St. Louis as China trade hub is win, win, win, Bond says
St. Louis Globe-Democrat
January 20, 2010
by Steve Birmingham
Progress is coming in the effort to turn the St. Louis region into a hub for trade with China, Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond says.
Bond spoke at the quarterly meeting of the Midwest China Hub Commission Wednesday, and told them many promising signs are emerging after talks with Chinese trade and governmental representatives he had during an 11-day trade mission to Asia and Southeast Asia.
Bond just returned from the trip that included stops in Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Singapore and Hanoi, during which he "was looking for trade opportunities and I found almost more opportunity in Southeast Asia as in China."
"This China Hub will not only open access to the China market, but getting into the region will also open up the market for products going into those countries as well," Bond says.
The Midwest China Hub Commission, chaired by Mike Jones, senior policy adviser to St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley, is tasked with making the St. Louis area an air freight hub to and from China . A public/private entity, the commission operates both in St. Louis and Beijing.
Among its members are Richard Fleming, CEO of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association (RCGA), Daniel Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and St. Louis County Economic Council CEO Denny Coleman.
"The Chinese are all for this (China Hub)," Bond says. "It has the full support of the Chinese National People's Congress. The CAAC, the Chinese equivalent of our Federal Aviation Administration, says it will be on its preferential list. The only question is whether it's commercially viable. All the parties are looking at the fourth quarter of this year as a start date."
Bond says the "Chinese airlines have to be working with us" on a study sponsored by the Midwest China Hub Commission to determine the feasibility of freight forwarding and make sure the flights "are commercially viable."
"We export $1 billion in products, both manufactured and agricultural, to China and I'm hoping that study will identify more opportunities that can fill the plans going back to China ," Bond says. "That's the key factor. I believe the export potential is there but we have to demonstrate it to the Chinese with the involvement of their airlines."
The study is to be carried out within the next six months by Aeroterm LLC, a leading firm in studying air freight forwarding, Bond says.
Bond said the China Hub's impact on the St. Louis region will be significant.
"In the short term there will be a lot more construction at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport ," he says. "Immediately there will be more jobs transportation, distribution and freight handling. I hope at the same time we will see more export opportunities. I know several St. Louis area businesses now export and they're looking to use more readily available air transport for their products. I hope more businesses will be involved."
Bond adds that the export of agricultural products is also high on the China Hub's list.
"Right now they pay $100 for a steak in China , and we can beat that, we can cut that price by more than three-quarters with good Missouri beef and pork products, packaged and ready for consumers," Bond says. It's a win, win, win. I don't want to wax too eloquently, but we need to get it started."
One of the toughest obstacles in negotiations with the Chinese over the China Hub is protectionism, Bond says.
"Unfortunately Washington has taken a trade protectionist stance, and when I talked the Chinese vice-minister of commerce I said 'you need to import Missouri beef and Missouri pork' she said 'poultry, poultry, poultry,'" Bond said. "Unfortunately there was a provision put in an agricultural bill to ban all poultry imports and a presidential order to put limits on Chinese tires and poultry. So that's part of our negotiations, those kinds of protections which I think disadvantage our consumers and invite retaliation and can potentially harm our ability to export more products to China."
Bond says a long-term goal of the China Hub is to increase passenger travel to the United States "which would be huge in re-establishing Lambert as a critical hub and making St. Louis and international destination and port for both passengers and air freight."
