We Look forward to seeing you tonight at the
WIIT and WIIT Trust Holiday Party and Silent Auction!
Wednesday, November 28th | 6:00 - 8:30pm
Australian Embassy | 1601 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036
Come prepared to win great prizes WHILE having a wonderful time with your trade community friends – AND get into the holiday spirit by supporting our WIIT Charitable Trust scholarship fund, which provides financial support to our awardees with graduate or undergraduate studies in international trade.
December 3, 2018 | 3:00pm - 5:00pm
From Public Policy to Finance: A conversation on crafting interesting careers with Anku Nath
Hosted at the John Deere Public Affairs Office, Washington, DC
You are invited to a fireside chat with Anku Nath, Manager, Risk Analytics, Deere & Company where she will discuss her transition from a career in public policy to finance.
Anku will also provide helpful guidance on how one can equip oneself with skill sets which can open doors to new opportunities and enable bold career transitions.
December 4, 2018 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Working Abroad: How to Plan an Short-term Overseas Assignment
Hosted at the Toyota Government Affairs Office, Washington, DC
You are invited to a Trade Talk on how to structure and effectively manage a short-term assignment. Leila Afas just returned from a two-month assignment in Toyota’s London office where she worked on Brexit and other Trans-Atlantic trade issues.
This is the third time in her career that she has completed an assignment overseas.
She also worked in Morocco and Switzerland. Leila will share her lessons learned as well as tips on how to plan and prepare for your own overseas adventures!
OWITCon2018, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya on October 24-25, 2018, was a huge success. 83 people attended the Capacity Building Workshop sponsored by UPS and a networking platform sponsored by Thomson Reuters for women entrepreneurs on the first day of the conference. And over 175 attended the actual Conference on the second day, where the theme of the conference was: Bridging the Gap; Empowering Businesses to go Global. The OWIT conference brought together key players aiding the expansion of women in global trade. Speakers were drawn from global OWIT chapters, financial institutions, NGOs and policy institutions. They initiated dialogue on issues that make it difficult for women to enter international business, including poor access to credit and inadequate market information. 100 people downloaded the Conference app called Convene, which was provided for all attendees by conference sponsor Thomson Reuters. Small business sponsors and a number of other sponsors also provided items for swag bags given to all conference attendees. In addition, 8 local and 15 general strategic OWIT partners attended the conference.
Leading up to the conference itself, OWIT held two jewelry fundraisers on Etsy in August and October to help raise funds, awareness and the number of conference attendees where 10-20% of the proceeds went towards the conference. In the end, the conference was profitable and OWIT still is awaiting additional sources of funds to be paid by the host chapter. Also two new chapters - OWIT Nigeria and OWIT Dominican Republic joined OWIT International at the OWIT board meeting held at Huawei, another sponsor, on October 26, 2018. Camelia Mazard attended the Fall Board meeting as OWIT representative for the DC chapter and is pictured below with the president of OWIT.
The OWIT Spring Board Meeting will be in Washington, DC in March 2019. The next OWIT conference and Board Meeting will be held in Tampa, Florida on October 25-28, 2019.
WFPG is Accepting Internship Applications for Spring!
The Women's Foreign Policy Group believes that it is crucial to ensure that women's voices are heard and that women leaders are fully engaged in finding new approaches and solutions. WFPG is committed to global engagement and the promotion of the leadership, visibility and participation of women in international affairs. The organization advances women's leadership and highlights their contributions through international issues programs and mentoring.
Interns work as part of the WFPG team and are given the opportunity to improve their knowledge of international issues, as well as to learn how a small nonprofit organization operates. At our programs, interns meet with accomplished international affairs professionals and learn from their career paths. Part-time internships are unpaid or for college credit. Full-time interns are eligible for a stipend.
WFPG is seeking four interns to assist them in Washington, DC during the upcoming semester - three Program Interns and a Communications and Website Intern. Find more information about the positions here.
Qualifications
Competitive candidates for both positions should have a demonstrated interest in foreign affairs and excellent computer skills. Interns must possess outstanding office and phone manners, and excellent writing skills, in addition to being well-organized, punctual, dependable, flexible, attentive to detail, and able to work both independently and as part of a team. WFPG offers full-time and part-time internships. Part-time applicants must be available to work a minimum of two full days per week.
Trade Frictions Felt across New England by Leslie Griffin, Member of the WIIT Board
We’ve all seen the stories of how steel tariffs are playing in America’s Rust Belt or how farmers in the Heartland are coping with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural exports. Perhaps you’ve heard less about the impact of recent trade policies on the New England economy, which sends a little over 3.5% of American exports to the world.
