UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

UNITED STATES COMMERCIAL SERVICE

INTERVIEW WITH

DILLON BANERJEE,

SENIOR OFFICER, U.S. COMMERCIAL SERVICE,

LISBON, PORTUGAL

BY

DOUG BARRY,

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING,

U.S. COMMERCIAL SERVICE

Transcript by

Federal News Service

Washington, D.C.

DOUGLAS BARRY: To the passionate strains of fado music, we take you to Lisbon, Portugal, today to investigate the Portuguese marketplace as a place for U.S. businesses to consider exporting their services and products. And we have on the line in Lisbon Dillon Banerjee, who is the senior commercial service officer based at the embassy there in Lisbon.

Hello, and welcome, Dillon.

DILLON BANERJEE: Hi, Doug. Thank you. Nice to be with you today.

MR. BARRY: You’re welcome. Is it springtime in Lisbon?

MR. BANERJEE: Yes, it’s springtime pretty much year-round here. I can’t complain about the weather. It’s been beautiful the last few weeks. Sunny, mid-70s. Definitely different than the weather I think you’ve had in Washington.

MR. BARRY: Yes, that’s true. We’re hoping for our cherry blossom season on time in a couple of weeks and then it will be beautiful here too.

It’s hard to beat Lisbon for physical beauty, natural beauty, and of course history. Most Americans don’t know a great deal about Portugal. Maybe they know names of Vasco da Gama and well-known explorers of the bygone era; port wine, perhaps, maybe fado, if they’re lucky. But what is it about the Portuguese market that is really something that Americans should take notice of?

MR. BANERJEE: Well, that’s a great question. In fact, it’s surprising how many U.S. companies, when they consider doing business in Europe, tend to overlook Portugal, probably because it’s a relatively small country and as they’re now branding themselves, they’re the west coast of Europe. So they’re way off to the far western edge of the continent.

But in my opinion, and having been here now for a couple of years, it’s certainly a market that should not be overlooked because it is a country with a long history of friendship and very close bonds with the United States, one of our longest-standing allies actually in Europe. Portugal – this is a little piece of trivia for you – was the first independent nation to recognize the independence of the United States when we broke off our colonial status with the U.K. and became the United States.

I think over the years there’s been a real strong bond and affinity here in Portugal for the United States, and that includes an affinity for U.S. products and U.S. brands. There’s a fairly sophisticated consumer market here. They know what they want and they’re interested in quality, and they realize that the U.S. offers quality products and quality services, so they tend to favor the companies that can supply those to the market.

In addition, though, and I think this is equally important, Portugal is a member of the European Union and so U.S. companies that set up operations here almost automatically have access to the broader EU market, and that can be a big advantage. This is a good place to have a first entry or access point and then expand Europe-wide. We’ve actually seen a number of U.S. companies, particularly in the technology sectors, establish operations in Portugal that cover or support their sales and marketing operations in other Western European markets as well. So certainly an advantage.

MR. BARRY: So it’s a kind of launching pad, then, for U.S. businesses to get into other, maybe larger markets in terms of population.

MR. BANERJEE: Absolutely. And I think a part of the rationale behind that is that Portuguese workers are very talented in linguistics, and you can find Portuguese people that just, across the board from the north to the south and particularly here in the major urban areas like Lisbon, speak four or five languages: English first and foremost after Portuguese, but typically Spanish, maybe German, French. So as you set up operations here in Portugal and you get an office staffed with Portuguese people that are able to communicate in other European languages, it becomes an easy base to sort of network to the east and start branching out into other markets.

And I was just going to say, in addition, as you hit on in the introduction there, it’s a very pleasant place. It’s a nice place to be, to do business. It’s a friendly country with a beautiful climate and a rich culture, including the fado music that you played earlier.

MR. BARRY: Yes, indeed.

MR. BANERJEE: And it’s got low crime and still relatively low wages compared to the rest of Western Europe.

