GTI was invited to join Ambassador Olofsdotter, colleagues and #TeamSwedenUSA last week to meet with local business leaders, students, Swedish companies, cultural liaisons, and more!

#DYK that Sweden supports more than 360,000 jobs in the United States and is the 15th largest investor? In CA alone, Swedish affiliated companies support over 44,000 jobs so there are many opportunities for cooperation between Sweden-US in the region. Especially within green transition, international trade, innovation, culture and creativity.

Just a few take away from some of our meetings. Port of Los Angeles

• The pandemic changed the ways of import from “just in time” to “just in case” making the port into a huge storage facility creating new challenges.
• Majority of imports still from China and increased with 10 pro cents during the pandemic.
• California state still tend to stay on their own when other states collaborate.
• Pollution levels originated from the ports are all time high.
• The port offers over 31 hectares of land for test beds and system demonstrators.
• Long term goal is to implement robotics and automation to increase capacity.

CALSTART

• calstart invites countries to join a global MoU to electrify heavy duty transportation.
• Ongoing project to introduce fuel cells in maritime transportation.
• Purchasing price of electric trucks is higher but on a 10-year life cycle it only makes up for a 1/6 compared to fossil fuel trucks.

RAND Corporation

• Think tank focusing on Trade and Security
• We discussed developments in global trade and how the focus should shift from short term military engagements to long term trade and standards imitative.
• How the IIJA and IRA is making it harder for none US OEMs and metal producers to export to the US market.

Big thank you to Swedish companies Spotify and CAKE – ridecake.com for having us and sharing some of your great progress made in the US and around the world.

Thank you for inviting GTI and to our Honorary Consul of Sweden in Los Angeles, Gudrun Giddings and her colleagues at the Honorary Consulate of Sweden for hosting us! The Honorary Consulate of Sweden in Los Angeles has now been open for 1 year, make sure you contact them for anything Swedish in their area!