
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990                   TAG: 9004240345
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

WILDER CALLS FOR TRADE INCREASE

Virginia needs to build up its "less than impressive" trade with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Gov. Douglas Wilder said Monday.

"The potential is there for huge increases in trade - provided that the proper cautions are undertaken," Wilder told the third annual International Trade Conference at the University of Virginia.

In 1989, the state exported $47 million in products to that combined market of hundreds of millions of people, slightly more than was exported to Portugal, Wilder said in prepared remarks.

But he noted that a Radford producer of modular wall panels recently joined a venture with a Soviet construction company and a Soviet fast-food stand just opened in Norfolk's Waterside marketplace. Also, Virginia companies increased sales to the People's Republic of China by $50 million to more than $100 million last year despite that country's political turmoil, he said.

Wilder said he plans to make his first trade mission next year but he has yet to decide which countries he will visit. - Associated Press

by CNB