MR. BARRY: Well, it’s interesting that you mention it as a member of European Union. Does this for Americans interested in doing business there also trigger EU regulations, things that might involve labeling and privacy rights and so forth? Have you seen that being a challenge at all for U.S. companies entering Europe via Portugal?

MR. BANERJEE: Well, that’s a good point. As a member of the European Union it’s fully integrated within the EU. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the founding members of the euro currency zone. And they do, as you mentioned, follow all the directives from the European Commission in Brussels. But what that means is that there is absolutely open and sort of free flow of trade with the other EU member countries, and once you address all of the standardization issues and the labeling issues, which you do have to do to get into the Portuguese market, you are well positioned to expand into other markets in Europe.

So although you would have to comply as a country with the European regulations in effect, once you’ve surmounted those hurdles, it’s a bonus, I guess. You’re well positioned to expand from there.

MR. BARRY: And how difficult is it? I mean, it can’t be too difficult because we have seen a number of smaller companies, worked with them here in Washington, and with you and your staff there to get their goods into and sold in the Portuguese market. They were able to do it. How much of a hurdle is it for a smaller company to comply with these European directives?

MR. BANERJEE: Well, the beauty, I think, of exporting into Europe is this is a relatively transparent and regularized part of the world to do business in, so relatively speaking were you to be a small- or medium-sized entrepreneur or business looking to expand as a first step overseas into a more complex market like Russia or China, I think that that bar would be a great deal higher than it is in Europe to comply with the requirements here.

So I guess the short answer is, we don’t consider that to be a barrier for new exporters, either new to exporting in general or new to the European market. And there certainly are a number of resources, our office being one, and our domestic USIAC (ph) offices and the international trade centers as another, where you can get, I think, all of the information, very good comprehensive information to either try to meet these requirements by yourself, or to find some expert consultants on either side of the ocean that can help with that.

MR. BARRY: Right. There’s a lot of help. Most of it’s free. Can come from your office, it can involve hand-holding if people really need a lot of assistance doing it, and even to the strains of fado music if absolutely necessary.

(Laughter.)

MR. BANERJEE: If absolutely necessary. I just also wanted to mention one other thing on the market. I talked about using Portugal as a platform for the rest of Europe. It’s fascinating that a country of 10.5 million people, with a per capita GDP of about $22,000, relatively low for this part of the world, offers access to a much, much broader market through its former colonies.

Portuguese is the sixth-most widely spoken language in the world, and if you look at how many people in the world speak Portuguese, not just within Portugal, which as I said is only 10.5 million, worldwide it’s 200 million people, and that includes pretty much every corner of the globe, from Angola and Mozambique and Guinea Bissau in Africa, to of course Brazil and all the way out to East Timor and Macao and areas out in Southeast Asia.

So many companies find that once they start partnering with Portuguese companies and doing business here, they get access to markets that they may have not considered before, in far reaches of the world where Portuguese has excellent relations and very well established business routes.

MR. BARRY: That’s a very interesting concept. I had never thought of getting to Brazil, in particular, which is a much larger market and booming now, via Portugal.

MR. BANERJEE: Yes, and we found that the Europeans are already hot in pursuit of these access routes. The Spanish are here in full force partnering with Portuguese companies, in some cases for the sole purpose of accessing these third markets. And in particular Angola, which has been a booming market lately.

MR. BARRY: Yes. And tell me this. When we ship direct to Brazil, Portuguese-speaking Brazil, often there are a myriad of taxes, sometimes 12 and 13 different kinds of fees and taxes, making our goods very expensive when they get into Brazil, and probably constraining sales for that reason. What if you went and partnered with a Portuguese business person to get to Brazil? Would the Portuguese with American goods necessarily pay the same onerous fees and taxes?

MR. BANERJEE: Well, that’s a very good question. I think the answer is really that it depends. I think there are probably various ways to structure the partnerships with a Portuguese company, and certainly I think it would depend on the product and/or service that you are looking to transship on to Brazil. But suffice it to say that sitting in Lisbon I’ve been surprised at the number of inquiries I have received, and I think there could be much more if we could broadcast this message a little more loudly.

