© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Missouri trade delegation highlights contacts during European trip

Gov. Jay Nixon and Missouri trade delegation meet with Italian  executives with Buzzi Unicem.
Missouri governor's office
Gov. Jay Nixon and Missouri trade delegation meet with Italian executives with Buzzi Unicem.

While in Europe, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s trade entourage has held a lot of meetings, but so far has yet to strike any deals.

That was the message in the governor’s progress report, delivered via a telephone call Wednesday from Munich in Germany.

Gov. Jay Nixon and Missouri trade delegation meet with Italian  executives with Buzzi Unicem.
Credit Missouri governor's office
Gov. Jay Nixon and Missouri trade delegation meet with Italian executives with Buzzi Unicem.

“Throughout this trip, we have been and will continue to deliver a strong, unified message about the significant advantages Missouri offers, both in terms of quality products and a competitive business environment,” the governor said.

“Our triple-A credit rating (was) reaffirmed again last week by Standard and Poors, (and) these folks deem that kind of fiscal discipline over here as extremely important.”

Nixon said last year’s addition of 9,900 manufacturing jobs reflected the state’s “best year for manufacturing job growth” in 20 years. He said the trip abroad reflected the bipartisan aim of state officials to continue the economic improvement.

The governor said the entourage, which included some business leaders, “held a number of productive meetings with global manufacturers that have or may be considering investments in Missouri.”

“Missouri manufacturing is staging a major comeback, and this week’s trade mission is a great opportunity to build on this success by attracting even more jobs and investments to the Show-Me State,” Nixon said.

“Creating jobs in today’s fiercely competitive global economy requires a proactive, forward-looking approach – and that is exactly what this trade mission is all about.  We’re making sure businesses worldwide understand that with a highly skilled workforce, business-friendly climate, and a perfect AAA credit rating, Missouri is an ideal location to make long-term investments and create high-paying jobs.”

On Monday, the governor said he met with Ambassador Philip Reeker, the U.S. Consul General in Milan, as well as “the leadership of Gruppo Fontana, a leading manufacturer of industrial fasteners that supplies a number of automakers including General Motors.”

In a statement, his office said, “The delegation also met with the leadership of Buzzi Unicem, a global cement producer with two facilities in Missouri, and Bomi Italia, a biomedical logistics company.”

The governor said he also “addressed Italian business leaders and investors at a reception hosted by the U.S. Commercial Service in Milan.”

On Tuesday, the Missouri trade delegation visited the German city of Frankfurt, meeting with executives with the chemical manufacturer BASF, which has a facility in Hannibal, Mo.

Nixon meeting with officials with chemical firm BASF in Germany
Credit Missouri governor's office
Nixon meeting with officials with chemical firm BASF in Germany

The governor said he also met with top officials with Schütz, a German-based packaging company “that is investing $20 million and creating 50 jobs to open a facility in St. Joseph, Mo.”

In Munich, the governor said he met with top officials at the auto manufacturer BMW “and visited the headquarters of Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering company,” that also has operations in Missouri.

The Missouri delegation was treated to a reception in Munich hosted by Ambassador William Moeller II, the U.S. Consul General based in Munich.

Nixon’s plans for the rest of the trip include a meeting scheduled with Franz Joseph Pschierer, the Secretary of State of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Media, Energy & Technology. 

The delegation then plans to travel to Madrid, the capital in Spain, for another round of meetings with government officials and business executives. The group plans to fly back home on Saturday.

No state tax money is being spent on the trip.  Expenses for the governor and his wife, Georganne Nixon, are covered by the Hawthorn Foundation, a nonprofit organization financed by Missouri businesses and "dedicated to promoting economic growth in Missouri."

“These European countries are important markets for Missouri products, and they’re also major sources of foreign investment into our state,” said House Speaker John Diehl, R-Town and Country, in a statement.  “I’m confident that the contacts we’ve made this week will yield dividends for Missouri’s economy for many years to come.”

The delegation also includes Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles; state Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur; and state House Minority Whip John Rizzo, D-Kansas City.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
Marshall Griffin
St. Louis Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a native of Mississippi and proud alumnus of Ole Miss (welcome to the SEC, Mizzou!). He has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off an old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Liberty Belle, and their cat, Honey.