Washington State reported near-record FY 2010 sales of $154 million from state export assistance, the Washington State Department of Agriculture and Department of Commerce announced. Both agencies are encouraging more businesses to consider export strategies. State programs at Commerce and WSDA provide small and medium-sized businesses with export training and counseling, facilitate international trade show participation, and assist with trading partner and market introductions. Export sales from these successful state-supported activities account for a small but strategic portion of Washington's total annual export sales of more than $50 billion on average in recent years.
"Jobs are the way out of this recession and getting Washingtonians back to work is my number one priority," said Gov. Chris Gregoire. "One of our strengths is trade—already one in three Washington jobs is tied to trade. That's why I launched the Washington Export Initiative to increase our exports by 30% over the next five years. That will be in agricultural, aviation and aerospace, and software, but it will also be in emerging sectors like clean tech and global health-life sciences."
Washington was the first state to sign an agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce in support of President Obama's National Export Initiative to significantly increase foreign trade in the next five years. As a result, Commerce has already helped reorganize the Export Assistance Center of Washington to more aggressively focus on counseling outreach, helping small and medium companies take advantage of new export assistance finance products from the ExIm Bank and the private sector.
For more information about the Washington Export Initiative and state export assistance programs, visit www.choosewashington.com and www.agr.wa.gov .
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