All posts by Margrethe Harboe

Jotun vinner Eksportprisen 2025

Business News, Chemicals / Metals, Trade

Jotun, vinneren av eksportprisen 2025, har skapt stor inntekt i Norge gjennom sin virksomhet i internasjonale markeder
Jotun har siden 1926 vært et selskap som har preget Norge. Jotun har i snart hundre år beskyttet skip, stålkonstruksjoner, ikoniske bygninger og private boliger over hele verden. Fra sin opprinnelse i Sandefjord har selskapet skapt et globalt nettverk bestående av over 10 000 ansatte og 67 selskaper i 47 land.

Jotun sysselsetter over 1000 ansatte i Norge, samtidig som store deler av Jotuns omsetning stammer fra aktivitet i utlandet.

Les hele artikkelen.

Transatlantic Voices: A Message From the Managing Director

AmCham News

Transatlantic Voices: A Message from the Managing Director

A literal transatlantic chorus has broken out since January 20th – some reactionary and impulsive, some impassioned, some opportunistic, some deeply reflective. Many more are engaged in evaluating US-Norway relations than at any point during my 22 years at the helm of AmCham. Thankfully and essentially, voices of measured reason are growing in vitality.

Our mission of advancing transatlantic business suddenly has considerably more heft. Our leading member companies are keenly aware of operating environment fundamentals shifting beneath their respective operations, both in Norway and the US. They are closely monitoring, assessing, and preparing to implement strategic countermeasures in the event of US administration trade policy clarity.

For the nearly 400 US companies operating in Norway – employing 45 000 and accounting for 2.3% of Norway’s GDP, along with Norwegian companies supporting thousands of jobs in the US – these are trying times. How to best navigate ubiquitous instability becomes as important as operational efficiency, scale, and product/service innovation.

As a resource to address this instability, AmCham’s amalgamation of cross-industry leaders, trusted information resources, transatlantic business platforms and deep-seated public partner relationships are unmatched. Our private sector leaders are coming together to solve real-world problems for their respective organizations, mutually learning from and improving upon one another’s decision-making capabilities.

 

"As business leaders heavily invested in the transatlantic economy, we have an increasingly vital role to play going forward."

Jason Turflinger

Jason Turflinger

Deeply Enduring Ties

For what it’s worth and as an American, I am deeply concerned by what I read early each morning from the US. As an honorary Norwegian of 26 years, I am no less troubled by local media, partner reports and public sentiment. My conversations with colleagues, members, partners, friends, family and acquaintances are very often focused on D.C. It can be all-encompassing.

Democratically elected US officials’ decision-making processes – as abrupt, unpredictable and potentially damaging to mutual value creation as they may seem to be – are often outside of our control. Fact-based, reasoned and long-term strategic decision-making is, however, decidedly well within our domain. As business leaders heavily invested in the transatlantic economy, we have an increasingly vital role to play going forward.

With the robust US system of government and institutions now being stress tested, along with transatlantic relationships in general, let us not easily forget our enduring ties. Our mutual prosperity depends upon it – and AmCham’s work continues in earnest. Onward, together!

A Message from the Managing Director – March 2025

Archive

Transatlantic Voices: A Message from the Managing Director

A literal transatlantic chorus has broken out since January 20th – some reactionary and impulsive, some impassioned, some opportunistic, some deeply reflective. Many more are engaged in evaluating US-Norway relations than at any point during my 22 years at the helm of AmCham. Thankfully and essentially, voices of measured reason are growing in vitality.

Our mission of advancing transatlantic business suddenly has considerably more heft. Our leading member companies are keenly aware of operating environment fundamentals shifting beneath their respective operations, both in Norway and the US. They are closely monitoring, assessing, and preparing to implement strategic countermeasures in the event of US administration trade policy clarity.

For the nearly 400 US companies operating in Norway – employing 45 000 and accounting for 2.3% of Norway’s GDP, along with Norwegian companies supporting thousands of jobs in the US – these are trying times. How to best navigate ubiquitous instability becomes as important as operational efficiency, scale, and product/service innovation.

As a resource to address this instability, AmCham’s amalgamation of cross-industry leaders, trusted information resources, transatlantic business platforms and deep-seated public partner relationships are unmatched. Our private sector leaders are coming together to solve real-world problems for their respective organizations, mutually learning from and improving upon one another’s decision-making capabilities.

"As business leaders heavily invested in the transatlantic economy, we have an increasingly vital role to play going forward."

- Jason Turflinger

Jason Turflinger

Deeply Enduring Ties

For what it’s worth and as an American, I am deeply concerned by what I read early each morning from the US. As an honorary Norwegian of 26 years, I am no less troubled by local media, partner reports and public sentiment. My conversations with colleagues, members, partners, friends, family and acquaintances are very often focused on D.C. It can be all-encompassing.

