Center for U.S.-Mexico Trade Is Far Below Goal

Twenty-two months ago, Mexico’s President Vicente Fox and California Gov. Gray Davis inaugurated a Mexican Trade Center in Santa Ana that was expected to bring a bustle of commerce to the city.

Now, amid changes in Mexico’s government and sagging economies in both countries, city officials still are waiting for that traffic to arrive.

In 2002, 133 Mexican businesspeople visited the 7,000-square-foot center, a fraction of what had been expected, according to Mexican officials. The visits did lead to about $2.5 million in sales, but that too was far less than expected, officials said.

Poor-performing trade centers in San Antonio and Albuquerque have closed. “I think you could say that there has been a pause,” said Leopoldo Prendes, an official who ran the San Antonio center.

Santa Ana officials, meanwhile, are considering how to rent out the space they had hoped would be occupied by representatives of Mexico’s 31 states and federal district. They were to help businesses acquire Mexican products and raw materials. Only three states ever sent representatives. Alfredo Cruz, director of the Santa Ana center, said the economy in the United States and Mexico has sagged and, as a result, so has the center. The states in Mexico never had budgets to pay for representatives to come to Santa Ana, he said. They would have needed about $100,000 annually for salaries, telephone and travel costs.

With a staff of three, plus the three representatives from Mexican states, the center has hosted at least one delegation of about a dozen people each month from Mexico, offering them tours of the area and trying to link them with local companies, Cruz said.

“There have been so many changes in Mexico that all programs are being reviewed,” he said.

The changes include the dismissal of migrant relations czar Juan Hernandez, a supporter of binational relations, and the departure of Mexico’s Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda.

The center once reported to Hernandez, but now is overseen by Mexico’s economy secretary.

The slow start has created problems for Santa Ana, which put up $200,000 to pay rent for three years for the facility inside the International Business Center at 10th Street and Broadway.

“I’m a little disappointed,” conceded Councilman Jose Solorio. “The flip side is that the city had space reserved and now it can be used by others who wanted it.”

Business center representatives are lining up tenants to fill the unused space. One office, for instance, will be used by the Japan External Trade Organization, which promotes investment and trade between California and Japan. Delegations from China and Korea are visiting in February to consider leasing office space, and representatives from England and El Salvador have indicated they may take a cubicle or two.

“It’s not the end of the world, what happened with Mexico,” said Cesar Armendariz, director of the International Business Center. “It’s made us look for new opportunities.”

Santa Ana’s trade center opened just after Fox was elected, helping him keep his promise to open such a facility within 100 days of taking office. The deal was made easier when Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido successfully proposed that the city pick up the rent.

Pulido, born in Mexico City and reared in Southern California, said he had long dreamed of connecting his homeland with the city he served. He did not return calls seeking comment about the center’s problems.

Antonio Anzaldua, assistant director of Hispanic programs in the United States for Mexico’s Secretary of the Economy, said that the Santa Ana center will not close and that its performance was similar to that of centers in Dallas and New York City.

The Mexican government intends to push ahead with a plan to open 16 facilities -- none in California -- in 2003, he said. New operations, however, probably will be distribution offices that will be used to sell specific Mexican products.

As the plan develops, Mexico’s businesses still need to learn more about how to use new technology to reach into new markets, Anzaldua said. Part of the barrier, however, are high interest rates that prevent small businesses from getting credit to expand.

Even so, Anzaldua said, the Mexican Trade Center “should have been promoted more. This is a priority for us in 2003.”