VENTURA : Mexico Trip to Focus on Business Deals

The hope of increased trade with Mexico will lure a group of local business people and elected officials south on a trade mission next week.

About 19 people, 12 of them representing Southern California companies, will spend three days in the Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora. The trip was organized by the Southern California Assn. of Governments and the Mexican Trade Commission in Los Angeles.

“The purpose of the mission is to hook up business people from Southern California with business people in northern Mexico so we can make this North American Trade Agreement work for us,” said John K. Flynn, Ventura County supervisor and a member of the delegation.

The mission begins Monday in Tijuana. From there, delegates will take a bus to Mexicali, then fly to Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora State. Along the way, they will meet with local business people and discuss the developing market between the two regions.

Dave White plans to spend the trip networking. His company, Ag Land Services in Somis, produces avocados, a popular commodity in Mexico.

“My main interest is just to meet people involved in agriculture down there, compare notes and see where this NAFTA thing fits in.”

In spite of the trade agreement--which dramatically reduced tariffs on goods moving between Mexico, Canada and the United States--California still does less business with its southern neighbor than does Texas, Flynn said. Many businesses, he said, still haven’t figured out how to benefit from the new trade rules.

Mexico’s recent economic crisis has also slowed trade, but Flynn said local businesses should look to the future. “Mexico is not always going to be in those difficulties,” he said. “The peso will regain its strength. . . . We want to open up that market.”