Mexican Trade Outlook Brightens Meetings Scheduled In Spokane To Help Foster Stronger Trade Ties
The rebounding Mexican peso has a growing number of Spokane businesses excited about trading with Mexico, officials said Wednesday.
The Seattle Mexican Trade Commissioner and Consul General on Friday will hold the first of several meetings and exchanges designed to foster trade with Inland Northwest companies.
Those meetings come on the heels of the opening of a new Mexican assembly plant by Spokane-based Johnson Matthey Electronics and plans announced last month by Telect Inc. to open an expansion factory south of the border.
While the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 began to lower trade barriers with Mexico, the devaluation of the peso several months later stalled the nation’s ability to buy American products and services because its currency was worth less. The purchase of Washington apples, for instance, dropped 50 percent from 8 million boxes to 4 million boxes, after the peso was devalued.
But in recent months, business leaders say the Mexican economy and currency have improved, triggering a renewed interest in trade south of the border.
“The peso situation decelerated our efforts in Mexico and brought a number of negotiations to a halt,” said Klaus Huschke, senior vice president-international for Itron Inc., a Valley manufacturer of gas and electric meter-reading equipment. “That’s changed in the last six months and we hope to expand our activities in Mexico in the next 10 to 20 months.”
Michele Maher, chairwoman of the Hispanic Business and Professional Association in Spokane, said Seattle Mexican Consul General Castro-Bojorquea and Trade Commissioner Fernando Diaz will meet with business leaders from 9 a.m. to noon Friday in the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce building, 1020 W. Riverside.
Among the companies expressing interest in the meeting are Washington Water Power Co., Itron, Legumes Plus, United Parcel Service, ASC Machine Tools and Wagstaff Inc.
Maher, a freight consultant who heads a Spokane Regional International Trade Alliance committee for developing ties to Mexico, said the commissioner’s visit is the first of several events planned this year to give local business owners opportunities to explore trade with Mexico. A trade group from the Mexican State of Jalisco is expected to visit Spokane, and the Community Colleges of Spokane is spearheading a student exchange program.
“They’re all willing to talk to businesses here to see if there are trade matches that can be struck,” said Maher, owner of J. White & Associates.
Trade with Mexico is nothing new to Spokane. Carlos Landa, the 84-year-old honorary Mexican consul and Valley resident, was buying Wenatchee apple seedlings for Mexico’s orchards in the early 1950s.
NAFTA further fueled trade between the two nations when it was enacted Jan. 1, 1994, lowering tariffs and reducing paperwork. Soon thereafter, Spokane-based Key Tronic Corp. transferred much of its Spokane manufacturing work to a plant it had bought in Juarez in 1993.
However, the Clinton administration earlier this year cited Mexico as one of 42 nations still erecting onerous trade barriers to U.S. businesses.
Victor Vera, Wagstaff’s area manager for Latin America, said he believes Spokane eventually will become a shipping center to Mexico because of the Inland Northwest expertise in agricultural products, manufacturing equipment and technical training.
“Spokane has greater opportunities to make inroads in the Mexican market,” said Vera, whose company for nearly a decade has provided tooling equipment to Mexican manufacturers who produce aluminum ingot and billet.
, DataTimes