Global leaders talk tariffs, Ga. workforce at trade & investment symposium

Investors and industry leaders discussed Georgia’s international trade relations as well as its growing industries and workforces at the 7th Annual Global Trade & Investment Symposium hosted at Wesleyan College Feb. 19.

The event, attended by diplomats from nearly 20 countries alongside business and academic leaders, began with a panel discussion followed by a brief Q&A. 

Global Atlanta Managing Editor Trevor Williams moderated the four-person panel including Belgian Consul General Katherine Raeymaekers, Rivian Automotive Director of Corporate Affairs Andrew Capezzuto, Fitzgerald and Ben Hill County Development Authority Executive Director Jason Dunn and Georgia Aerospace & Defense Alliance Executive Director Ember Bentley.

Panelists mainly focused on the impact President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs have had on Georgia’s international trade relations as well as rebuilding trust and stability with overseas investors. 

“Businesses don’t like change,” said Capezzuto, who noted that all major manufacturers have felt the effects of Trump’s tariffs and faced challenges with supply chains over a rapidly changing span of a few months or even weeks. 

“We’re supportive of the president’s goal for reshoring American manufacturing,” he said. “We think that’s a noble thing that this country should focus on, but we also have to realize as a society that it doesn’t make sense to make everything here in the United States; trade is important.”

Rivian recently invested in the construction of a $5 billion manufacturing plant in Social Circle for the production of its new R2 SUV. The American electric vehicle manufacturer hasn’t encountered as many supply roadblocks as traditional car manufacturers who require more internal combustion parts, according to Capezzuto, but he said there are still some parts Rivian cannot source in the U.S.

It’s impossible to simply “flip a switch” and convert a foreign supply chain to fully-domestic, he added. 

As a representative of economic diplomacy efforts, Raeymaekers emphasized the need for stable trade relations between the U.S. and Belgium, where international trade accounts for 85% of Belgium’s gross domestic product. 

Belgium has maintained a consulate in Georgia since 1834 and the Peach State is home to more than 60 Belgian investors — the largest Belgian economic presence in the country, Raeymaekers noted . Such investments in flooring, biotechnology and plastics to name a few, have brought more than 5,000 jobs to the state, she added.The consul also said the recently extended Atlanta to Brussels nonstop flight will continue to strengthen those relationships.

Despite uncertainty arising from tariffs, transatlantic partnerships matter and “the potential is still there,” she said. 

“People still want to invest in the U.S. but I think you need to come and convince them a little bit more.” Raeymaekers said. 

Raeymaekers also highlighted the European Union’s role in Belgium’s trade relations. 

“The realization is on both sides that we cannot do it alone,” she said.

Fitzgerald and Ben Hill County Development Authority Executive Director Dunn, with the Fitzgerald and Ben Hill development authority, offered attendees a glimpse into what international trade and manufacturing investment looks like from the ground, in a Georgia community.

Originally established as a retirement community for veterans, Fitzgerald eventually developed a manufacturing presence surpassing many other rural Georgia counties, Dunn said. It began as a thriving hub for the textile industry but experienced a severe economic drop from 2000-2008. 

Since 2015, the county has attracted new industries to bolster its local economy, such as Mana Nutrition which produces ready-to-use therapeutic peanut butter to help fight malnutrition abroad — an industry that Dunn said is turning Fitzgerald into the “hunger solution capital of the world.”

But in early 2025, the nutrition company’s USAID contracts were axed, leaving product sitting in Mana’s 135,000-square foot factory in Fitzgerald. Dunn also recalled a wood products manufacturing company facing tariffs that prevented it from purchasing German machinery.

Dunn said the challenges he saw reminded him that “every community right now is a global community.” 

The symposium also featured discussion of Georgia’s growing workforce and industries’ demand for highly skilled workers.

Bentley talked about the new Georgia Aerospace & Defense Alliance, made up of the state’s top aerospace leaders — Gulfstream Aerospace corporation, Rolls-Royce and Lockheed Martin among others. 

The aerospace defense industry needed a home in Georgia, she said of the alliance which is housed at Mercer University. 

Mercer’s engineering school also directly supports Robins Air Force Base and is responsible for two thirds of its engineers, according to Bentley. She also noted the new Advanced Manufacturing Pathway program launched in  Macon-Bibb County last year. The program allows students to transition from classroom to the workforce by offering hands-on manufacturing experience and its first student cohort will begin in August. 

Bentley credited state support — through Georgia’s technical college system and its quick start program ,which provides free workforce training — as the “cherry on top of economic development.” 

There is growing competition for highly-skilled members of the workforce, meaning recent graduates entering the workforce need to be incentivized to move to rural communities, Bentley said, noting the importance of good health care and schools.  

“Industry at all levels has to be hyper engaged in, ‘what kind of worker do you want?’” she said.

Macon and the surrounding region has successfully pivoted its programs to the air force base, Bentley said, but a rising focus on cyber warfare, software and coding will require the county to shift again in order to produce a globally competitive workforce.