Ventura County Star
Trade opportunity grows with China

Country begins opening markets

By Raul Hernandez, rhernandez@insidevc.com
June 29, 2002

China is a vast emerging market that is barely beginning to allow the world to tap into its 1.5 billion consumers, according to a trade expert.

As China begins to take full advantage of its entry to the World Trade Organization, the country has lessened restrictions and opened up its markets, particularly to foreign investors, said William Irion, president of Irion Enterprises.

Ventura County will benefit for China’s participation in the WTO.

“That makes agricultural products much easier to sell in China,” said Irion, a global trade facilitator and adviser.

Irion was one of the speakers at a China trip debriefing, sponsored by Oxnard College.

Recently, officials and educators from Port Hueneme, Oxnard Harbor District, and the Oxnard College Center for International Trade Development took trade missions to China.

Friday, they talked about their experiences, examined trade opportunities and follow-up visits to China.

“They are reforming a lot of China to meet WTO requirements,” Irion said. “There is more rule of law.”

These reforms include lowering more than 5,000 tariffs by an average of 12 percent, allowing financial institutions like Bank of America to do business in China and not limiting foreign investment to certain parts, Irion said.

There was $259 billion in U.S. investment in China last year, Irion said.

U.S. auto manufacturers — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — have been doing business in China for the last 20 years, according to the Chinese Commercial Consul in Los Angeles.

“You may see a very different China in 10 years,” he said. “Something else you are hearing in China, business for profit. This in a land where profit was a bad word.”

Sunkist Citrus, which exports oranges from the Port of Hueneme, began shipping fruit to China in 2001, say trade analysts.

Oxnard Harbor District Commissioners Jesse Ramirez and Nao Takasugi talked about their 10-day trip to China in May. They are optimistic that the county could soon start shipping its citrus and other crops there.

The Harbor District board endorsed a “friendly exchanges relationship” with counterparts at the Port of Qinhaungdo. The port is about 175 miles east of Beijng.

Ramirez said his concern is that the Chinese don’t have the infrastructure to distribute goods throughout the country. In Asia, small trucks also are still used for commercial transportation, he said.

“Semi-trucks are not existent in the Far East,” he said. “So we have a long way to go.”

Also more modern equipment to unload fruit and other American products and refrigerated warehouses to store produce are needed, Ramirez said.

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