Utah Governor Gary Herbert delivers a speech at the International Cooperation Day Forum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the United States, July 19, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Liwei)

SANTA FE, United States, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. state of Utah hopes to build better communication and understanding with China, said Utah State Governor Gary Herbert during the National Governors Association (NGA) meeting that was just concluded here.

Giving talks at the NGA meeting in Santa Fe, the capital city of New Mexico State, Herbert said "the final three feet" are vital to building real trust and understanding.

"China is halfway around the world from Utah," he said Friday, emphasizing that "the final three feet is where you can sit and talk to each other eye to eye."

"At least once a year, we have a delegation going to Beijing or Shanghai. We have two sister states relationships and two sister cities (with China)," he added.

The governor said there are about 130 languages spoken in Utah, emphasizing the importance of communication when doing business with the outside world.

"That gives us the ability to communicate with the world as we all know some of the challenges we face come from probably the lack of communications," he said.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, China is Utah's number four export destination. In 2017, total exports from Utah to China amounted to 737 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 6.4 percent of the state's total exports.

The governor, who advocates free and fair trade, said the United States should not isolate itself from the rest of the world.

"When you look at the purchasing power in the world, 70 percent of the purchasing power lives outside the border of the United States ... 95 percent of the customers live outside the border of America," he said, adding that doing business in the global market is in the interest of not only the U.S. economy, but also the world economy at large.

"I believe in international trade and international business. I believe the marketplace is global in nature ... We need, in fact, to work together and find ways to have international exchange," he said.

The NGA Summer Meeting was held from July 19 to July 21. Over 20 U.S. governors attended the event and all 50 U.S. states sent representatives. Delegations from China, Canada, Kenya, Japan and Mexico also participated in the event.