After more than a year of planning, the state has called off this month’s planned trade mission to Colombia.
The mission was intended to help New Hampshire companies find export opportunities in Colombia. State officials say a number of firms expressed interest, but none signed up to make the trip.
Tina Kasim of the New Hampshire Office of International Commerce says the state is now considering a range of ways to help firms looking to do more business overseas.
“It could be a trade show – it could be an industry-specific trade show,” Kasim says. “It really depends on the feedback we get from the businesses over the next couple months or so.”
Some of those efforts are already in the works. State officials are set to accompany three businesses to an aerospace industry in the United Arab Emirates next month.
Governor Maggie Hassan and other state officials led a trade mission to Turkey last year; that effort drew criticism because it took place after Hassan had imposed a ban on out-of-state travel to help close a budget gap. The governor's office said "non-refundable travel arrangements" had already been paid for when the governor announced the travel freeze.
