Building on the newly-opened avenues of trade in the aftermath of NAFTA, Texas has aggressively pursued foreign trade enroute to becoming the nation’s top exporting state. An essential element of that effort is a series of trade missions undertaken to recruit foreign companies to Texas. By carrying the message that “Texas is wide open for business” these efforts have promoted financial investment, job creation, and increased trade relationships for Texas companies.
As a result, in 2007, Texas was ranked the number one state by export revenues for the sixth year in a row, with over $168 billion, and tops in attracting international capital with over $14.9 billion invested into the state.

In an increasingly global marketplace, Texas-based companies have found themselves competing with companies around the world for business, investment and strategic partnerships. With affluence increasing beyond Texas’ borders, it was essential to build bridges into international markets to maximize the benefits of Texans’ ingenuity, hard work and quality products. Although NAFTA increased international trade opportunities, the devastating impact of the events of September 11, 2001 caused many small and medium-sized Texas companies to stop doing business internationally. In order to help these companies, the state’s office of international business had reduced participation in international events . The resulting lack of international awareness of Texas companies made business development all the more difficult.
Across the board, Texas needed a strategy to re-engage with the global economy.

Since taking office, Gov. Perry has made economic development and job creation a cornerstone of his administration. To maximize the state’s presence in international markets, he tasked his economic development team with developing a strategy to market the state’s assets on an international scale for both export and foreign direct investment opportunities.
This included creating and implementing an effective advertising campaign to position Texas globally as a premier business location and establishing international recruitment offices.
The TexasOneSM Program was created as the essential tool for job creation in Texas, providing a deal-opening fund to generate leads and create promotional materials to competitively market the state.
Using these resources, international missions were taken to several different countries in North and South America, Asia/ Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where the Governor’s representatives presented an “Invest in Texas Seminar” targeting foreign companies interested in investing in or expanding to Texas.

Texas is a leader in the global marketplace, and has led the nation in export revenue for six consecutive years (2002 - 2007) with a total of over $168 billion in 2007; a 77 percent increase from 2001. Continuing to foster a superior climate for job growth, opportunity and prosperity for the people of Texas are among the governor’s top priorities.

Texas is a top-ranked destination for foreign direct investment (FDI), and ranks second nationally for the number of international trade-related jobs by state. In 2006, Texas ranked third nationally for the number of “insourcing” jobs, or Texans employed by foreign-owned companies.  Foreign investment was responsible for 4.2% of the state’s total private-industry employment. Manufacturing made up early 25%, or 84,200 jobs, and almost 9% of all the state’s manufacturing jobs are “insourcing.”

International missions continue to happen around the globe. Texas has led trade delegations to Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, China, France, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, among other locations.