The World Trade Center Global Business Forum begins Sunday in Philadelphia. The conference will gather global trade experts from World Trade Centers across the globe, including the University of Arkansas. Denise Thomas is CEO of World Trade Center Arkansas, and she connected with Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis over the phone this week.
The world of importing and exporting can be confusing and pretty dynamic, Thomas says. The center in Arkansas and its three-person staff helped clients bring in $76 million in sales last year.
Denise Thomas: The World Trade Center is a part of the University of Arkansas Fayetteville. We are part of the economic development engine that the institution has. We've been a part of the institution since our inception in 2007, and we are 19 years old now. I've been with the center since the day we opened — a little bit before — and it's been a pleasure to serve our state in such a wonderful way.
We have a contract with the state of Arkansas to facilitate bilateral trade and exchange on behalf of the AEDC and the governor's office. We do that through several services that we provide. We work closely with the companies that are here within the state. These companies are manufacturers or small businesses, large businesses, corporations. We work with the institution as a whole as it relates to students with internships. We also offer opportunities with the Rome Center to facilitate bilateral trade things with them and looking at opportunities to move things forward from that perspective.
Jack Travis: Could you explain what bilateral trade is?
Thomas: Bilateral trade is the movement of goods and services across borders. So it's back and forth. Our primary function is exports, but we also support imports. So for example, I went to Trieste two or three weeks ago for an olive oil conference. And we're working with olive oil companies that want to import their product into Arkansas.
Travis: Can you give me a concrete example of how the center has helped a business in Arkansas?
Thomas: So we get the State Trade Expansion Program grant, which is a STEP grant. That grant helps us facilitate supporting the companies — 85% of the funds that we receive go directly to the company. Those companies are able to go out then and export their products globally. We strategically work with each of the companies individually and support them by helping them understand what trade shows, what trade missions, what organizations globally they need to work with. So we facilitate partnerships with them, with American Chambers, other World Trade Centers, through trade shows — for example, like Farnborough. The governor's going to Farnborough. The AEDC is going to Farnborough. As it stands right now, five Arkansas companies are going. We will support them in that. We will also support them in establishing meetings, getting meetings, facilitation of those meetings for the B2B piece so they can sell their product globally. That's our primary function.
We also do education. We help educate them to better understand how they're going to move their goods, how they're going to build a strategy for their program, for their company. We talk to them specifically about what trade shows we think are going to be good for them. They come and they tell us that they're looking at a specific trade mission — we may vet that trade mission or vet that trade show to help them better understand this may be a good fit, it may not be a good fit. We help them identify specific target countries and what those countries are potentially buying, if we have the resources to do that.
Travis: I went to your website and you have two companies featured that y'all have assisted — Catfish Pro and Southern Brown Rice. Those are catfish and rice, two kind of Arkansas-centric industries. Could you maybe give us a little bit of behind the scenes on how you helped those two companies specifically?
Thomas: Catfish Pro and Southern Brown Rice are two totally different scenarios. So Southern Brown Rice is an established company and they have a system. They have a program in place. We supported them specifically with a particular trade show that they were able to look at opportunities to export into the Americas and other markets, and that was through the Americas Food and Beverage Show. That was specifically what we did with that particular company. Catfish Pro — we work a little more intimately with them. They already have clients at Walmart, but we're looking at helping them export their products into the Canadian market specifically. And they participate in ICAST and several other shows that will help them establish opportunities to export into foreign markets. The countries are all going to be outdoor rec-type countries, some parts of Europe. But really our focus has been with Canada, specifically with me and my function with them. We work with them specifically on market research and understanding the market, understanding where they fit into the global market and what countries they need to look at.
Travis: So it's not tailored just for businesses at one growth stage — it's kind of tailored individually for different clients.
Thomas: Correct. It's very customized service because one shoe doesn't fit everybody's foot. So we really have to be strategic about what we do. Now the tactics and the functions overall are going to be very similar, but the details of that are going to vary.
We have learned through the years that trade missions are wonderful, there are a lot of fun, there's a lot of energy around them, but you usually only get a few meetings from those trade missions. They're time-consuming and they can be very expensive. Trade shows you get double or triple the meetings, plus you get the opportunity to see what your competition is doing, you get an opportunity to meet potential vendor reps that can help represent your product in a given market or a given country. You meet people that potentially can help you overcome particular objections to the business market. So for example, if there is a specific duty or a specific tariff that you're not aware of, you may learn about that there. If there is an opportunity to find a better supply chain or logistics, there's that opportunity. Are there associations that are participating in that particular trade show that you didn't know? So it's a wonderful way for you to assess the market and determine how you want to move forward within that market and potentially other markets, because all kinds of other people are going to that same trade show in a select industry.
Travis: Just a second ago you said the T-word — tariff. How has global trade changed over the past year?
