Secretary Penny Pritzker to Lead High-Level U.S. Business Delegation to Poland and Turkey

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will lead a high-level delegation of America’s top CEOs on an economic fact-finding mission next week to Poland and Turkey. Secretary Pritzker and the CEOs, all of whom are members of the President’s Export Council (PEC) will use the trip to identify immediate and long-term opportunities to increase trade and investment between the U.S. and Poland and the U.S. and Turkey, two high-potential, fast-growing markets. Through greater understanding of these markets, the Department of Commerce and the President’s Export Council can help U.S. companies gain better access to Poland and Turkey, so they can sell more of their goods and services abroad and support jobs here at home.

Following this trip, the PEC CEOs joining the mission will apply their commercial expertise to produce a report for President Obama, which will recommend actions the U.S. government can take to address challenges and increase trade and investment between the U.S. and Poland, and the U.S. and Turkey

Just prior to the PEC mission, Secretary Pritzker will visit Kyiv, Ukraine. Secretary Pritzker's visit to Ukraine was announced by President Obama during Ukrainian President Poroshenko’s visit to Washington, D.C. last week.  Secretary Pritzker, whose family comes from Ukraine, will use her time there to discuss with Ukrainian government and business leaders the reforms necessary to improve their business climate, attract private capital, expand opportunity, and strengthen the economy for greater investment and growth. She will also explore potential opportunities for additional commercial cooperation between the U.S. and Ukraine.

After her stop in the Ukraine, Secretary Pritzker will join the eight PEC members and Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Stefan M. Selig in Warsaw, where they will meet with Polish government officials and business leaders and gather insight on opportunities and challenges facing U.S. companies in each respective market. Following the stop in Warsaw, the group will continue on to Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey.

The PEC members comprising the delegation of the first PEC fact-finding mission of the Administration are:

• Vice Chair Ursula Burns, Chairman and CEO, Xerox Corporation
• Mary Andringa, President and Chief Executive Officer, Vermeer Corporation
• Dick Friedman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Carpenter & Company
• Marillyn Hewson, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin Corporation
• Arne Sorenson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Marriott International
• Patricia A. Woertz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Archer Daniels Midland Company
• David Abney, Chief Executive Officer, United Parcel Service
• Robert Wolf, Chief Executive Officer, 32 Advisors

Also participating in the mission are senior executives from the following companies, whose CEOs are also PEC members:

• IBM
• Boeing
• eBay Inc.
• AES Corporation (Turkey)
• Pfizer Inc.
• Magno International
• Dow Chemical (Turkey)
• United Association

Serving as the principal national advisory committee on international trade, the PEC was established in 1973 and advises the President on government policies and programs that affect U.S. trade performance; promotes export expansion; and provides a forum for discussing and resolving trade-related problems among the business, industrial, agricultural, labor, and government sectors.