Gov. Ned Lamont is back from a three-day trip to the International Paris Air Show.

He wasn’t there to see the Eiffel Tower. Instead, Connecticut is trying to lure aerospace companies to our state.

“It felt like the entire Connecticut aerospace industry was over there,” said Dan O'Keefe, Connecticut’s Community and Economic Development commissioner, who attended the trade mission.

The delegation met with companies already in Connecticut – like Pratt and Whitney and Sikorsky – but also with companies that might want to expand here. The aerospace industry contributes more than $6 billion to the state’s economy, including hundreds of smaller suppliers.

President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs were a hot topic. To avoid the fees, O’Keefe expected European companies to shift production in the U.S. But so far, that isn’t the case.

“The reason why I think we’re seeing less demand of actually taking physical plant and moving it from Europe to here is because there's so much uncertainty,” he said. “What we've seen is existing companies in Connecticut seek to increase their production capacity. That's still great for the state of Connecticut, so no complaints here.”

The Paris Air Show is one of world’s largest aerospace trade shows, attended by military leaders and business executives of the commercial aerospace and defense industry. More than 2,454 aerospace and defense companies from throughout the world will be exhibiting.

This is just the latest trade mission for Lamont. He has also been to India, Israel and Germany.

“It takes time. These are conversations that can often go on years,” O’Keefe said. “But out of all of those trade missions, we’ve seen continuing interest in moving to the state of Connecticut, a number of companies that have chosen to do so.”

In Paris, Lamont also met with Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy. He pressed Duffy for more infrastructure funding, but got no firm commitments yet.

See News 12 Connecticut's full interview with O'Keefe on "Power and Politics," airing Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday at 11:30 a.m.