Ventura County Star
County officials are looking longingly at China

BROADER HORIZONS: They see the Asian giant as a way to expand their businesses.

By Frank Moraga, Staff writer
April 28, 2002

If it seems like everyone is going to China to do business these days, that might not be too far from the truth.

One delegation from the Port of Hueneme already has visited Beijing for meetings on establishing and expanding trade activities at ports on both sides of the Pacific.

Meanwhile, other groups are planning trips to look at the investing and marketing potential in the Asian superpower.

There is good reason for local businesses to consider China and the rest of Asia as prime markets.

“Everyone expects trade in Asia to grow by 10 times in the next 10 years. China is becoming a manufacturing location for companies all over the world,” said William Irion of Irion Enterprises in Santa Paula, who is on the board of the Pacific Agribusiness Alliance and the World Affairs Council of Ventura County.

Irion himself is working with a Japanese company that is importing flowers from China along with companies involved in bulk wine production, which could see tariff prices in China for American wine products fall from the current level of 65 percent down to 14 percent in a few years thanks to China entry into the World Trade Organization.

A good part of the push for the Port’s interest in China can be traced to Will Berg, director of marketing for the Oxnard Harbor District.

“With Will Berg, you have someone in the Port District who speaks Chinese,” Irion said.

Berg visited China last year, made some initial contacts for the port, did some research and brought back enough information to set in motion a variety of programs, Irion said.

Berg, Oxnard Harbor commissioners Jesse Ramirez, Jess Herrera, Nao Takasugi and William J. Buenger — the port’s executive director, left Ventura County more than a week ago and were scheduled to conclude their trip to Beijing on Saturday.

While in China they were scheduled to meet with port officials in Qinhuangdao and Shanghai and attend the Supply Chain Management & Logistics Roundtable and Expo in Beijing.

Meanwhile a local delegation from the 34-member private Camarillo/Shaoxing Friendship City Organization will be visiting China from May 9 through 19.

Interest in trade with China has extended to other groups statewide. The California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, through its International Trade Committee and the government of China, is organizing the “Agro/Techno Trade Mission to China” from June 12 through 20.

For the $3,090 fee for members, $3,190 for non-members, the trade mission will take participants to the cities of Tianjian and Shenyang where they can introduce their products and services during private meetings, roundtable presentations, conferences and business receptions.

Julian Canete, executive director of the Hispanic Chambers, and Hugo W. Merida, the International Trade Committee chairman, will lead the trade mission.

©Ventura County Star, 2002.