MANSFIELD -- D. Charles Winger visited Braintree Business Development Center on Wednesday to learn more about Great Britain as a trade partner.

Winger is a corporate training consultant in technology and work force development at North Central State College.

"I'm interested in business development in our community," Winger said. "We have a lot of displaced workers, so all of us that are in education and business are turning over every stone we can turn over."

David Silk, from the international trade consulting firm SGI Global Business Advisors in Cleveland, talked to local business and community leaders about how the United Kingdom has become a popular trading partner for U.S. companies.

"Ohio exports more than 43 other states," said Silk, who sits on the Ohio Department of Development's Global Markets Division's advisory board. "It's about $40 billion of exports."

Silk asked those in attendance if they had ever had a Miller Genuine Draft or Miller Lite, flown in a Boeing Airbus, walked into a Charter One Bank or filled up at a BP gas station.

"Miller Genuine Draft and Miller Lite are part of a multinational conglomerate based in the U.K.," Silk said, citing examples of British investments in Ohio and the United States. "Many of these companies have active operations in Ohio. You're not necessarily, specifically aware of them, just like many British companies. They tend to fade in the background."

There are several reasons an American would want to do business with Great Britain, he said.

"We speak effectively the same language, it's not Chinese. Essentially we understand each other," he said. "You can set up a company within 48 hours. Your IP, intellectual property, is fairly safe, your copyrights and patents."

Silk said the currency rate is 1.7 U.S. dollars to the pound.

"That means if I'm a Brit and I'm a British company looking to buy your products in Ohio, it is much cheaper for me to buy your products than it is for you to buy mine," he said. "It's a good export market right now because of that weakness of the dollar against the pound."

Silk said the 2012 London Summer Olympics will offer opportunities in concrete, steel and metal products.

SGI, which assists private and public sector companies doing business internationally, is coordinating a Northeast Ohio-U.K. trade mission to Great Britain the week of June 6, Silk said.

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