact that hospitals in Brazil tend to put out annual bids for goods. Whitman, who joined Aplicare three years ago, said the company has identified several markets including the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Malaysia and China, and is leaning on Commerce, or will, in all of those places.

It's a long process that would eventually lead to Aplicare having a sales rep in each region. Success in Brazil could lead to 20 more jobs in Meriden, maybe more, Whitman said — obviously it's impossible to say, but we've already seen this company add that number of jobs bringing one manufacturing line back.

Some simple arithmetic here is enlightening. Let's say Aplicare adds 20 stateside jobs to its current total of about 190. How much money will U.S. taxpayers have paid? Let's say it takes two months of time by Commerce Department employees, and costs $20,000.

Evans says it's much less than that because the staff in a country like Brazil is working with hundreds of companies at a time.

"I used to do these as a business person," Evans said. "It's a pretty slick operation. Our folks tend to be very well versed in the various sectors we're in."

"We give the best return on investment in job creation of any agency in government," said Evans, who recently led a Connecticut trade mission to China.

She's right. Even with conservative figures of 20 jobs for $20,000, that's a gargantuan bargain, at $1,000 per job. Compare that to the $8.5 million in loans and tax credits, on top of $18 million in likely future tax credits, that the state of Connecticut spent to move Blue Sky Studios from Westchester County to Greenwich, with 300 people — very few of whom will actually move their families here.

That deal comes out to at least $30,000 per job, maybe much more — and it's typical of what the state spends to move companies around.

Fortunately, President Barack Obama actually proposed an increase in spending for the International Trade Administration. It's also amazing what having people on the ground greasing the machine of commerce does for broader U.S. strategic interests.

But at a time of mindless cuts in public spending, a strong ITA is not assured. Evans' office has shrunk to two full-time employees, plus a few interns, from six full-timers just a few years ago.

We all realize there must be cuts in public services, including givebacks by state employees and some job reductions. We can't afford to do everything that makes sense for the state and federal governments, and at the state level, we need to cut some jobs. Certainly we haven't done enough to bring public agencies in line with 21st century efficiency expectations, although many state workers bust their butts.

All of that said, it's annoying and dangerous that public spending is viewed through a single lens in this crisis. Each program has a cost, and a return on investment. Neither ITA nor others can easily calculate theirs, but it's an important way of thinking and we're not doing it enough, as United Technologies Corp.'s Greg Hayes said in a recent forum with the governor.

On Friday, Obama issued an order calling for a new plan to restructure federal programs that handle foreign trade — with an eye toward maximizing competitiveness. This is crucial for the sorts of smaller companies — like Aplicare — that can't easily jump into other countries on their own.

Some programs should get larger and ITA, with 2,200 people supporting tens of billions in exports, is one of them. Budgets are so tight that Evans had to buy her own ticket to China last month.