International Trade Focus of Economic Briefing
Robert C. DeFazio talked eagerly to anyone who would listen about what his computer systems can do.
Need to verify the signature on an out-of-town check? No problem, said the former Presbyterian seminarian turned entrepreneur. His machine can scan the authenticity of a signature and even verify a check writer’s credit standing in a minute, he said.
Need to retrieve documents or any printed material stored in a computer at home? Easy, he said. Punch in a selected code to reach the computer system by phone and, in 60 seconds, it can be faxed over, said DeFazio, president of Ionadh Industries (USA) in Buena Park.
Although he began marketing his systems last year, DeFazio has sold only one to date. But he’s not disappointed and said that if America isn’t interested, he’ll sell the systems abroad.
DeFazio, 44, represented one of 50 companies and several U.S. and foreign government agencies to exhibit products and services Friday during the seventh annual Orange County Economic Briefing in Irvine. It will be people like DeFazio who help cut the $66.2-billion U.S. trade deficit, said Prof. Richard Drobnick, the event’s keynote speaker.
“Income growth trends in the United States remain low and will stay that way in the next few years and American companies that can’t sell their products and services at home are selling them abroad,” said Drobnick, director of the Center for International Business Education and Research at USC.
Drobnick said he expects the value of the dollar to remain near current levels against the Japanese yen and other major foreign currencies.
These factors, he said, will make it easier for companies, like Ionadh Industries, to sell internationally. As a result, he said the U.S. trade deficit is shrinking and he predicted “we’ll be moving toward a trade surplus in the 1990s.”
Other speakers included Sir Eldon Griffiths of the Orange County World Affairs Council, who encouraged area companies to “go global” to survive and advised companies to take advantage of the openness in the European Community before the 12-member Western nations unify their economies at the end of this year. Jean R. AbiNader, president of the U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce in Washington, discussed pockets of opportunities for U.S. exports in the Middle East, while Jon M. Huntsman Jr. talked about the appetite for U.S. goods and services in the Pacific Rim, which now make up a third of Orange County’s international trade.
While the riots in Los Angeles County cast a pall on this year’s event, the turnout was better than anticipated, said Eva R. Schneider, chair of the county’s Protocol Commission, which sponsored the event. About a quarter of the 320 people who paid to attend the conference and trade show did not show up, she said.
