How Illinois, an inland state, promotes global export business
Last year Illinois goods worth $8 billion were sold abroad. Sixteen per cent of the workforce is employed in resulting jobs. Department of Business and Economic Development fosters this through trade shows, trade missions, and offices in Brussels and Hong Kong

ILLINOIS EXPORTS more agricultural and manufactured products than any other state. Promoting Illinois wares abroad and encouraging Illinois producers to seek foreign markets is the responsibility of the Illinois Department of Business and Economic Development (BED). Approximately $8 billion worth of goods were exported from Illinois last year, and approximately 16 per cent of the total workforce of the state is employed in export-related work. With an area five times that of Belgium, a population almost equal to that of the Netherlands, and a gross state product equal to that of Italy, it follows that Illinois' economic development efforts should be correspondingly as large.

Through its International Trade Division, BED participates in trade shows abroad, organizes trade missions to foreign countries, and maintains offices in Brussels and Hong Kong to implement these and other activities in the area of international commerce. A look at these activities suggests that a global perspective is needed by residents of Illinois to understand the increasing links between their state and the world.

BED services
Of the 25,000 manufacturers in Illinois, approximately 80 per cent are in the small-to-medium-sized category (fewer than 100 employees). It is to these businesses that the BED'S Division of International Trade gears its services — on the assumption that the large corporations are equipped with sufficient resources and experience of their own to seek foreign markets and conduct trade with firms in distant locales. Such services of BED include providing information about technical aspects of export procedures, especially about potential markets for their products abroad, and bringing together foreign buyers or agents and Illinois manufacturers.

In carrying out this responsibility, BED has created both foreign specialist roles for state government officials and networks of international contacts for these officials as well as for private Illinois businessmen. From formal training and from experience in their previous and present positions, staff members of BED become experts in foreign markets and export procedures for individual countries. To illustrate the kind of detailed information required, Theodore Silverman, the department's deputy director, notes that to sell earth moving equipment in Taiwan an Illinois businessman would work through the Taiwanese government, which has responsibility for major construction in that country. In Belgium one would go directly to private contractors to sell such equipment, whereas in Sweden, it is best to have a Swedish agent representing the Illinois firm. Both local laws and local customs will determine the best approach to marketing Illinois products abroad.

To keep abreast of developments in business around the world, BED staff study U.S. Department of Commerce reports and surveys, subscribe to international trade journals, and spend time in the major market areas of the world. Their representatives in the Brussels and Hong Kong offices are continuously reporting to the Chicago office on export information and opportunities. The collection of information also involves visits to U.S. embassies, foreign chambers of commerce, banks, government agencies, as well as shippers and importers. Such personal contacts are needed to identify the prevailing procedures of trade and current markets.

Although their horizon is worldwide, BED staffers must have a firm knowledge of the products Illinois manufacturers have to offer prospective

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buyers or agents. Files on Illinois suppliers by type of product are maintained, and an attempt is made to keep manufacturers informed about specific needs for their products. The department also seeks to develop an awareness among Illinois manufacturers of foreign trade opportunities through seminar programs in communities around the state. The seminars are held in cooperation with local chambers of commerce, and with the participation of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Export-Import Bank, as well as bankers, accountants, and insurance agents, all of whom provide supporting business services for international trade. These programs are directed to the small and middle-sized manufacturer, especially those with little or no previous experience in exporting their goods abroad.

Contacts, cooperation
One obvious consequence of this activity is the creation of a network of working relationships. The middle person in the network of many of Illinois' trade relationships is a staff member of BED. Within the state, BED personnel work closely with their counterparts in the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Collaboration is also carried on with the U.S. Department of Commerce through its Chicago regional office, and the International Trade Club of Chicago, an organization of private business executives whose firms are involved in foreign trade. Local chambers of commerce have interests overlapping those of BED, especially in providing information about export procedures. Another set of relationships exists with the more than 70 consular offices in Chicago, particularly those officials representing the commercial interests of their governments, and with the binational chambers of commerce, some of which are headquartered in consulates. There are also contacts with commercial sections of diplomatic missions in Washington and with visiting foreign governmental officials and private businessmen. In addition, a network of contacts outside the country broadens the foreign participation and knowledge of state government officials and others involved in international trade. The offices in Brussels and Hong Kong are shared with representatives of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and thus collaboration between these two state agencies is carried out abroad as well as at home. The offices are primarily engaged in export promotion for Illinois business and agriculture, and secondarily in the promotion of transport, investment, and tourism.

