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What may have been shaping up to be Atlanta’s largest trade mission since the Olympics has been postponed due to rising fears over the Delta variant, Global Atlanta has learned.
A mission headlined by Belgium’s Princess Astrid had seen its number of committed companies swell to nearly 200 and participants to around 500, only to see rising case COVID-19 numbers cause the foreign ministry to reconsider the timing for the three-city U.S. trip.
Atlanta boosters and the Belgian consulate here in the city fought as hard to keep the mission on as they did to win in it the first place, Consul General Michel Gerebtzoff told Global Atlanta.
But safety concerns won out, and a decision was made to postpone until mid-2022, when the latest COVID-19 wave will presumably have subsided.
Mr. Gerebtzoff as well as John Woodward, vice president of global commerce at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, stressed that the groundwork that has been laid already will make the event much easier to carry off next year, though it’s unclear if such a large group will still make the trip.
As Global Atlanta first reported, the October mission was to stop in Atlanta first, with two full days of activity including visits to growing operations of Belgian-owned UCB and Solvay, as well as forums on logistics resilience, diversity and other topics. Ministers from the Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia regions were also scheduled to make the trip. New York and Boston would have rounded out the agenda.
Learn more about the itinerary that might have been here.
Global Atlanta will provide updates about rescheduled trip as they become available.
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