Memo to Wilson: Dial 1-800-4PacRim

Gov. Pete Wilson deserves more than a little credit for the state’s rebound from recession. Under his stubborn prodding a few years ago, the state Legislature, then under long-standing Democratic control, began pruning government red tape and reducing workers’ compensation costs that were driving many business people right out of their minds--and some of them right out of the state. That effort helped the state economy by making government less inefficient. But now Wilson must do something else. For pro-business Republican though he may be, the governor has not made his personal presence felt on the PacRim scene. In this arena, he must make government more prominent.

California is to Asia-Pacific trade what Michael Jordan is to the jump shot. The governor needs to develop a snazzy Pacific Rim image to go with the state’s new international economic reality. His current posture more befits some small-time Southern governor than the chief executive of the seventh or eighth largest economy in the world. At home, for instance, Wilson comes across mainly as a stern critic of illegal immigrants who, by and large, probably contribute at least as much to our wealth and culture as they derive. Compare that to the more nuanced stance of his Texas counterpart, George W. Bush, who works hard at warming the Tex-Mex relationship, not chilling it.

Overseas, Wilson hasn’t much made the scene. Of course, until relatively recently he had been bogged down by the deep recession, rocked by natural disasters and sidetracked by his short, inept run for the White House. As governor, he has been out of the country on behalf of California only once--though, thankfully, to Asia. Wilson must get PacRim cosmopolitan real fast. He needs to journey westward with trade delegations as well as down to Latin America (if any of those countries will have him). He has to start showing the flag. Here’s a chance: In September, California will send a trade mission to Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. These are three important players on the new world stage of international trade, important enough for Secretary of State Warren Christopher to have spent last week with them and their Asian colleagues. The centerpiece of the trip will be the region’s largest computer and technology convention. Why not upgrade the California mission with the governor’s presence?

Asia, after all, is a place that puts considerable symbolic significance on face. Yet Wilson’s office says it has no current plans to show his smiling mug in the Far East where, at the very least, he should personally head that trade mission this fall. It is scarcely lost on our governor that foreign trade has been absolutely critical to California’s economic comeback. He knows that despite the extraordinary weight of 3.3 billion people--more than half the world’s population--Asian economies will by the year 2020 have sprung some 2 billion people out of poverty. This means that the region is, in nontechnical terms, one helluva market. Asia is predicted to account for half the world’s economic growth in just four years.

Wilson isn’t alone in his PacRim low profile. Few bigshot public officials are doing enough to exploit the California advantage. Economist Jack Kyser of the L.A. Economic Development Corp. says flatly: “Notwithstanding its well-publicized successes, California is just stumbling along when it comes to international trade.” He agrees that sometimes government agencies provide effective help for Californians trading with PacRim nations. Government can help scrape away red tape, fast-forward forms and direct applications to the right people, interpret fiendishly complex foreign laws, finesse currency problems and visa complications.

But experts like Kyser worry that a lot of help goes a-wasted because government agencies rarely advertise all that they can do for people. As a result, not enough actual or potential PacRim entrepreneurs get help, either because they don’t know what’s available or because they are so intimidated by the process that they would rather simply continue selling melons in Mendocino. Why not a federal/state/local

1-800-4PacRim number? Wouldn’t that help the average small-time business looking to tap into the market?

California, while on the upswing, is failing to realize its potential as the nation’s leading trading state. Few officials are considered PacRim leaders, except for state Treasurer Matt Fong and state Trade and Commerce Secretary Julie Meier Wright, a Wilson appointee who runs a sharp shop. Her agency recently opened a trade office in Jakarta, California’s fourth in Asia. And some PacRimsters give L.A. millionaire Mayor Richard Riordan, a former businessman, good marks; he keeps the office door wide open whenever foreign trade delegations are in town. Unlike Wilson.

Says one well-informed observer: “I give no one an A grade, but Julie Wright, the feds and the Clinton administration get an A-minus for effort. The L.A. Board of Supervisors doesn’t even get a grade, because they’re not even taking the course. Wilson gets a D. He should be doing a lot more personally. After all he’s the governor.” Thus, in a region of the world where face is almost everything, the governor has shown next to nothing. Come on, Pete; show the flag, don’t be a drag. Go to Asia, set the example. Let’s get this state into high gear.

Times columnist Tom Plate also teaches at UCLA. He can be reached by e-mail at <tplate@ucla.edu>.