China-Washington State Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum
On July 20 in Seattle, the Trade Development Bureau of the China Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), Commerce and the Washington State China Relations Council (WSCRC) co-hosted the second subnational forum on promoting trade and investment between Washington state and provinces of China. It was a return engagement spurred by last year’s highly successful gathering.
Lt. Governor Cyrus Habib, Commerce Director Brian Bonlender, Chenghai Sun, Director General of Trade Development Bureau of MOFCOM, and Yihang Yang, Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Consul General of China in San Francisco participated in the forum and gave opening remarks.
Chris Green, Commerce’s assistant director for economic development and competitiveness, provided an overview of investment environment in Washington. Brian Young, Gov. Inslee’s industry sector lead, gave specifics on opportunities in clean technology and renewable energy.
Companies that presented at the forum include: energy storage innovators UniEnergy Technologies (UET) of Mukilteo; commercial real estate agency Kidder Mathews; business law firm Davis Wright Tremaine which has offices in the U.S. and Shanghai, China, and Washington wine country firm Goodnoe Station Development.
WSCRC president Mercy Kuo‘s article in “The Diplomat” provides insight on the forum, as well as context for understanding the strong positive relationship between our state and the provinces of China at a time when U.S. trade policy is in flux.