Doing Business in the U.S.

The U.S. has a powerful and technologically advanced economy. The economy's strength lies in its size and diversity: it has a variety of natural resources, including substantial petroleum and natural gas reserves; a vast agricultural sector, producing a variety of crops and livestock; a strong and well-developed industrial base; an advanced service sector; and a highly educated and skilled labor pool.

United States is the World's largest free trade market. The United States offer excellent infrastructure and high speed data access. The nation also has very strong traditions of education and research, as well as collaboration between business and academics.

Moreover, strong traditions in competition and enterprise have helped to drive the technological innovations that have made the US the world's leader in computers, software, electronics, and communications technology. The US Dollar is the most widely used currency for international trade and plays an important role to the world's smaller economies as many peg their own currencies to the dollar. Despite worries of a slowdown in the U.S economy, it is continuously growing. Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the third quarter of 2006.

Being a part of the worlds most democratic and corruption free market gives access to the North and Central America through NAFTA*, the world's largest free trade area, and CAFTA-DR**, the 2nd largest U.S. export market in Latin America, behind only Mexico.

In the United States there are large number of Americans of Scandinavian origin and a wealth of sister state and sister-city relationships ready to do business with their Swedish counterparts. Swedish exports to the USA are doing extremely well, with many enjoying double-digit growth (e.g. defense and automotive).

Source: US Chamber of Commerce

*North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico
** United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement

The U.S. - an overview

• 30 times larger than Sweden
• 300 million people
• A leader in every high technology field (IT, medical devices, defense, space technology)
• The world's most entrepreneurial marketplace made up of 100,000's of SME companies with which to do business
• Offer ease of doing business due to English-speaking clientele