But we do get inquiries from U.S. companies coming directly to our office here in Lisbon about opportunities in places like Cape Verde or Mozambique. So I think there is a general awareness, and then of course the technicalities or the details would need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

MR. BARRY: Yes, and of course the historical connection is clear here, this great seafaring power, small country but unbelievable bravery and sophistication to send its tall ships all over the world in pursuit of discovery of new lands, sometimes of course pillaging them in the process, but you know, it can’t be discounted, the great opening that has occurred there. Now it seems that in contemporary dress they’re still providing that same entre into distant markets for Europeans, and also Americans.

MR. BANERJEE: Yes. I would agree with that wholeheartedly. And it’s interesting, the determination of the Portuguese is also reflected, I think, in sort of a reconfiguration of their economy that’s happening right now, and it’s pretty exciting in terms of offering opportunities for U.S. companies. You know, a lot of people that know a little bit about Portugal, at least from an historical vantage, think about the economy here as being driven by things like pork and fisheries and wine and olive oil.

But really the reality over the last certainly decade, decade-and-a-half has been a concerted transformation, and this has been led by the government, to focus on the services sector, on technologies, on renewable energy and travel and tourism, and they’ve been quite successful at that. So this country has modernized in quite an impressive way, and as I said, I think that offers plenty of opportunities for U.S. companies across the board in various sectors that you might not traditionally think of as having opportunities in Portugal.

MR. BARRY: Yes, and of course I wouldn’t knock the cork, the wine and the seafood. A person could live quite comfortably on just those things.

(Laughter.)

MR. BANERJEE: It’s important for them to maintain production of those as well.

MR. BARRY: Has to be a balanced economy there.

MR. BANERJEE: Exactly.

MR. BARRY: Now, frequent listeners to this program will say, oh, here comes the question about what are the most important sectors and I can do this now in my sleep. It’s IT and it’s health care. But the fact is that most recently you and I were involved in helping that company get its detergents, cleaning agents into the country. That’s not something that is IT or healthcare related. So the reality seems to be that, small market that it is by population, lower per-capita income than maybe other of the European powers, still people are buying a lot of different things from the United States.

What do you see there now as maybe the biggest opportunities? Besides everything.

MR. BANERJEE: Right. Yes, well, and I won’t run through the laundry list. We certainly – of course we’ve updated our country commercial guide and there’s a good description of what we consider to be sort of the stand-out sectors. But in my opinion, if I had to narrow it down to just a handful from the larger list, we’re excited out here about sort of the ACE sectors – the architecture, construction, and engineering. In part that’s because the government has moved quite a few large steps forward with some infrastructure projects that have been on the drawing board for a while now and seem to be coming to fruition.

One of those, it’s sort of much talked about in the media a lot here, is the new Lisbon International Airport, which is a 5 billion euro project that’s scheduled to be completed in 2017 and offers a host of opportunities for services and products through the tendering process that we’ve already seen begin. Similarly they have plans for constructing a high speed rail line to Madrid. They’re looking at ports development projects. So all of these big ticket infrastructure projects I think offer some good opportunities for big and small U.S. companies in that sector.

Just as a spin-off from that, green buildings – and this is sort of under the construction umbrella – green building products are also sort of coming online here as Portugal recently passed a law that requires all new construction and renovations of buildings here to be energy-efficient. So I think that certainly offers opportunities as well.

MR. BARRY: Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The Portuguese market, great jumping off place for the European Union, good market on its own, and another great historical pathway with contemporary updating to Portuguese-speaking countries such as Brazil and others in Africa, all great reasons to consider this market. And Dillon, we really appreciate you being with us today. You did a great job.

MR. BANERJEE: Thank you. It’s been my pleasure.

MR. BARRY: Thanks. And to the mournful strains of fado, we can cry in our port for a little while today. Enjoy it, and we’ll see you again next time on another version of the Commercial Service Market brief. I’m Doug Barry in Washington. Thanks for listening.

(END)