WorldCity Business Magazine

President's note: Setting the Stage

by Ken Roberts

South Florida strengthens its “world city” standing.

Another year has slipped by. For many of us in South Florida, good times in Latin America and a boisterous global economy made it a successful business year.

It has also been a year with a number of significant developments.

For example, what about the elusive FTAA? The only significant hemispheric economies not now in a free trade treaty with the United States are Brazil and Venezuela, neither of which is likely to come aboard soon. The smaller bilateral and regional pacts combined with economic prosperity in the Americas have buoyed trade. But U.S. failure to achieve a Free Trade Area of the Americas will be felt as the influence of China and other Asian nations mounts in the region.

Certainly, the country getting the most attention in Latin America and the Caribbean is China, which has an insatiable appetite for anything our neighbors can pull from the ground, be it copper or soybeans.

In South Florida, a robust Latin America is good for the export community as well as the local logistics and warehouse support network. The Miami Customs District, as so many of you know, is one of the few districts in the nation that regularly posts a trade surplus.

This year South Florida’s export market has been strong, in great part because China’s demand for Latin American commodities has handed the region’s greater buying power. The United States is where Latin America turns to make most of its purchases.

The upshot of all this is that a truly global economy continues to take root.

There’s no better example of this than Malaysia, which as we reported earlier this year, chose Miami for its third U.S. trade office after New York and Los Angeles. The Southeast Asian nation is now the United States’ tenth most important trade partner.

Last month we sent reporter Claudio Mendona to Malaysia. His findings our cover story reaffirm what we have long maintained: that Miami is truly a “world city.”

Contact: kroberts@worldcityweb.com