As U.S. President Donald Trump disrupts free trade agreements — from withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership to calling for potential renegotiation of a trade deal with South Korea — international leaders may look to U.S. states to protect their economic interests.
Fresh off the heels of the G20 summit in Germany, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with officials from Mexico, China, India and Japan will join the 2017 National Governors Association summer meeting, which begins Thursday in Rhode Island and runs through the weekend.
Many discussions will center on the role of states in the global economy and the evolving international trade environment. Trudeau will meet with Vice President Mike Pence and make a keynote speech on Friday, focusing on the importance of the U.S.-Canada trade partnership that amounted to $882 billion in 2016.
The U.S. is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the world.
Of the $425 billion the U.S. received in 2016, new investments in California accounted for 15 percent, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
California is the world’s sixth largest economy, just after the U.K. and before France. More than 650,000 jobs in the state were supported by majority foreign-owned corporations, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data.
Home to more than 400 corporate headquarters and an estimated 1,800 foreign-based companies, Chicago has been the leading metropolitan area for foreign direct investment four years in a row, according to World Business Chicago, a not-for-profit economic development corporation chaired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Illinois received $41 billion in new foreign direct investment in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Other top states for foreign direct investment are New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
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International Leaders May Look to Talk Trade With U.S. States originally appeared on usnews.com
