ST. PAUL, MN – Today, Governor Mark Dayton and DEED Commissioner Katie Clark-Sieben announced the opening of a new foreign trade office in the Dusseldorf-Cologne area of Germany. The opening of this new foreign trade office was made possible through the Governor’s Global Competitiveness Initiative. State Representative Mary Sawatzky (DFL – Willmar) chief authored legislation to increase funding for the Minnesota Trade Office that was passed and signed into law during the 2013 Legislative Session.
This foreign trade office in Germany is the first of three new offices that will be opened internationally as a part of the Global Competitiveness Initiative. The two other sites will be announced at a later date. Minnesota currently has only one foreign trade office in Shanghai, China.
The Trade Office works to help Minnesota businesses navigate foreign markets and trade regulations so they can increase their exports and put more Minnesotans to work.
“This is great news for Minnesota and Minnesota businesses,” said Rep. Sawatzky. “Opening more trade offices around the world will open up markets for Minnesota businesses and farmers throughout Minnesota, bringing them more revenue, and growing more jobs.”
Germany was Minnesota's fifth-largest trade partner in 2012 with $728 million in sales, while the European Union accounted for 20 percent of state exports last year ($4 billion). Belgium, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Sweden and Finland are other European Union countries on the state's top 25 export list.
Germany is also a major international source of foreign direct investment, ranking fifth in the world. German companies have invested $1.4 billion in plants, property and equipment in Minnesota and employ 9,000 Minnesotans.
Geringhoff, a major German producer of farm equipment, last year announced a $20 million investment for a factory in St. Cloud that will create 100 jobs in the first phase. Gov. Dayton and two trade mission delegates - Earl Potter III, president of St. Cloud State University, and Diana Lawson, business school dean at St. Cloud State University - met with Geringhoff officials on Tuesday to thank them for opening a Minnesota operation, the company's first in North America. Dusseldorf-Cologne and the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the cities are located, have a number of large, well-known Minnesota companies, including 3M, Cargill, Medtronic, Carlson Cos., Ecolab and St. Jude Medical.
When Minnesota opened its first trade office in China in 2005, the state saw a 71 percent increase in exports to China in one year. Illinois has nine trade offices, Iowa has four offices, and Wisconsin has five offices. Data from the Brookings Institute demonstrates how increasing exports leads to job growth, with each $100 million increase in exports leading to approximately 665 new jobs. Finally, in 2011 Pennsylvania invested $6 million in its 10 foreign trade offices, producing $831 million in export sales and over 6,800 jobs.
“This is a proven strategy to help grow our economy and I’m pleased we are already moving forward with a new Trade Office,” said Rep. Sawatzky. “Our homegrown businesses make great products that we should be selling around the world and this new Trade Office will help accomplish that.”