Democratically elected US officials’ decision-making processes – as abrupt, unpredictable and potentially damaging to mutual value creation as they may seem to be – are often outside of our control. Fact-based, reasoned and long-term strategic decision-making is, however, decidedly well within our domain. As business leaders heavily invested in the transatlantic economy, we have an increasingly vital role to play going forward.

With the robust US system of government and institutions now being stress tested, along with transatlantic relationships in general, let us not easily forget our enduring ties. Our mutual prosperity depends upon it – and AmCham’s work continues in earnest. Onward, together!

Ingenting tyder på at avtalen om flyt av persondata mellom EU og USA vil falle bort

Business News, Technology

Vi lever i urolige tider. Verden er i endring. Det må vi alle forholde oss til. Det gjelder også norske virksomheter som overfører personopplysninger til USA, for eksempel ved bruk av amerikanske skytjenester. Jeg forventer at disse virksomhetene kjenner og etterlever personvernregelverket. Men jeg har aldri sagt at de må ha en exit-strategi, slik Digi skriver 13. mars. -Karianne Tung, digitaliserings- og forvaltningsminister.

Les hele innlegget her.

Næringsministeren om mulig USA-toll: Norge ikke tjent med å svare med økt toll tilbake

Business News, Trade

– Regjeringens utgangspunkt er at Norge ikke vil være tjent med å eskalere en handelskonflikt, for eksempel ved å svare med tolløkninger på amerikanske varer, sa Myrseth mandag i en handelspolitisk redegjørelse i Stortinget.

Hun la til at toll på varer bare vil ramme forbrukere og bedrifter.

– Vårt budskap overfor USA er at økte handelshindre ikke er i noens interesse i det lange løp, og at verdensøkonomien vil tape på en omfattende handelskonflikt.

– Når det gjelder handel med USA; om det kommer tolløkninger på norske varer inn til USA, vil vi arbeide for å få disse fjernet. Men vi må være klar over at dette kan bli svært krevende.

Norway’s Trade Minister Myrseth Works to Win EU Tariff Exemption

Business News, Trade

Norway’s Trade Minister Cecilie Myrseth met with European Union officials as the Nordic country seeks an exemption to any broad protective tariff the bloc could levy as a response to a US initiated trade war.

“There is a lot of uncertainty, but the EU knows our position very well,” Myrseth said by phone on Friday. She met EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic a day earlier to argue on behalf of Norway, but secured no concrete promises of exemption, she said.

On Friday, Norway agreed to implement 79 EU directives at a meeting with its European Economic Agreement partners — the EU, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The Nordic country is speeding up the approval of EU laws to improve its negotiating position and avert a scenario in which it has to pay tariffs to sell goods in the EU, its main trading partner.

Read full article HERE.

CoreWeave partners with Bulk Infrastructure for one of the largest NVIDIA AI deployments in Europe

Business News, Technology

Oslo, Norway – 14th March, 2025 – CoreWeave, the AI Hyperscaler™ and Bulk Infrastructure (Bulk), a leading provider of sustainable digital infrastructure, have announced a partnership to establish one of the largest NVIDIA AI deployments in Europe at the N01 Datacenter Campus, Vennesla, Norway. 

As part of this partnership, CoreWeave will use Bulk’s N01 Datacenter Campus to deploy a large-scale NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 cluster, interconnected with ultra-fast NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking. This deployment aims to significantly enhance compute capacity in Norway and is expected to be operational by Summer 2025.

Read full article.

US steel and aluminium tariffs: American business in Europe responds

Business News, Chemicals / Metals, Trade

Today, the US administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, including EU imports. In response, Malte Lohan, CEO, American Chamber of Commerce to the EU (AmCham EU), expressed the opposition of American business in Europe to the decision, stating: ‘The US administration’s new steel and aluminium tariffs are not the same as those imposed in 2018. They are more stringent and cover a range of downstream products, meaning their impact will be harsher and affect even more sectors.’ 

Read full article here.

US funding freeze affecting both American and international exchange students

Business News, Education / Research

The Trump administration’s funding freeze affecting several prominent international education grant programmes in the US continues. Over 10,000 students and professionals participating in international exchanges – some American, some from other countries – have had their funding withdrawn. They have been given no indication of when – or if – funding of their programmes will be reinstated.

The US government paused funding of all programmes under the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) on 13 February 2025 for 15 days. Instead of ending the pause as expected on 27 February, it kept the freeze in place. 

Read full article.