March 26, 2024
This is a summary article of the Utah Business Magazine. You can read the full article here.
Utah Business magazine featured five countries emerging as the primary vanguards for companies keen on expanding into new markets.
South Korea
“We’re seeing tremendous interest in South Korea,” said Jonathan Freedman, president and CEO of World Trade Center Utah (WTC Utah). “There are a lot of synergies there.”
One of these “synergies” is a nonstop flight being established by Delta Airlines from Salt Lake City to Incheon. This direct flight will provide a convenient link between Utah business owners and potential Korean patrons, and a direct link to the home of the University of Utah Asia Campus. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox will visit the campus as part of a trade mission to South Korea later this year.
This upcoming trade mission is highly anticipated to open up the country as a lucrative market for Utah business owners. “It will establish a great corridor for us,” Freedman said.
Mexico
“This is a market where, as a state, we’ve been able to put our money where our mouth is,” said Charlotte Serage, manager of trade missions and shows for WTC Utah. Over the last year, Gov. Cox has been involved in the creation of the Joint Utah Mexico Partnership initiative (JUMP), which Serage describes as “an informal, bilateral agreement between the state of Utah at a sub-nation level and the state of Mexico at a national level.”
In February, figures released by the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that Mexico has officially overtaken China as the leading source of goods imported to the United States for the first time since 2002. “Mexico has everything to gain from replacing China as the U.S. manufacturing hub,” said Jonathan Bench, international business attorney at Harris Sliwoski LLP.” As manufacturing grows, the middle class and purchasing power grows, which benefits U.S. companies that want to settle in Mexico.”
India
India recently replaced China as the most populous country in the world. And if you’re a business looking to sell goods, Bench said that population matters.
Purchasing power comes down to the number of people in a particular nation and the number of people in a specific nation’s middle class. In the developing country of India, this middle class has been growing.
The United Kingdom
In a post-Brexit world, difficulties with European Union trading have motivated the United Kingdom to sign Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with other countries. In June of 2023, they entered into one with the state of Utah, making the U.K. a promising market for Utah business owners.
“They have not been able to sign formal trade agreements with the U.S., so they’ve resorted to signing MOUs with states because they can make progress in the meantime while they work on bigger agreements with the U.S.,” said David Carlebach, COO at WTC Utah.
Canada
“Canada is a really important export market for the United States as a whole,” said Nicole Earnshaw, manager of international programs at WTC Utah. “The dollar amount of trade going back and forth between the U.S. and Canada each day is staggering. Canadians spend something like 60% of their disposable income on U.S. goods and services.”
WTC Utah’s upcoming trade mission to Canada is scheduled for spring 2024.