Austrade opens office in U.S.
Austrade opens office in U.S.
Mar 21, 2005: Australian companies have been handed an exciting opportunity to make the most out of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement through the opening of a new Austrade office in Washington which aims to help these companies land U.S. contracts.
The new Austrade "Selling to Government" Office is made up of a specialist team to help exporters tap into the $200 billion U.S. Federal Government Procurement market as well as the government markets in 29 U.S. States.
Trade Minister Mark Vaile, said that the office will be part of Austrade's existing presence within the Australian Embassy in Washington DC and will consist of five marketing professionals targeting key areas of opportunity including homeland security, e-government, state and local governments.
"The team boasts experts with successful careers selling solutions to U.S. government buyers. This initiative is part of the Australian Government's election commitment to appoint 30 new export facilitators to work directly on opportunities arising from the AUSFTA.
"The process of recruiting 23 Austrade export advisers in the U.S.A. is already well underway giving Australia's unprecedented geographic reach in that market."
Since the beginning of this year, Australian companies have been free to bid directly to the U.S. government for contracts.
They used to be restricted by the Buy America Act, which forced them to find contracts through US agents or partners, especially in the ICT, software and systems areas.
Related Article: