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Super Markets The hottest international markets for 1997

By Lynn Beresford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

What countries are the hungriest for U.S. exports? The Department of Commerce has selected 10 particularly ripe areas, which should be hot markets for at least the next several years. Known as Big Emerging Markets (BEMs), these areas are expected to double their share of world imports by 2010, making them attractive outlets for products made in the United States.

What are these red-hot markets? The Chinese Economic Area (comprised of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), India, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, Turkey and South Africa. According to Department of Commerce figures, the collective gross domestic product (GDP) of the BEMs is 25 percent of that of the industrialized world, but by 2010, it is expected to comprise half that of the industrialized world.

Not sold yet? By 2000, the BEMs will be a bigger market than the European Union (EU). By 2010, they will represent a bigger market than the EU and Japan combined. Already, U.S. exports to the BEMs comprise almost one-fourth of total U.S. exports.