MADE IN USA EXHIBITION OPENS

August 15, 2008

The United States Embassy in Belize today officially opened the 7^th annual Made in the USA exhibition at the RadissonFortGeorgeHotel. The exhibition will run for two days and showcases services and products made in the United States and distributed by companies in Belize. US Ambassador Robert Dieter told us more about the significance of the show.

Robert Dieter, US Ambassador to Belize

“The US Embassy sponsors a “Made in the USA” exhibition to showcase American products that are sold in Belize through Belizean distributors as well as establish contacts between the Belize business community and American exporters. The benefits are generally promotes the importance of the trade between out two countries and emphasizing that the United States remains Belize’s most important trading partner. And again this year we are also including a presentation by CEO Michael Singh from the Belize Tourism Board on tourism and the United States remains an important player in that sector with about 90 percent of the tourist that visits Belize are coming from the United States.”

Ambassador Alexis Rosado is the Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. He spoke to the gathering, outlining the importance of maintaining a relationship with the United States as one of our major trade partners.

Alexis Rosado, CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade

“It’s very important, like I said the US is our biggest trading partner. It’s not just a one way trade where we import goods from them but we also export goods to them. The ambassador mentioned a few products that formed our biggest market in the US but there are others like tourism. It’s a product that we sell to the Americans and they come here as our biggest customers as such, so it is huge. We could improve in my view by opening up more the US market to our production by us having more to sell ton them. We have some excellent products like Marie Sharps and so fort, the fishing industry, the aquaculture that are growing industries and we know that the qualities are exceptional that it could find a market anywhere but only if we do some more penetration in the US Market.”

A total of 19 companies that distribute US made products are taking part in the exhibition. The show will end at six o’clock this evening and will open tomorrow morning at 9am.

|

|