State’s Small Firms Ignore Trade Potential Official Says Many Are Missing Out On Golden Opportunities

Washington’s small businesses are missing the boat on international trade, says one of the state’s top trade officials.

John Anderson, the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development’s program director for Canada and Mexico, said too many people think free trade is only for multinational corporations.

In fact, he said, major companies have the resources and expertise to work around tariff and non-tariff barriers that stymie smaller businesses.

Free trade improves access to markets if more business owners take advantage of it, Anderson said.

Stephen Odom, the department’s manager for trade and market development, estimated that only one-third to one-half the 12,000 businesses capable of selling goods and services overseas do so.

State, port and federal offices have information and other assistance that can help smaller companies overcome their concerns about foreign sales, he said.

“Somebody just needs to ask,” Odom said.

Odom and Anderson were in Spokane for the Inland Northwest World Trade Council’s annual dinner this week.

He said 543,000 Washington workers produce goods and services worth $30 billion for export. All told, he said, export- and import-related jobs probably account for almost half the state’s economy.

Although many national officials have decried the loss of U.S. jobs to foreign factories, Odom said no jobs have been exported from Washington.

Last week, he noted, construction workers poured the huge foundation for a $1.2 billion semiconductor plant at Camas in southwestern Washington.

The owner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., will employ 800 during the first of what could become a five-stage operation.

The tax benefits to the state through 2002 could come to $140 million, Odom said. Gov. Mike Lowry will visit Taiwan in October to encourage more investment, he said.

Odom said the department also is having success in Japan, where American home construction methods proved superior in the 1994 Kobe earthquake.

“Our method tends to be very quick, very efficient and very sound,” Odom said. If they are adopted on a broad scale, he said, Washington lumber mills will be in an excellent position to supply materials.

Although the North American Free Trade Agreement has been attacked for opening U.S. markets to Canadian timber, Anderson said Washington wood exports over the border have also increased.

And wood-product exports to Mexico were up 146 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the first quarter of 1995, he said. Mexican purchases of all goods, including foodstuffs, were up 2,000 percent.

Odom said Washington, which shipped almost nothing to Mexico before 1994, sold $176 million in goods there last year, and $64 million in just the first quarter of 1996.

At the Inland Northwest World Trade Council’s dinner, members selected Buckeye Beans and Herbs the area’s Exporter of the Year.

Jim Pace of the Spokane City Library’s downtown branch was named educator of the year, and Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, was recognized for his outstanding individual contribution.

, DataTimes