Business leaders and stakeholders are gathered at Cape Fear Community College¡¯s Union Station building for a two-day conference highlighting efforts to promote international trade.

Called the North Carolina Foreign Trade Promotion Conference, the event is the first put on by the year-old Foreign Trade Promotion Council, spearheaded by state Rep. Rick Catlin, who proposed the idea while serving as a New Hanover County commissioner.

Featuring several guest speakers and panel discussions, the conference is aimed to educate businesses about resources available for trade and foreign export, Catlin told commissioners in a presentation this month.

"This is an effort to teach businesses, and people that work with businesses and elected officials, the tools that are out there to be able to energize and promote international trade. There are seven billion people out there in the world that are potential customers of North Carolina," he said.

Catlin said the idea for the council-and as a result, the conference-grew out of a desire to better utilize the Port of Wilmington's foreign trade zone and expand it to Wilmington International Airport. Foreign trade zones are considered secure areas within the United States but outside U.S. Customs territory, according to a description on the State Ports Authority¡¯s website.

Cargo entering a foreign trade zone, or FTZ, can avoid formal customs entry and other customs duties, government excise taxes and cargo examination, the site says. "For businesses involved in international trade, an FTZ offers tremendous economic benefits," such as excise tax avoidance, reductions in costs from customs and savings on cargo insurance, it says.

"When I was a commissioner, I was looking to try to find a way to develop the 150 acres we have at the airport as a business park," Catlin told commissioners. "One of the ideas was to extend the foreign trade zone that the state ports has to there, and started talking to people on the foreign trade zones and the advantages of that.

"I realized that we've had that for over 30 years and it hadn't really been utilized," he said. "So having done some international work in my private business, I saw an opportunity to try to find a way to promote international trade, because we've got ports that have additional capacity, we have infrastructure, and we always need jobs and we always need additional business."

The president of Catlin Engineers and Scientists, an engineering and environmental services firm, Catlin said the concept received a positive response from state and national groups, including the North Carolina and U.S. departments of commerce, the N.C. District Export Council and the World Trade Organization.

A result of those relationships is this week's conference, which features speakers including N.C. Secretary of Commerce Sharon Decker, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, and Ambassador of Brazil Mauro Vieira.

"Brazil is also interested in investing in the United States to bring some business here, to build some companies here, and they haven't chosen," Catlin said. "So for North Carolina, this is a chance for us to build that relationship with them."

Catlin said the conference also features success stories from businesses that have taken advantage of such resources. Businesses represented in that panel include Orbita, Dry Corp/Dry Case, Focustar Capital Group, Global Test Supply and USAInvestCo.

"People were not aware-I was not aware-of all of those resources that are available," Catlin told commissioners. "At the end of the day, people will have the tools and the names and the contact information that if they want to try to export or to grow their business, they can do that.

"It's no cost to the taxpayers, it's voluntary, and it's just to educate people on what's there," Catlin said.