WASHINGTON — The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. will start implementing plans announced at NPE 1997 with two international trade activities this fall: providing low-cost representation at a trade show in South Africa and sending an ambassador to an Israeli exhibition.
U.S. makers of machinery, molds, tools and auxiliary equipment can spend $450 to have product literature displayed at the Made in USA-SAITEX '97 show in Johannesburg, South Africa, Oct. 21-25, a so-called catalog show that will offer relatively cheap access to a foreign market.
The Department of Commerce will staff a booth at the show where the literature will be displayed.
The event attracts 40,000 visitors from the sub-Saharan region.
Commerce Department staff will provide companies with leads from exhibit visitors, SPI said. SPI's machinery and moldmakers divisions also are organizing the event.
Niles, Ill.-based Thermal Care President Don Gruenberg will represent SPI at an Israeli exhibition in September, kicking off SPI's foreign trade ambassador program.
Gruenberg will be SPI's first ``International Ambassador,'' a program where members of SPI's international trade department agree to represent Washington-based SPI and its member companies in foreign markets.
He will attend Plasto-Ispack '97, the International Exhibition for Plastics, Rubber and Packaging, from Sept. 15-18 in Tel Aviv.