Minnesota Officials Confirm Two New Trade Office Sites

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Brazil and South Korea will have an extra Minnesota presence starting next year.

The Department of Employment and Economic Development announced Tuesday that those countries would be home to two new foreign trade offices. The news meshes with advertisements the agency posted earlier this month in the State Register seeking contractors in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Seoul, South Korea.

The department is filling out the roster of three new trade offices authorized by the Legislature. Lawmakers gave the Minnesota Trade Office a $1.5 million boost in the recently enacted state budget.

While on a European trip last summer, Gov. Mark Dayton revealed the state would put a trade office in the Dusseldorf-Cologne area of Germany. Minnesota has an existing trade office in Shanghai, China.