Grants under the Trade Adjustment Assistance programs give manufacturers with heavy foreign competition a chance to rebound by matching $75,000 for business improvement. Companies can then use the money for noncapital expenses, such as consulting on lean manufacturing processes, quality improvements, sales lead generation, marketing and market analysis.

"These are all things that companies have to do, but they're difficult if you don't have two nickels to rub together," said Brad Kreidler, a professional business adviser with York-based manufacturing resource center Mantec Inc.

That's where the grants come into play because manufacturers have to demonstrate they've faced reduced sales, layoffs and general financial hardship to receive them, Kreidler said. The standards for those guidelines have been relaxed slightly to better reflect the economic reality of the recession's severity and the slow return to normalcy, he said.

In the past, business decline over the previous two years was used for calculating eligibility, said Doug Keith, an accounting specialist for Mantec. Congress relaxed the guideline to four years because although business is rebounding, it's nowhere near pre-recession levels, he said.

"That's probably the biggest change in terms of having more companies qualify," Keith said.

Central Pennsylvania manufacturers have seen how the grants help refine their business.

York County-based American Products Inc., a maker of electronic control panels for products ranging from air-conditioning units to construction equipment, received a trade assistance grant in 2010.

"There's a lot of programs out there that are a waste of taxpayer money, but this isn't one of them," President Jack Eltringham said.

The company invested $75,000 of its own money to match the grant and used it to buy an enterprise resource planning system, or ERP, which coordinates accounting, purchasing, shipping and product coding to streamline its business processes. It also hired consultants through Mantec to help transition to lean manufacturing processes.

"They drew the spaghetti lines of where everything was going through the shop floor," Eltringham said, "and we were wasting a tremendous amount of time."

The company's older ERP system and inefficient factory workflows wasted time and money, he said.

In 2009, American Products lost about 35 percent of its business, Eltringham said. Even though some has returned, the recession's bite lingered into 2011, he said. The company closed its Athens, Ga., facility this year, laying off eight people and moving most of the work back to its headquarters in Manchester Township. That prevented production layoffs in the midstate, he said.

"With the help of the (trade adjustment) grant we're coming out of that," Eltringham said. "We're starting to see an increase (in business) now."

American Products hasn't regained all its lost ground. But the biggest improvement was on-time delivery to customers, which jumped from a low of 80 percent to 97 percent, he said.

The last time Congress relaxed eligibility in 2009, grant inquiries more than tripled to about 350 a year in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., said Bill Bujalos, director of the Mid-Atlantic Trade Adjustment Assistance Center in Montgomery County. The center is a government-funded nonprofit that helps administer U.S. Department of Commerce trade adjustment aid to companies.

Free-trade agreements reduce barriers and promote worldwide commerce, but they also leave small companies at a disadvantage to inexpensive foreign competition, Bujalos said. As sales decline, companies drop prices, which cuts into operating revenue, he said. Sooner or later, they run out of steam, he said.

It can take more than a year for companies to see adverse effects after free-trade agreements are approved, Bujalos said. The impact of the recently signed Colombia, Panama and South Korea trade deals may not be known for some time, he said.

"That's the sneaky part," Bujalos said. "Small companies will be chugging along fine and then all of a sudden the revenue will just drop out."

In bad economies, price becomes the sole factor for purchasing, which puts American companies at a greater disadvantage, creating a perfect storm alongside trade deals, he said.

Companies can get back on the right track, but they need to use available resources, such as federal grant programs, Keith said. Mantec helped 18 companies with about $1 million in grants this year, he said. The group hopes to do more in 2012, he said.

Tough economies can be a new beginning, Eltringham said.

"It's the opportune time to retool and rebuild," he said. "When you're intensely busy it's difficult to do that. But when it's slow, you have the time."