Lobster to some communities in New England is like coal to a Rust Belt town. Maine, which sells more than 80 percent of the live lobster exported from the United States, saw the makings of a record year of exports to China before the country’s 25% retaliatory tariff took effect on July 6. According to WISERtrade, U.S. exports of live lobsters to China fell by 64% in July compared to May and June. The tariff has driven Chinese buyers into the welcoming arms of Canadian dealers. To keep afloat, New England players are looking to other Asian markets and considering new business models, including moving operations across the northern border to get around China tariffs. Exporters from Canada can also benefit from the recent Canada-EU trade agreement, which provides for zero tariffs on Canadian lobster exports into Europe as compared to the tariff on U.S. lobsters of 8%. [1]
In search of a beautiful wood dining table as you prepare your hearty lobster meal? In the Northeast, you may find yourself at Jordan's Furniture, a furniture retailer with locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. U.S. imports of wooden furniture are dominated by China, which according to U.S. Census Bureau data represented 48% of such imports in 2017. Jordan’s Furniture started running television ads in mid-October suggesting customers should buy now before tariffs on furniture and furniture parts imported from China climb to 25% on January 1. Facing some heat on social media for trying to profit from fear, Eliot Tatelman, CEO of the company, which calls itself “The official furniture store of the Boston Red Sox,” says he takes no position on the merits of the tariffs, but wants customers to save money.
New Englanders look forward to setting the family table for Thanksgiving, serving up a perfectly roasted turkey and sides like a good cranberry sauce. This holiday season, however, cranberry products find themselves facing retaliatory tariffs from Canada, China, the EU and Mexico. Today, the state leader in production of U.S. cranberries is Wisconsin, home to the current House speaker, which puts the tart berry in the political crosshairs. The cranberry remains Massachusetts’ most valuable agricultural product and, in recent years, a successful export crop. In response to current trade tensions, Ocean Spray, headquartered in Middleborough, Massachusetts, will look to its Chilean processing facilities for some of its sourcing and utilize its Canadian facilities to service Europe and China.
The Port of Boston’s Conley Terminal is the only full-service container terminal in New England. Eight of its top ten lanes are with Northern Europe and two are with China. Lisa Wieland, Port Director at Massport, the authority that owns and operates the terminal, says that on the import side, Conley has seen an earlier peak season as customers rush to beat tariff increases expected at the beginning of 2019. One of Massport’s planned infrastructure investments is to buy three new ship-to-shore container cranes at a cost of $15 million each. Wieland says proposed tariffs on Chinese imports would have added 25% to the Massport capital budget for these items, as China has over 90% of the market for the needed type of crane. Following port industry advocacy, a New England Thanksgiving came early for Massport, with the Trump Administration taking the cranes off the final tariff list.
[1] For a deeper dive on lobsters, see Shawn Donnan’s great piece in Bloomberg Businessweek (Nov. 7) called Even Lobsters Can’t Escape Trump Trade War.
WIIT Event Recap
Trade Policy and Agriculture –
Canada, Mexico and EU Perspectives
Canadian, Mexican and EU agricultural officials highlighted the importance of multilateral approach at a policy discussion co-hosted by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States and the Association of Women in International Trade (WIIT) last Thursday. The event attracted more than 50 trade policy specialists from both public and private sectors.
The three speakers – Gizem Eras from the Canadian Embassy and a WIIT member, Luis Martinez from Mexican Embassy, and Jesus Zorrilla from the Delegation of the European Union first offered an overview of the importance of agricultural trade in its economy and then commented on trade negotiations with the United States. The speakers also shared their fun experience as agriculture counselors in their hosting countries. The event was concluded by a cheese tasting reception.
Woman Firsts
WIIT wants to celebrate women who have helped blaze a trail for others by showcasing their stories.
Samantha Bee
First woman to host a late-night satire
‘If you have a vision for something, someone will go
with you on that journey.’
Have ideas you’d like to see discussed in the Communique? Let us know!
Self Confidence is one of the hardest things to achieve, especially for women. WIIT is sharing inspirational musings by women leaders to combat this and help women be less ambivalent to LEAN IN and get to the top!
“If you’re not making some notable mistakes along the way, you’re certainly not taking enough business and career chances."
You are invited to a fireside chat with Anku Nath, Manager, Risk Analytics, Deere & Company where she will discuss her transition from a career in public policy to finance.
You are invited to a Trade Talk on how to structure and effectively manage a short-term assignment. Leila Afas just returned from a two-month assignment in Toyota’s London office where she worked on Brexit and other Trans-Atlantic trade issues.
The three speakers – Gizem Eras from the Canadian Embassy and a WIIT member, Luis Martinez from Mexican Embassy, and Jesus Zorrilla from the Delegation of the European Union first offered an overview of the importance of agricultural trade in its economy and then commented on trade negotiations with the United States. The speakers also shared their fun experience as agriculture counselors in their hosting countries. The event was concluded by a cheese tasting reception.
on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for reminders on our upcoming WIIT Trade Talks and other networking events!
