Gov. Phil Murphy will embark this weekend on the latest in a series of international trade missions that administration officials say have helped secure global investment in the Garden State.
Trade missions like the one that begins Saturday are meant to draw new firms to the state or expand the presence of global companies already operating in New Jersey.
The governor’s upcoming trip to Canada is intended to bolster investment in state industries on film and fintech — financial technology to enable digital banking, investment, and other services.
“Our efforts to bolster New Jersey’s thriving film and fintech industries must extend beyond both state lines and national borders. It is only fitting that we deepen our economic ties with Canada while exploring new opportunities to solidify our status as a global leader in these fields,” Murphy said in a statement.
Past economic missions have taken the governor to India, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Ireland, and Israel.
Robert Scott, a professor of economics at Monmouth University, said such trade missions can benefit the state, even though they are expensive, requiring airfare, work hours, and hotel rooms for sizable groups.
“If they are able to convince even one large company to move some operations to NJ, then I’m sure the return on investment is significant and well worth the effort,” he said in an email.
Ingrid Austin is a spokeswoman for Choose New Jersey, a nonprofit that works with the state to boost global investment here. She said past trips had secured 2,558 new jobs from international firms and generated 50 memorandums of understanding encouraging future investment.
These memorandums are not typically legally binding, though they may encourage connectivity between parties, Scott said.
Some of those job gains stem from commitments obtained during the trade missions. Tata Consultancy Services, a multinational IT services and consulting firm based in India, committed to expanding New Jersey operations by 1,000 jobs during a 2019 trade mission to India.
“They’ve actually overdelivered on that promise,” Economic Development Authority CEO Tim Sullivan told the New Jersey Monitor.
Scott said the job gains were likely beneficial, but the degree of the benefit depended on the type of jobs created and cautioned some job gains might be unrelated to the trade missions.
“Would these companies have come to New Jersey anyway? Maybe not, but I’m skeptical by nature,” he said.
Interest from global firms also spiked following these trips, Austin said. In 2018, 20 Indian companies expressed a desire to establish or expand operations in New Jersey, compared to 369 in 2024.
Scott said the trips could make New Jersey appear a more favorable business environment. The state has the fourth-highest corporate tax rate in the nation, and the highest for firms with more than $10 million in annual profit.
“So, while it’s probably an expensive endeavor, at least they are experimenting and making efforts to increase NJ’s visibility to other nations,” he said in an email.
New Jersey’s broad and varied diaspora communities can also help the state win gains from the international trips, Sullivan said, noting business and government leaders in the host nations often have family, friends, or other acquaintances in New Jersey.
“We’re an international state. I don’t think it’s ideological to recognize — or unique to Phil Murphy — to recognize that we are an international gateway, an international crossroads. We have diaspora communities from everywhere in the world,” he said.
Sullivan said the trips are meant mainly to establish relationships and boost investment in New Jersey over the long run.
Though, he noted, investments in film tend to have a quick turnaround.
“There’s lots of specifics that come from every trip, for sure, but they usually take some time to deliver it,” Sullivan said. “These aren’t the kind of things where it’s a first meeting or a first visit and you should expect to transact. These are long-term relationship building and long-term investments as well.”
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