Pacific Coast Business Times

Dec. 14, 2001

International trade services take hit in Ventura County

By Laura Polland Staff Writer

Ventura County’s international trade resources are in a state of upheaval with the recent closure of the Export Small Business Development Center in Ventura and the reorganization of the California Central Coast World Trade Center in Oxnard.

Both the El Segundo-based Export Small Business Development Center and its satellite in Ventura shut down in mid-October. Although up to 50 percent of an SBDC’s funding comes from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Export SBDC also received funding from The Export Managers Association, U.S. Department of Commerce and State of California.

A representative of the El Segundo-based operations attributed the shutdown to the discontinuation of state funds.

“When the president’s budget came out, everyone knew the Department of Commerce would receive cuts. A lot of its funding [was federal]. The major slowdown we’ve been experiencing put it over the top,” said Kevin Santos-Coy, an international trade specialist at the Center for International Trade Development in Oxnard.

The Export SBDC was founded in 1991 by the Export Managers Association of California to help small exporters. Its Web site, www.exportsbdc.org, states that the organization had more than 16,000 customers using three main services: educational seminars, access to a database and free one-on-one trade counseling.

World Trade centers offer similar services, acting as a kind of portal with educational seminars, membership discounts and trade information such as trade standards, laws, shipping and foreign investment. The Oxnard-based California Central Coast World Trade Center has been in a state of reduced activity while it undergoes restructuring.

“We have been in the process of implementing a virtual presence hopefully more useful to our supporters and members than only a brick-and-mortar presence,” said David Habib, a board member of the WTC in Oxnard. “Over the [past] year or so we have worked with the new [Center for International Trade Development] office at Oxnard College in offering and promoting trade-related programs in the community, and we expect to implement some new programs of our own beginning early next year.”

In the meantime, the trade center’s phone number at its offices in the Oxnard financial plaza tower has been disconnected. Although board members, including Habib and Allan Austin, president of the WTC, are providing limited services, there is no longer an active staff, said Bill Buenger, a World Trade Center board member and executive director of the Port of Hueneme.

Buenger attributed the reorganization to “a number of things,” including funding and issues with membership and staff.

The California Central Coast World Trade Center was reevaluating its goals last year as a natural part of the transition to a new president, said Bella Heule, executive vice president of the World Trade Center in Long Beach. The former president, Gary Snyder, left his position to head a new online international trade resource, WorldTradeServices.com.

Matthew Kleinknecht, vice president of the New York-based World Trade Centers Association, had not heard that the Oxnard center was reorganizing, but said it would not be unusual for a World Trade Center to shut down temporarily for reorganization while retaining membership in the national association.

Habib believes the county’s international trade structure will come out stronger after the reorganiaation. “We are � designing and expect to facilitate a system of cooperation between several organizations in the county, in order to consolidate and improve the accessibility and delivery of international trade-related information and services to the community,” he said.

Other international trade services in the county include the Center for International Trade Development, located at Oxnard College, and the U.S. Commercial Service Center in Ventura. These organizations are helping to pick up the slack left by the closure and reorganization of their fellow international trade groups.

“As we have done before, we continue to invite as many of the [remaining international business] players to come to the international council meetings and strategize accordingly,” said Santos-Coy of the Center for International Trade Development.

With a thriving port and industries including agriculture, technology and manufacturing, Ventura County seems like a natural place for international trade to spring up. The troubled economy could even increase the number of companies entering the international arena.

“Historically, U.S. companies turn to exporting in a downturn,” said Bill Irion, principal of Irion Enterprises, an international consultancy in Santa Paula. While large companies are often already involved in international trade, it is during recessions that smaller companies turn away from an insufficient U.S. market to find outside customers, he said.

©2001 Pacific Coast Business Times. All Rights Reserved, Reprinted with Permission.