Within the next few weeks, the U.S. Department of Commerce, in partnership with IBM, is scheduled to launch a new business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplace to help U.S. sellers hook up with foreign buyers.

Within the next few weeks, the U.S. Department of Commerce, in partnership with IBM, is scheduled to launch a new business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplace to help U.S. sellers hook up with foreign buyers. Dubbed BuyUSA.com, the new marketplace will particularly help small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) find international buyers and distributors for their products, and will allow businesses outside the U.S. to view product catalogs and background information on U.S. companies. BuyUSA spokesperson Phyllis Bingham said Wednesday that portions of the site are currently live and that "more and more" features are added every day. The government's foray into B2B would appear to put the U.S. in direct competition with private industry. However, Gibs said that the initiative is simply a new way of doing what the Department of Commerce's Commercial Services branch has been doing for years.