The biggest international trade mission to metro Atlanta in perhaps decades has been postponed as COVID-19 cases surge and U.S. venues and businesses wrestle with new safety guidance.
A week-long trade visit from Belgium was slated for October, with stops in Atlanta, Boston and New York. The delegation was to have included more than 350 Belgian business leaders and others, representing more than 170 companies exploring potential economic ties with the United States. The trip was to include Belgium’s Princess Astrid and five Belgian ministers as well as the head of the government in the region of Flanders.
Conny Van Wulpen, who is the Atlanta-based economic counselor for Flanders and Brussels, said on Tuesday that the three-city mission is being postponed until next year, not canceled. She said a new date hasn’t been set.
Boosters in Georgia, who had been working to recruit the stop in Atlanta for two years, have hoped the visit would raise the metro area’s profile with Belgian businesses and eventually lead to more local investments and job generation. Belgian-based companies UCB, Solvay and Barco already have large operations in Georgia.
John Woodward, the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s vice president of global commerce, said the foreign trade mission would likely be the biggest the area has seen since the 1996 Olympics. He said he is optimistic it will happen next year.
Van Wulpen said “there were too many question marks” tied to the pandemic for the trip to happen this fall. The itinerary was expected to include business-to-business meetings, official gatherings, company visits and receptions. But some venues canceled gatherings or had new limits on how many people could attend, she said. And many companies in the U.S. have postponed returns to offices, limiting the opportunity for visits.
The last big international trade delegation to metro Atlanta was six years ago, with about 125 people, including the prime minister of the Netherlands. That delegation also included people from Flanders. Many trade delegations to Georgia involve only about 15 to 20 companies at a time, Woodward said.
About the Author
