Seattle, WA

The U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, in cooperation with the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, this week co-hosted a business leader breakfast briefing in Seattle featuring Saud Al Nowais, the Commercial Counselor and leader of the U.A.E. Embassy in Washington DC’s recently launched Trade Office.

The discussion with business leaders, held at Seattle’s Rainier Club on Tuesday, was the centerpiece of a two-day trade mission to the Puget Sound region that included site visits and meetings with executives from Boeing, Microsoft, the Port of Seattle, as well as officials from the University of Washington and PATH.  In addition to the U.A.E. Embassy officials, Danny Sebright, U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council President, was joined on the trip by representatives from Etihad Airways and the Abu Dhabi Ports Company.

Commenting on the visit to Seattle, Sebright said, “This trip was a great opportunity to help strengthen and further foster an already robust trade relationship between Washington State and the U.A.E., and establish relationships that will lead to greater commercial cooperation and knowledge exchange.”

Among U.S. states, Washington State is the largest exporter to the U.A.E.:  in 2008, Washington exported $2.1 billion in merchandise to the U.A.E.  This is in large part due to commercial aircraft exports; Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways and FlyDubai are all major Boeing customers.