By David C. Buxbaum
President
May Lee Industries, Inc.
Canton, China – There are more visitors to the semi-annual Canton Trade Fair this fall than ever before. There are more Japanese among them than previously – 2100 businessmen representing 1600 companies, to be exact. There are more Americans too, though relatively the number is small.
It is not surprising , therefore, that there is also more competition than heretofore. Canton is hot, humid, busy. Traffic on the Pearl River below my hotel window seems to be heavier than when I was here in the spring.
Chinese goods improve
The quality of Chinese goods offered for sale has improved. Prices are up. For example, the famous Tientsin rugs are more costly, apparently in large part because of the rise in the price of wool on the international markets.
Chinese products shown here range from bell- bottom blue jeans to antique carpets to a Chinese- made computer.
The continuing warming of Sino-American relations is evident in the friendly manner of the Chinese officials at the fair. Seeing these officials is like meeting old friends after a long period. Negotiations proceed smoothly with these officials as assistants pour oceans of tea for the participants.
This is the second meeting of the month long Canton Fair in which Americans are participating. Of course, there are many more European businessmen who come to the fair year after year. Some of them pack up their personal articles in a trunk and store them in the basement of their hotel so that they do not have to bring them to China each time they come.
The Americans who are here are working hard to make up for lost time. To the best of my knowledge, my company, May Lee Induatris, signed the first contract at the fall fair. It was with the Fukien branch of the China National Light Industries Import-Export Corporation. We purchased a quantity of beautiful Chinese lacquer ware and hand-painted scrolls for our own account. These will be offered to department stores when they arrive in the United States.
Indications are that the U.S. will negotiate a large volume of trade with the Chinese government companies at the current fair than at the previous one. It is clear that this volume would be even larger if Congress were to grant mainland china the most favored nation treatment which so many other trading partners of the U.S. enjoy.
Impediments cited
There are other impediments to increased trade between the two countries. Chinese assets in the U.S. have been frozen since the Communist victory over the Nationalists; this situation continues to be an irritant in Peking. Chinese ships and planes are impeded from entering the U.S. If Congress wants to increase trade between the two countries, this will have to be changed.
One of the most conspicuous obstacles to improved trade between our countries is the massive effort of the Japanese to bite off as large a piece of the Chinese business as they possibly can. All the big trading companies, including Mitsubishi and Mitsui, are represented at the fair, whereas only three of the major trading companies – C. Itoh, Tomen, and Nichimen – were present at the spring fair.
It is true that mainland china and Japan are natural tracing partners but it is not true that therefore Japan should monopolize the china trade.
Market for us
There is a big potential market on the mainland for American technology, for computers, and for precision instruments. Just as foreign companies now are building truck factories in the Soviet Union, so American business can offer to build the types of factories which the Peking government would like to have.
The decision of the Chinese government to buy Boeing aircraft and the RCA communications equipment shipped to Peking for the visit by President Nixon demonstrates that much can be done to being about large-scale trade between the two countries. But first several things will have to be done:
-The United States government will have to take the necessary steps to encourage trade.
-United States businesses will have to make a more determined effort to buy and sell in the china market.
-American businessmen will have to adopt the low-key, patient manner of negotiations favored by the Chinese or find someone to represent them who knows how to do this.
The opportunity is there. I’m sure that our businessmen and government officials will make the most of it.