The head of Illinois' Brussels office is a veteran of 25 years in the U.S. Foreign Service whose basic work is counseling Illinois firms interested in the European market and European firms interested in American products. The office handles hundreds of inquiries from businessmen yearly and attempts to match the foreign buyer with the Illinois producer. This work requires a broad knowledge of the market potential of European countries and the establishment of contacts with U.S. embassies in various countries, officials of the host government, foreign banks and branches of American banks, shippers, and, of course, prospective buyers. There is also contact and cooperation with representatives of other state offices in Brussels, although only a few American states have overseas offices and some have opened and closed depending upon the breadth of perspective of the incumbent governor.

The overseas offices of BED assist the Chicago and Springfield offices in making arrangements for both trade show participation and sponsorship of trade missions. A number of states, Illinois among them, participate in or organize trade missions made up of

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Success in obtaining visibility for Illinois products is attested to by the fact that at a recent U.S.-sponsored trade show in Taiwan, 25 per cent of the participants were from Illinois

U.S. exports by type of product and Illinois rank among all states

Product Food Printing Chemicals Petroleum & Coal Rubber & Plastic Stone, Glass & Clay Primary Metal Fabricated Metal Nonelectric Machinery Electrical Equipment Instruments

Rank     2    2  10    6    2    9    7    3    1    3    3

Leading Illinois exports: Industrial products

Product Nonelectric Machinery (includes agricultural and construction equipment) Processed Foods Electrical Equipment Chemicals Fabricated Metal Products Instruments Printing Equipment Primary Metal Products

Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Leading Illinois exports: Agricultural products

Product Soybeans Feedgrains Protein Meal Soybean Oil Meat Hides & Skins

Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6

teams of private businessmen. When the Department of Agriculture's representative in Brussels attended a world trade conference in Africa last year, he learned that a need existed for irrigation equipment in these countries. Upon being informed of this potential market, his Springfield office contacted a manufacturer in Havana, Illinois. Despite the manufacturer's lack of experience in exporting, his representative joined a trade mission to Africa organized by BED and the Department of Agriculture in November 1974. Results? The representative found himself so swamped with orders that he named an agent to handle the firm's future business in the area. Such trade missions can have concrete, and at times immediate, payoffs for participating firms.

Industrial trade fairs
Illinois is very active in industrial trade fairs abroad. Fairs with international or U.S. government sponsorship are viewed by state officials as vehicles for introducing Illinois producers to export opportunities, establishing face-to-face contacts with buyers, and evaluating the markets for products being displayed and for their potential for other Illinois goods. The chief of the International Marketing Division of BED, Thomas Slattery, uses several criteria in planning Illinois' participation in such fairs. In consultation with the Brussels or Hong Kong office, he chooses among the many fairs held around the world on the basis of their location, U.S. government participation, timing, and the compatibility of the display product with Illinois industry. The U.S. Department of Commerce provides relevant market information which is then sent to Illinois manufacturers producing the type of goods appropriate to the particular fair. Space is rented in the U.S. pavilion, and the state invites manufacturers that have been contacted to be part of the Illinois booth in a cost-sharing arrangement. Although participation is then on a first-come, first-serve basis, manufacturers new to exporting, or those who have not previously exhibited their products in the particular country, are encouraged to join the Illinois exhibit. BED'S success in obtaining visibility for Illinois products is attested to by the fact that at a recent U.S.-sponsored trade show in Taiwan, 25 per cent of the participants were from Illinois.

Department officials admit that the full results of their activities abroad are not immediately apparent and not always easy to estimate down to the last sales figure. After all, trade agreements are not arranged overnight or contracts signed on the spot. The recent experience of four Illinois companies participating in a trade show in Frankfort, Germany — whose first year sales reached $900,000 and whose estimates for 24 months were up to $2 million — is an example of the stake the people of Illinois have in the foreign activities of the state government.

The department's new director, Joseph Pisciotte, demonstrated his commitment to these programs by recently attending, along with the Illinois delegation, a trade fair in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Pisciotte made the trip in order to establish contacts with the business and banking communities in the area. Based upon the judgment that Latin America in general, and Brazil in particular, is an area of rapidly expanding commercial opportunities for the economy of Illinois, the state will shortly open its third foreign office, to be located in Sao Paolo. As Illinois continues to go worldwide, residents of Galesburg and Mount Vernon will need a global perspective just as much as do residents of New York or Chicago, Paris or Tokyo.

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