The 7^th Annual 2011 Access to Success conference, Expanding Exports to Korea, to be held on Thursday, August 11, will be focused on advocating ratification of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS-FTA) while emphasizing a practical approach to seizing business opportunities created under the agreement.

The conference will be held at Fairview Park Marriott in Falls Church, VA, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Organized by the Business Development Assistance Group, a non-profit based in Falls Church Virginia, it brings together a wide range of public and private sector organizations including the U.S. Commercial Service, the US-Korea Business Council, the Korea International Trade Association, Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia-Washington D.C. District Export Council, and many more. This alliance has won enthusiastic bipartisan support from U.S. Senator Mark Warner, Congressmen Gerry Connolly, James Moran, and Frank Wolf; Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, and State Delegates Barbara Comstock and Mark Keam.

This remarkable assemblage of public and private sector expertise embodies the spirit of the National Export Initiative by embracing an intergovernmental approach to trade promotion. The conference will serve as a platform to create the public-private linkages that will help our small businesses access the full array of resources available to them to establish and expand their market presence in Korea. This fact was echoed by Congressman Gerry Connolly who wrote in a welcoming letter: “As conference attendees, you will hear from key stakeholders in the public and private sector who will share strategies for capitalizing on this exciting opportunity.”

In addition to an exciting plenary panel session featuring prominent business and government leaders, the conference will include 30 roundtables run concurrently three times throughout the day where attendees can learn from subject matter experts in a small setting. There are roundtables for both experienced exporters and firms that are new to exporting. The roundtables will include topics such as: export financing, doing business in Korea, utilizing foreign trade zones, legal issues, overcoming trade and investment barriers, and many more.

The KORUS-FTA was originally negotiated and signed more than four years ago, but it has stalled in Congress for a variety of reasons often reflecting anxieties about globalization, the affects of trade liberalization on employment, and the resources available for small businesses and displaced workers. If approved by Congress, this agreement would be the most commercially significant U.S. trade agreement in more than a decade. The U.S. International Trade Commission has estimated that the agreement will generate an $11 billion increase in U.S. merchandise exports, while U.S. service industries will benefit by the new opportunities in what is already the second-largest market in Asia for U.S. service exports. According to the US-Korea Business Council, passage of the trade agreement will create 280,000 American jobs, including 11,000 in Virginia, and increase GDP by $27 billion.

In a welcome letter to attendees of the event, Congressman James Moran wrote: “The U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement is a stimulus package with no initial cost which will inject life into our economy through the creation of American jobs and give us an opportunity to send out a higher level of exports.” He singled out increased openness in Korea’s services sector under the agreement as potentially “providing great opportunities for Northern Virginia’s small to medium businesses.”

For more information on the event, please go to www.vaexport2011.com