Chinese and Montana entrepreneurs talk business

A roomful of Montana business owners and a delegation of business people and others from Shanghai met Wednesday at the University of Montana School of Business to talk about trade ties between Montana and China.

By ROBERT STRUCKMAN of the Missoulian

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/11/11/news/mtregional/news08.txt

Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, who organized the trip, talked about Montana’s rising exports to China, which had a $2 billion trade deficit in agricultural goods in 2003. He cited statistics from the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee that said the state exported more than $32 million in wheat to China between June and September.

The numbers were impressive, yet it was a speech and ensuing discussion led by Wang Xinkui, president of the Shanghai World Trade Organization Affairs Consultation Center, which seemed to captivate the imagination of the Montana business owners at the table.

Wang, speaking through a translator, spoke mostly about Shanghai’s role as a manufacturing center. China has

80 percent of the market share of shoes sold in the United States, he said. The country makes 60 percent of all shoes in the world.

China’s dominance has brought mixed reactions: In Spain last month, for example, he said shoes were burned to protest China’s shoe-market share.

And he cited efforts by the textile and apparel industries in the United States to impose restraints on Chinese imports. Wang said "anti-terrorism" was cited as a reason for seeking those restrictions.

"I foresee tension regarding our trade and economic relationship this year and for years ahead," he said.

The problem, he said, was that Americans only regard China as a manufacturing base. It is more than that. As the country’s economy has grown, China has begun to build a burgeoning consumer class, he said.

"I believe we should improve dialogue between entrepreneurs in China and the United States," he said.

The discussion followed speeches by another member of the Shanghai delegation and a few members of the Montana group.

David Oien, president of Conrad-based Timeless Seeds Inc., asked how the Chinese government intended to protect trademarks on American products.

Wang, who spoke with a mixture of humor and earnestness, started by saying, "I’m glad you brought that up."

After acknowledging the proliferation of fake products – from Rolexes to Adidas and other brand-name goods – for sale on the streets of Shanghai, he joked about the effort to crack down on the illegal vendors. Then he added, on a more serious note, that those visible signs of China’s failure to enforce international intellectual property laws were mostly unemployed workers trying to make a buck.

Wang poked fun at himself, saying that he ran home to check his own computer to see if any of his own programs were pirated. And he lightened the usually somber topic. Imitation is a form of flattery, he said, grinning. All those fake products are a form of advertisement.

More seriously, he said that the Chinese government realizes the extent of the problem and has been taking steps to protect businesses that choose to use China as a manufacturing base, he said.

Then one of the Chinese businessmen in the delegation rose and spoke, again through an interpreter, of his company’s problems with counterfeiters.

"It is not just a concern for foreign investors," he said.

Baucus then spoke up, describing the rows upon rows of counterfeit vendors outside the U.S. Embassy in Shanghai. Vendors grabbed his jacket, he said, in an effort to sell him things.

"When will the critical mass (of Chinese business owners) develop to force the government to make a change?" he asked.

The discussion went on. Business cards were exchanged. Networking happened. And then the delegation moved across the Clark Fork River to visit startups at the business incubator MonTEC. Thursday the group will go on to Billings.

Reporter Robert Struckman can be reached at 523-5262 or

[email protected].