Join us this week as the Washington State Department of Commerce and the Western U.S. Agricultural Trade Association provide information on grants which support Washington businesses attending trade shows. The U.S. Small Business Administration - SBA Office of International Trade, Export-Import Bank of the United States and United states Department of Agriculture - Foreign Agricultural Service will provide information about export loans and export credit insurance which supports Washington businesses as they compete for international sales resulting from their trade show attendance.

Background

Nearly 96% of consumers live outside the U.S., and two-thirds of the world’s purchasing power is in foreign countries. If you’re a small business owner, the Washington Export Outreach Team is ready to support your growth through international trade.

Established in 2013 following a national mandate to do more to support international trade, WEOT is a collaborative team of local, state, regional, and federal export assistance agencies who provide you the tools and resources you need to sell internationally.

WEOT Partners include:

• SBA Office of International Trade
• SBA Seattle District Office & Spokane Branch Office
• Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington
• Washington State Department of Commerce
• Washington State Department of Agriculture
• Washington Small Business Development Center
• U.S. Commercial Service – Seattle
• Export-Import Bank of the United States
• Western U.S. Agricultural Trade Association
• U.S. Department of Agriculture – Foreign Agricultural Service
• SCORE – Washington State Chapters
• Washington MBDA Business Center
• Impact Washington

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‍Wednesday Webinars

Wednesday Webinars with SBA Seattle is an ongoing series of free, virtual, webinars covering a variety of topics to benefit small business owners. On the fourth Wednesday of each month, we will be focusing on export assistance, featuring conversations with different WEOT members each session.

About the Presenter

John Brislin is SBA's International Trade & Finance Specialist (Export Finance Manager) for Washington State, Northern Idaho and Alaska. He has over 23 years of private-sector international banking and trade finance experience working at Bank of Boston (Bank of America) and Bank of California (U.S. Bank). John has over 12 years of public-sector export trade finance and risk mitigation experience working at Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington (EFACW), Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM Bank) and SBA Office of International Trade (SBA OIT). He looks forward to working with Small Businesses so they can turn their export opportunities into actual sales and to achieve the ultimate goal of getting paid—especially on time—for those sales.