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New panel to boost trade with world

The board will market the bay area throughout the hemisphere and report on its progress.

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published June 29, 2005

TAMPA - A host of government and private entities in the Tampa Bay area pursue business with countries around the world.

But they rarely talk to each other, says Mayor Pam Iorio, much less pull in the same direction to increase international trade throughout the region.

"I don't believe the region is doing everything it could to expand international trade opportunities," she said. "Things are so fragmented. We need to hold one another accountable."

Iorio will try to coordinate the city's trade efforts by naming a high-powered advisory board within a month. The group will report to her.

Members will include business executives from international industries and the chief executives of Tampa International Airport, the Tampa Port Authority and Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, she said.

Dewey & Associates, a consulting firm hired by the chamber, has interviewed more than 50 local business and government leaders involved in international trade since February. They met in groups to set goals for the advisory panel, which include:

Marketing Tampa as an international trade hub to Mexico and Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Increasing the number of international companies and banks with offices in Tampa and attracting more foreign consul offices.

Persuading area companies that import and export products to use Tampa's port instead of larger cargo container ports such as Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga.

Getting City Hall, the airport, Port Authority and chamber to develop a joint strategy to expand international trade and work together.

Measuring progress won't be easy. The Commerce Department stopped gathering data on international trade at the local level in 1996.

"We don't know the number of (local) jobs attributed to international trade, the amount of direct foreign investment, exports, imports or the dollar volume," Iorio says. "It's very apparent this is a fragmented area of our economy."

But the advisory panel won't have an effect unless such key players as the airport, port and chamber set goals for the coming year and report back to businesses involved in international trade on how well they did, Iorio says.

The impetus for an advisory panel came from frustration in the business community over the lack of nonstop international flights from Tampa International and limited container cargo service at the port.

Airlines fly nonstop from Tampa to only five destinations outside the continental United States: London; Toronto; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Grand Cayman Island, Cayman Islands; and Nassau, Bahamas. Spirit Airlines and AirTran Airways announced plans this week to start nonstop flights to Cancun, Mexico, this year.

Airport officials routinely pitch new international routes to airlines, says Louis Miller, executive director of Tampa International.

But it's a hard sell. Airlines prefer to fly overseas from hubs, where they can fill large planes by collecting passengers from dozens of cities. And foreign carriers that fly to Orlando usually skip Tampa, figuring customers won't mind the short drive.

In the end, Miller says, airlines start routes only if they're convinced they will be profitable. "If there's a demand, carriers will sense that demand," he says.

A draft plan by the consultant suggests that the airport set goals for the number of international flights, international passengers and "convenient connecting opportunities" each year.

The Port Authority should report targets for container shipping, cargo tonnage and ship sailings, the report states, and the chamber should set goals for attracting international company offices and consul offices to Tampa.

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or 813 226-3384.

[Last modified June 29, 2005, 01:18:19]