By World Trade Center Utah

Korea is the United States' seventh largest trading partner. Opportunities abound in a number of sectors. U.S. exports to Korea are expected to increase by 50 percent if the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement is implemented. Join us July 22 from 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. at the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and learn from the experts about doing business in Korea, why a Free Trade Agreement with Korea is important and the status of the current FTA. You'll also learn how the Commercial Service can help you do business in Korea.

By World Trade Center Utah

Peruvian Consul General Guido Loayza visited Utah Friday, where he addressed business leaders at the Salt Lake Chamber offices. Loayza stressed that the economic bonds between Utah and Peru can grow stronger, especially when the free-trade agreement between the United States and Peru is implemented.

A two-man office in Sandy City holds the keys to doing business in more than 82 countries. The only problem is many Utah businesses have never even heard of the local branch of the U.S. Export Assistance Center.

“A lot of Utah companies don’t even know that we exist. A lot of work is just exposure -- letting companies know we’re here and what we do and offering them the resources we have at our fingertips,” says Andrew Edlefsen, international trade specialist at Utah’s Export Assistance Center.

Each year, more than 500 international students graduate from the University of Utah and take their years of education out into the workforce, and in many cases, back to their home countries.

With students hailing from more than 130 countries, the U.’s international student population takes their U. of U. experience and connections back to cities and towns around the world.

Only a year into the city-state partnership between Salt Lake Community College and the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the relationship is already benefiting Utah companies in their expansion into international commerce.

As the official credit agency of the United States, Ex-Im Bank has supported more than $400 billion in U.S. exports, primarily to developing markets worldwide. In the past five years the bank has supported only $129 million in exports from Utah; however, since the partnership’s inception Rob Guthrie, an Ex-Im Bank business development officer, says he has worked with several Utah companies and six more are in the pipeline.