2017 Economic Development Deal of the Year Award!

(Picture above is Foxconn Technology Group Chairman Terry Gou, seated to the left, and Gov. Scott Walker signing a contract in November for Foxconn to build a $10.7 billion LCD flat-panel production facility)

As mentioned previously in this blog, Foxconn, one of the largest electronics manufacturing company in the world, will be making a 20 million square foot factory here in Wisconsin. I bring this up because the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, the people who conducted the deal, have received the Gold Award as Business Facilities’ 2017 Economic Development Deal of the Year for the 10 billion Foxconn LCD production facility project. BF Editor in Chief Jack Rogers said, “With an incredible bounty of 13,000 direct new jobs in the next five years and a world-class, 20-million-square-foot production facility, our judges unanimously agreed that the Foxconn project deserved our top honor as the 2017 Deal of the Year,”. It is quite impressive; This facility will be the first LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) manufacturing facility in North America and the only one in the world that isn’t located in Asia. It is projected that with this new facility and the jobs it supplies, Wisconsin will be getting its own version of “Silicon Valley”; jobs with base pay starting at 53,000 a year. This will boost the economy immensely and ultimately change the economic state of Wisconsin. The facility is projected to finish in the year of 2020, but until then, keep an eye out for news and new blogs about Foxconn!

Reference: https://businessfacilities.com/2018/02/2017-economic-development-deal-year-gold-award-wisconsin/

Wisconsin facts on the benefits of FDI

This post is all about how foreign investments have benefited Wisconsin in many ways.

Here are some quick facts:

·         ~Wisconsin’s top 5 export markets are Canada, Mexico, China, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.

·         ~Wisconsin’s top 5 export categories are machinery, computer and electronic products, transportation equipment, processed food and lastly chemicals.

In 2017, Wisconsin had $22.3 billion goods exported. These exports support jobs, specifically in 2016 111,075 jobs were supported in Wisconsin and 93% of these jobs were supported but manufactured goods exports. In 2015, foreign owned companies that reside in Wisconsin employed 93,000 Wisconsin workers. Canada and UK own the most companies in Wisconsin. Fifty-five percent of Wisconsin exports are apart of a free trade agreement and Wisconsin’s free trade partners bring in $12.2 billion in 2017.

Yes, I just gave you a ton of facts. Showing these facts are so important because you need to know how much foreign companies can bring into not only Wisconsin but anywhere. So let those facts soak in.

All facts and information from: https://www.trade.gov/mas/ian/statereports/states/wi.pdf

Berry bad Cranberry tariff

Cranberries have joined Harley Davidson on the list of items created by the European Union that may be given tariffs because of President Trump's tariffs on importing aluminum and steel. The EU is the largest importer of Cranberries and Wisconsin is the world's largest producer of Cranberries. President Trump pledged that imported steel would receive a 25% tariff and imported aluminum would receive a 10% tariff.  The U.S. exports more than 95 million pounds to the EU every year. The U.S. exports 40% of their domestic cranberry production and some years, Wisconsin produces over half of the total cranberry production in the U.S. If the tariff is implemented, Wisconsin cranberry growers say it will impact their prices greatly and cause the EU to buy more cranberries from Canada instead. Canada and the EU do not have a duty set up for Cranberry trading. The EU has not released what their cranberry import tariff would be but in some countries, the cranberry import tariffs are as high as 17%.  We will have to see what happens in the coming weeks on whether or not the EU will impose these tariffs.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2018/03/07/wisconsin-cranberries-european-union-target-list-retaliation-tariffs/403654002/

The Water Council

The Water Council (TWC) is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a non-profit organization that drives economic, technology and talent development to support the global water industry. TWC is known globally as it has already established relationships with companies from the Netherlands, France, and Germany helping them with their water needs. Today, March 1st, TWC hired an international trade and FDI consultant, Beverly Ferrara, to lead its European outreach. She is responsible for assisting the organization's efforts to provide, "consistent and responsive engagement with existing and potential partners, and will nurture a pipeline of water tech companies with the potential to establish U.S operations."

Read about it more here!

Reference: https://urbanmilwaukee.com/pressrelease/the-water-council-expands-global-reach/