www.sdchamber.org

Mexico Business Center Update

By James Clark, Director General of the Mexico Business Center

The highlight of the April 7-10 "San Diego/Baja California Mission to Mexico III" was a meeting at Los Pinos with President Felipe Calderon to discuss issues of concern to the bi-national region.   The President expressed support for a second border crossing at Otay Mesa, as well as a pedestrian crossing at the Tijuana International Airport and expansion of the San Ysidro-El Chaparral crossing. 

In addition to the meeting at Los Pinos with the President, the Mission met with United States Ambassador Antonio O. Garza, Jr., and United States Trade Representative Karen Zens at the Mexico City U.S. Trade Office.   Other meetings were held with offices at SRE--the Foreign Ministry, Secretariat of Communications & Transportation, Secretariat of the Economy, and the Secretariat of the Treasury (Customs).  

Dr. Guillermo Ortiz, Governor of the Bank of Mexico (the country's central bank) addressed the group at the luncheon held at the Club de Banqueros.   Senator Luis Villarreal, Chairman of the Borders Commission, hosted the delegation for a luncheon at the Senate of Mexico, on the opening day of the debate of the President's Energy Reform Bill.

Forty-six delegates participated from both sides of the border.  Among the San Diego delegates were Phil Blair and Ruben Barrales, Chairman and President of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, respectively.  Chairman Steve Williams, Vice Chairman Alex Rios, Director James Clark and Manager Viviana Ibañez represented the Mexico Business Center, organizers of the Mission.  There were also two representatives--Joel Valenzuela and Miguel Reyes--from the Port of San Diego, as well as Bob Watkins, Charlene Zettel and Mike Kulis from the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.   Charles McHaffie, Armando Freire and Byron Wear represented the Carrizo Gorge Railway.  Also from San Diego were Vivian Olmos of North American Product Sharing, Roxana Foxx of Hunter International, Jeff Lake of The New Majority, Luis Escareno of UETA Duty Free, Sergio Jinich of Paragon Company, Jason Wells of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, Andrea Skorepa of Casa Familiar, and Linda Caballero-Sotelo and Fred Sotelo from Toltec Media.   Lurita Doan, Administrator of the United States General Services Administration as well as Susan Peppler and Ramon Riesgo from GSA joined the delegation meetings with the United States Embassy and Los Pinos.

Among the Baja California delegates were Oscar Escobedo, Secretary of Tourism and representative of Governor Guadalupe Osuna.  City Councilmen Luis Bustamante, Gerardo Alvarez and Luis Moreno as well as Secretary of Economic Development Jesus Manuel Sandez represented the City of Tijuana.  Alejandro Monraz, Federal Delegate of the Secretary of Economy to Baja California, played a key role at the Secretariat of the Economy as well as at Los Pinos.  Saul Garcia, President of Kyocera Mexicana, who is also the President of the Maquiladora Association, was a spokesperson for the private sector as were Jaime Gonzalez Luna and Flavio Oliveri, representing DEITAC and CDT, respectively.   Other delegates from Baja California were Simon Somohano of Deloitte, Manolo Pasero of Pasero Abogados, and Rogelio Badillo of CANACAR.

Consul General of Mexico in San Diego Remedios Gomez Arnau arranged the meetings for the delegation with administration officials as well as Los Pinos through the Foreign Ministry.    The Mission was welcomed to Mexico by Lupita Ramos Cardenas for cocktails her home in Lomas.   Other special guests were Leslie Basset, Deputy Chief of Mission, United States Embassy, Luis De La Calle, Founder/Partner, CMM Mexico, Celso Delgado, PRI International Director, and PRD Deputy Moises Dagdug.   Simone Heinlien, United States State Department, also accompanied the delegation throughout the mission.  Members of the United States Customs & Border Protection joined the delegation for the meeting with Mexican Customs.

The "San Diego/Baja California Mission to Mexico IV" is scheduled for April 20-23, 2009