Business leaders on a mission to Mexico

County officials hope a trip in June, which will focus on the medical industry and health care market, will foster contacts and contracts.

By EDIE GROSS

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 26, 2000

James Johnson has been carrying his passport around in his car for a month just so he would not forget it in his haste to get to the airport June 6.

That's the day he and 20 other representatives of local businesses will wing their way to Mexico City on a trade mission organized by the Pinellas County Economic Development Department.

Johnson, president of 2-year-old Appliances International Inc. in South Pasadena, hopes to interest Mexican clinics and hospitals in his refurbished air conditioning units and refrigerators.

Others traveling with him hope to market everything from X-ray equipment to soft gel capsules at Expo Medica/Hospital 2000, Mexico's largest medical trade show.

"We have an abundance of good-quality, used items here in the United States. We make them available to people who are less fortunate than ourselves who could really use these items, we provide jobs for people to sell them and we provide jobs for people to fix them if they ever break down," Johnson said. "It's good for us. It's good for them. It's good for both governments."

The trip is part of Pinellas County's continuing foray into the Mexican market. County officials got a chance to make Mexican contacts during a 300-member Florida trade mission to the country last July.

A "reverse trade mission" in October brought representatives of 17 Mexican companies and government agencies to this area. The missions resulted in about $20-million in new and anticipated sales, according to economic development officials.

Building on those positive experiences, county commissioners agreed earlier this year to spend $190,000 to open an economic development office in Mexico City, hoping that trade with companies there would provide a noticeable boost to the local economy.

That office will officially open June 7 while the local delegation, representing 12 businesses, is in Mexico City.

The county decided early on that the satellite office, the first one of its kind outside the county, would initially target medical technology and health care goods and services and then move on to high-technology products; logistics and distribution services; professional services; and tourism.

To that end, Timothy Neubert, manager of the county's international business development initiative, contacted local medical companies and invited them to attend the trade show in Mexico City. Each company is paying its own way.

Health care is an $800-million industry in Mexico, and 50 percent of the products imported to support that field come from the United States, said George Martinez, manager of the U.S. Department of Commerce Export Assistance Center in Clearwater.

"You'll find hundreds and hundreds of distributors looking to do business with you," Martinez told the travelers, who gathered Thursday for an orientation session. "It's an excellent show, and I know you're going to come back with excellent prospects."

Some members of the group speak Spanish fluently. Others, such as Johnson, speak very little. Jack Grise, president of Trans-Global Trading Group in St. Petersburg, took a Spanish class two years ago at St. Petersburg Junior College.

He said he hopes what he learned kicks back in once he's in Mexico. His company can provide refurbished imaging equipment -- CAT scans, MRI, ultrasound and X-ray technology -- along with other medical supplies, he said.

If the trip goes well, Grise's company might set up a manufacturing plant in Mexico, he said.

Neubert, who will travel to the trade show with one other county official, said 106 medical and pharmaceutical companies are based in Pinellas County. It makes sense for them to do business with Mexico, where health care is one of the fastest growing industries, he said.

"Everything Mexico needs, we make," he said. "It's just perfect."

Mexico trade mission

The following Pinellas County businesses will travel to Mexico City June 6-10 on a trade mission organized by the county's economic development department:

Company	Services and products
Transitions Optical Inc.	Eyecare
Morton Plant Mease Health Care	Health care and hospital services
Bayfront-St. Anthony's Health Care	Health care and hospital services
Global Outsourcing Inc.	Manufacturing knowledge
Pride Enterprises	Medical products and services
Trans-Global Trading Group	New/refurbished medical equipment & products
Appliances International Inc.	Refurbished appliances and beds
IMDS	Lab equipment and diagnostic systems
RPScherer, North America	Soft gel capsule pharmaceuticals
Mercury Medical Services	Airway management medical equipment
Essilor of America Inc.	Eyecare
Burham Roentgen International Inc.	X-ray equipment and protection apparel

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