Thomas: It's an ever-changing landscape. I say it's like the Sahara Desert. The winds blow left, they blow right, they blow north, south, east, west. It's a constant movement. Tariffs, duties have always been a moving target. There has always been an obstacle or barrier to trade no matter what. So companies have to be aware of that no matter what the landscape is. It's always been that way, and this is nothing new. This is just a louder situation. It makes more noise, but it doesn't mean that it's a no-go or you have to stop. You have to keep moving forward.
When you're looking at each of your contracts, you need to be able to assess and determine that this contract is for this client with these specific terms and conditions, and this is the nature of the tariff landscape right now. These are the other barriers to trade that I need to be aware of within this particular market. So you negotiate for that particular export or import, whichever way it may be. It's individualized. Each client needs to look at each project as its own entity and take all of the factors at the moment into consideration, and you need to mitigate your risk by building contracts that are strategic, that will help you identify where potential problems will be. And that's where a good lawyer will come in to help you do that, and someone who has a trade background.
A lot of the logistics companies can help you kind of build your language around some of that. We have small companies and carriers that we work with that can help you understand what some of the barriers have been because they've seen — oh yeah, we shipped to this country two weeks ago and this was a problem, so you might want to build A, B and C into your contract, or you might want to say they have to pay upfront, or these are the terms we can offer. There's Ex-Im Bank you can use that can help with insurance. There are so many things that you can do to mitigate the risk. And these are things that have always been available, and these are things you've always had to look for no matter what. Nothing's changed. It's just a lot louder. And it is a moving target, but it's always been a moving target.
Travis: I'm sure that topics like this will come up a lot this weekend. We're speaking today because next week you will be in Philadelphia with other World Trade Centers at the Global Business Forum. What's that going to be like, and what do you hope to accomplish there?
Thomas: With the World Trade Centers Association, there are 300 World Trade Centers in over 100 countries. And with that, we all play nice in the sandbox — I use that term because I remember that from kindergarten, and it still sticks. When we work together we have a reciprocal agreement to really support one another. So we talk about what we know, talk about what we understand, we talk about how we might be able to help our clients mitigate risk by having better information, being able to connect with those World Trade Centers that can help us talk to a logistics company, or talk to an attorney, or talk to a company that we may be able to do business with, or better understand the landscape in that market. And we do that every year, twice a year. We meet in April and we meet again in October. And at these conferences we have specific meetings around tariffs, duties, logistics, supply chain, real estate, the landscape in each of our markets, what some of our problems are, where we see political risk and where we see opportunities.
The value proposition for Arkansas, for having a World Trade Center, and for us to have good relationships with the association and the other World Trade Centers, is it helps remove barriers to trade. It helps remove barriers to better understanding a market and also connecting with other markets, because I can call another World Trade Center and say, hey, we have a company that's looking for a vendor rep, or we have a company that's looking — they want to reshore and they're looking for a product that can go into what they're manufacturing, or hey, we have a company that wants to sell. And we work with those World Trade Centers, and they can help us identify those partners a whole lot quicker than sometimes us trying to figure it out on our own by doing research. So we connect on those. We understand what specific industries are for each of these markets. And we come back with that information and I share it with these organizations here in Arkansas that we're doing business with and that we're supporting. So it helps us do our jobs a lot better. And it helps facilitate a cleaner transaction because it's a known entity on both sides. So that's really the value proposition.
Travis: That makes a lot of sense. Who's a better expert than the people who are actually over there?
Thomas: Right. And when you have relationships with them — those meetings are a lot of fun. It's a lot of business, but we do spend time together. We know each other. Most of us have been around forever, so we have these very long-standing relationships. It's a little bit of a family reunion. But from that, you're able to really dive into the deep end of the pool quickly because those relationships are already there. There's also a level of trust, because doing business globally, you have to trust your partner. And when there's trust with those World Trade Centers, it makes it so much easier when we come and talk to our businesses and say, OK, we're going to connect you with this World Trade Center that's connecting you with these three companies, and these three companies have been vetted by that World Trade Center. So we feel like that's an immediate barrier that's dropped. So it's a whole lot easier to go back and forth and to do the transaction potentially because of those relationships.
Travis: Well, good luck with it and safe travels, and I guess have fun this weekend too. It sounds like it's going to be kind of a fun time — like a family reunion.
Thomas: It is a bit of a family reunion because it's very personable and the people are super enjoyable and we like each other. So it's nice to be able to conduct business and to have opportunities. But there's a phrase that I use all the time and it's called food, fun and fellowship. When you are doing business with people in different parts of the world, it's very important to take time to get to know them, to know their families, to understand what their interests are, what their hobbies are, what makes them happy. And when you're doing it with food, that fellowship piece is really important because that's how you build trust. That's how you build those relationships. It's just like anything else — you spend time with your family. And when you're doing that, it's much easier when there's a problem for you to overcome the barrier of that problem because there's a history there. And there's a story that you can tell that really works. So that's why it's so important to have that food, fun and fellowship and to have those relationships.
Denise Thomas is the CEO of World Trade Center Arkansas. She spoke with Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis earlier this week. You can visit their website for more information about the center and its services.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
