Large turnout at New York’s World Trade Week

NEW YORK: The International Trade Awards Breakfast and Expo, the key opening feature of the World Trade Week New York City 2018, was held on Monday at the Baruch College in New York, attracting a large turnout of New York-based foreign trade agencies.

The expo not only offered a unique chance to recognise the achievements of practitioners in the field and facilitates the promotion of small businesses around the world but also recognised the importance of international trade to the growth of the region’s economy and celebrated the companies and organisations that contribute to it.

The New York office of the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) was also listed among the foreign trade promotion agencies as one of the World Trade Week NYC 2018 partners.

Other exhibitors, among others, included the US Council for International Business, World Trade Centers Association, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Taiwan Investment and Trade Organisation, Korea International Trade Association, Pakistan’s Consulate General, Association of Food Industries,

I have worked with banks and have travelled extensively in Asia … many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that export their products, are concerned about credit insurance while doing business overseas. Joseph Schoonmaker, New York District Export Council chairman

Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, the Hong Kong Trade Development Counci and the Turkish Trade Center.

In 2017, total US trade with foreign countries stood at US$5.2 trillion. That was US$2.3 trillion in exports and US$2.9 trillion in imports of both goods and services.

US total exports to Malaysia in 2017 amounted to US$12.826 billion while imports from Malaysia were worth some US$37.409 billion, according to US government census figures on foreign trade.

Malaysia posted a trade surplus of US$24.583 billion in 2017.

Joseph Schoonmaker, who chairs the New York District Export Council, described Asia as a dynamic growth region, noting that Japan, India, China and the ASEAN region would continue to play a crucial role in global trade.

“I have worked with banks and have travelled extensively in Asia … many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that export their products, are concerned about credit insurance while doing business overseas,” he said.

While Asian companies have a good credit worthiness – he mentioned Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and others – he said that “one has to be more careful when dealing with certain countries, particularly where there are political tensions”.

“All the major companies are aware of the political and commercial risks. Insurance companies look at the political risks and then they will look at the commercial risks while providing insurance.

“Commercial risks are determined through the information we gather about a company’s solvency and other factors,” added Schoonmaker.