Your Roadmap to Global Markets
Explore the programs and services that help Delaware companies access global capital, markets, research, and networks.
What We Do
World Trade Center Delaware is the state's International Trade Gateway. We help Delaware companies, with a focus on small and mid-sized businesses, turn global opportunity into revenue, market share, and jobs. Every engagement is built around four commitments: access to global capital, access to global markets, access to global research, and access to an international business network of more than 300 World Trade Centers in over 100 countries.
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Membership in World Trade Center Delaware connects a company to the World Trade Centers Association: more than 300 World Trade Centers in over 100 countries, staffed by trade professionals who open doors in nearly every major market on earth. When a Delaware company needs a verified contact in Sao Paulo, a market briefing in Mumbai, or an introduction in Rotterdam, we activate this network on their behalf, center to center.
Access to a Global Network
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Access to Global Research
Sound trade decisions require sound intelligence, and World Trade Center Delaware has access to the data that powers it. We serve government organizations, global leaders, universities, businesses, and exporters and importers worldwide with research built for decisions, not shelves.
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Our research reports include specific country export and import data, specific global trade data, and specific country intelligence, including bilateral trade reports on individual country relationships, tariff and trade policy analysis, sector and industry studies, export strategy development, and trade intelligence prepared to rigorous data integrity standards, with every claim verified or transparently sourced. Through our training programs, seminars, and international business education, we also build the knowledge inside an organization that turns research into results.
Every research engagement is customized. To speak directly with Dr. Mary Swenson about your request and your organization's specific needs to export and import, schedule a conversation here.
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Access to Global Markets
We help Delaware companies identify, enter, and grow in markets worldwide. Our services include export and import assistance, market entry strategy, trade leads, buyer and partner matchmaking, and guidance on tariffs, compliance, and logistics. Foreign Trade Zone #99 covers the entire state of Delaware, and we connect companies with the appropriate FTZ resources to reduce, defer, or eliminate duties on goods moving through global supply chains. Through our work with the International Trade Administration (ITA) and U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, and our participation in the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) Making Global Local initiative, Delaware companies gain direct pathways into federal trade promotion and overseas infrastructure opportunities. We also help international companies establish operations in Delaware, working with partners such as CSC for entity formation and corporate services, bringing investment and jobs to the state.
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Access to Global Capital
Growth in international trade requires financing, and small and mid-sized companies often face the steepest barriers to securing it. As the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) Regional Export Promotion Program (REPP) partner for Delaware, we connect companies to export credit insurance, working capital guarantees, and trade finance solutions that make international sales bankable. We also guide companies to U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) export financing and State Trade Expansion Program resources.
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Beyond federal programs, we open doors across the full spectrum of capital. Through our extensive banking network in Delaware, one of the world's great financial centers, we make direct introductions to commercial lenders, trade finance specialists, and community lending institutions, including micro lending programs that fund a company's first steps into international markets. Headquartered at the FinTech Innovation Hub on the University of Delaware's STAR Campus, we also connect companies to the fintech platforms reshaping trade finance, cross-border payments, and access to capital for small and mid-sized enterprises.
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And because we are part of a network of more than 300 World Trade Centers in over 100 countries, our reach does not stop at Delaware's borders. When a company needs financing contacts, capital sources, or banking relationships in another market, we call our counterparts at World Trade Centers around the globe and put their resources to work for Delaware companies.
Women's Global Trade Initiative
The largest untapped growth opportunity in the global economy is not a technology, a market, or a trade agreement. It is women. Global trade has reached historic scale, yet women-led businesses hold only a fraction of it. Closing that gap is not a social program. It is the single most powerful GDP growth strategy available to the world economy, and World Trade Center Delaware is building the research infrastructure to drive it.
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$34.7 Trillion
Global trade in goods and services, 2025 (World Trade Organization)
The mathematics are unambiguous. In a $34.7 trillion global trading system, women led only about 15 percent of exporting firms despite owning up to 40 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide. Every percentage point of that gap represents markets not entered, contracts not signed, jobs not created, and growth not captured. The Women's Global Trade Initiative exists to convert that gap into economic performance.
15%
Share of exporting firms led by women
$28 Trillion
​Projected potential addition to global GDP by 2025 with women's full economic participation (McKinsey Global Institute, 2015)