[About the Korea International Trade Association]

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) was established in 1946 and is currently the largest private business organization in Korea representing 72,000 member companies. KITA aims to enhance the competitiveness of Korean businesses by eliminating trade barriers and regulations, developing overseas markets by providing buyer-seller business matching services, providing trade-related research and analysis, operating the Trade Academy to foster trade experts as well as expanding trade diplomacy and private economic cooperation. KITA currently has 13 domestic branches in Korea and 11 overseas offices.

 

KITA Washington Center Core Activities

The KITA Washington Center is Korea's sole, leading private trade organization based in Washington, DC. We represent the Korean business community by advancing trade relationship and cooperation activities between Korea and the United States. We advocate in many ways for our member companies to advance into the U.S. market. We also develop and implement projects to build consensus with U.S. opinion leaders on enhancing the understanding of the Korea-U.S. economic relationship and expanding cooperation to include the mutually beneficial effects of the KORUS FTA. This includes—

 

We develop many different business plans to enhance the ability of Korean business community to respond and comply with U.S. trade policies and regulations. We provide latest information on U.S. international trade policy, and also deliver recommendations to the Korean business communities with in-depth analysis on critical trade issues.

We pursue outreach programs in the United States to enhance understanding of the Korean economy and develop a favorable atmosphere of the positive economic effect of the KORUS FTA. Our monthly Newsletter “KITA Washington Trade Update”, published and disseminated by our research department greatly contributes to enhancing the awareness and understanding of mutually beneficial relationships between the two countries to opinion leaders from governments, business communities, and academia, all of whom we have been maintaining close ties with for decades.

We carry out projects to expand the trade relationship between Korea and the United States. We serve as a single-window for business communities to enhance their market access in both countries. We provide market information to opinion leaders in Korea and the United States and connect businesses with potential counterparts. We also support U.S. trade missions to Korea and arrange Korean economic cooperation delegations to the United States.