NC Exports Grow Towards South America

North Carolina’s list of top international trading partners is showing growth from Central and South America.

Leoneda Inge:  The country with the largest percentage of growth is Brazil.  Since last year, North Carolina exports there increased by 37-percent from the year before.  Brazil ranks number 10 on the state’s list of top business partners.  Jean Davis heads international trade for the state Commerce Department.   She just returned from a meeting in San Juan and says Central and South America is a real target.

Jean Davis:  Latin America is right in our backyard, same time zone, similar cultures, lots of growing middle class and opportunities there. So we were down there talking with our counter-parts in those countries and trying to understand what the opportunities are.

Davis says these growing countries are importing lots of chemicals, machinery, electrical equipment and textiles.  And the recent passage of Columbia and Panama Free Trade Agreements could increase that output.