U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker today announced the names of 17 export-ready companies that will join her first-ever trade mission, which will make two stops in Mexico from February 3-7. The trade mission is specifically focused on promoting U.S exports and business opportunities in key industry sectors, including advanced manufacturing, information and communications technology, and health IT and medical devices. The delegation will go to Mexico City and Monterrey.

“As the country’s Chief Commercial Advocate, a key part of my job is to promote trade and investment and connect U.S. businesses with potential customers across the globe,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritkzer. “Ninety-five percent of customers worldwide live outside U.S. borders, and that is why promoting exports is essential to economic growth and job creation. As part of our ‘Open for Business Agenda,’ we plan to carry out a robust schedule of trade missions all over the world.”

In addition to her first trade mission to Mexico, Secretary Pritzker will lead a trade mission to the Middle East in March. The delegation will visit the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to focus on infrastructure export opportunities for U.S. businesses in areas such as project management and engineering (including construction, architecture and design), renewable energy (solar, wind, waste-to-energy), smart grid and energy efficiency, and environmental technologies (including water/wastewater, air pollution control, and waste management).

Plans for additional trade missions are forthcoming.

Companies that will join Secretary Pritzker on the trade mission to Mexico include:

• Applied Science, Inc (Grass Valley, CA)
• Boston Scientific (Natick, MA)
• Cerner Corp. (Kansas City, MO)
• Deloitte (New York, NY)
• EFJohnson Technologies, Inc. (Irvine, TX)
• IBM Corporation (Armonk, NY)
• Kansas City Southern (Kansas City, MO)
• LexisNexis Risk Solutions (Alpharetta, GA)
• Louroe Electronics (Van Nuys, CA)
• Medstrat, Inc. (Downers Grove, IL)
• Motorola Solutions, Inc. (Schaumburg, IL)
• National Medical Testing & Supply LLC (Peoria, AZ)
• Optech Enterprise Solutions (San Antonio, TX)
• Oracle Corporation (Redwood City, CA)
• OSISoft LLC (San Leandro, CA)
• Spacelabs Healthcare (Snoqualmie, WA)
• Vermeer Corporation (Pella, IA)

The United States and Mexico enjoy a strong commercial relationship – Mexico is the United States’ second-largest export market and third-largest trading partner. Twenty-two states in America depend on Mexico as the first or second destination for exports, and more than $1.25 billion in goods and services are traded between the United States and Mexico every day, supporting millions of jobs in both countries.

Mexico’s proximity to the United States, its growing middle class, and the full implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have created a market ripe for U.S. companies. Bilateral trade between the United States and Mexico was almost half a trillion dollars in 2012, and the United States exports more to Mexico than to all of Brazil, Russia, India and China combined.