New year, new steps, in St. Louis-China trade talks
On the morning of Chinese New Year, the St. Louis region took another step in its bid to become China’s gateway to the Midwest.
Local business and government leaders met Monday with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong in St. Louis and announced to a packed hotel conference room the creation of a Midwest China Hub Commission to steer development of an air cargo hub at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
"It presents, we believe, a transformational opportunity," said Richard Fleming, president of the Regional Chamber & Growth Association. "For St. Louis. For the Midwest. And for China to serve a massive U.S. market."
The hub has been the subject of high-level meetings between St. Louis leaders and Chinese authorities for nearly a year, and Monday was Zhou’s second trip to the region to discuss it. A group of local business leaders is planning a second trip to Beijing later this spring. Meanwhile, a study of demand for China-bound cargo from St. Louis and surrounding areas is nearly done.
The Chinese government, Zhou said, wants to deepen its trade ties in the Midwest and likes that St. Louis came to it with the idea for an air hub at Lambert. Now it will gauge interest in the deal within its own business community and study the environment for investment in the St. Louis area. Zhou was optimistic.
"I think it’s all there," he said.
The new commission will help guide that effort by funding experts and studies of the trade potential instant payday loan. Eight state and local governments and economic development groups have pledged at least $100,000 a year in funding.
The key to any deal, said Steve Perry, an expert on Chinese trade who has been working with the St. Louis group, is two-way trade. Today, 80 percent of air freight between the two countries comes east, but there’s a strong demand in China for food, farm equipment and other Midwest-made goods.
"You’ve got to make sure you can fill those planes," he said.
If they can, said Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., the project could be a huge one for the local economy, creating jobs that are sorely needed in a down economy. Zhou agreed, and said the two nations would gain more by working together than they would otherwise.
Get more business news, blogs and opinion"Basically, we’re in the same boat," he said. "We need each other."
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