International Trade Mart

The International Trade Mart was a New Orleans-based organization promoting international trade and the Port of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The organization was founded in 1946, and merged with International House in 1968, when it was renamed to World Trade Center New Orleans. After World War II, New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw returned to New Orleans where he became a founder of the International Trade Mart (ITM). From 1947 to his retirement in 1965, Shaw ran the ITM as a managing director. The International Trade Mart was chartered in 1945, first opened in 1948, and in 1968, merged with International House to form the World Trade Center New Orleans (WTCNO), a private, non-profit organization with a membership of 2,000 corporations and individuals dedicated to improving international trade with New Orleans. Like its predecessor organizations, the WTCNO continues to sponsor trade missions to Latin American and Caribbean nations to conduct a variety of educational programs, conferences, seminars, and trade shows and to host dignitaries and other visitors from New Orleans' trade partner nations.