Houston will be one of several cities applying to be the headquarters of a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would open borders to trade from Canada to the tip of Argentina and every democratically run island country along the way.
Local business leaders said they would meet the Nov. 20 deadline to inform the U.S. trade representative's office of their interest in bringing the headquarters of hemispherewide trading bloc here.
So far, the trade representative's office has received applications from three U.S. cities: Chicago, Colorado Springs and Miami. The international applications received are from Puebla and Cancun, Mexico; Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and Panama City, Panama. Atlanta will likely apply, and observers believe at least one city in Brazil will also pursue the office, called the secretariat.
All of these cities are interested because of the significant economic impact the office could bring. A University of Georgia study found that the office would add 11,000 jobs and $500 million annually to the state's gross domestic product.
A study by Enterprise Florida found that an FTAA office in Miami would mean nearly 3,000 jobs created by the secretariat itself, the companies that would serve it and the business travel it would attract.
"The potential is enormous," said Barry Featherman, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Economic Council, which organizes conferences in the hemisphere. "It will ultimately depend on how much power is vested in the secretariat."
From a public relations standpoint, the secretariat will benefit the winning city because of the number of times it is mentioned in the media, Featherman said.
Recognizing the economic potential, officials from Atlanta and Miami have jetted across the hemisphere for months to promote their cities.
They've hired directors to head offices dedicated to attracting the headquarters, and they've built huge coffers in their bid to woo political leaders.
However, Houston has yet to raise money for the campaign, no one has been hired to spearhead the effort, and leaders haven't toured the hemisphere to promote the Bayou City.
"We're kind of slow to the starting line," admitted Jim Edmonds, chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership's world trade division.
Instead of launching a drive to bring the trade office here, city leaders were focused recently on their unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Olympics, which could have had an economic impact of $4.3 billion.
Last week, the partnership sent surveys to about 1,200 local companies that do business internationally to measure their interest in supporting the bid for the secretariat. So far, 200 companies have responded favorably, and only one company said Houston should not bother, said Miguel San Juan, president of the partnership's world trade division.
Houston can still catch up because the home of the trading bloc won't be announced until after negotiations for the trade agreement end, Edmonds said.
That's supposed to occur in January 2005, but negotiations could be delayed by recent disagreements between the United States and Brazil over agriculture, many observers said.
The next round of negotiations for this trade agreement will begin Nov. 16 in Miami, giving the city another chance to showcase itself to the 34 trade ministers who will ultimately select the headquarters.
"We feel confident that we're the logical choice irrespective of what other city applies," said Jorge Arrizurieta, executive director of Florida FTAA, which is heading Miami's effort. "We're not overconfident. We've been the gateway to the Americas for four decades."
As that gateway, the city already serves as the Latin American headquarters for several U.S. companies.
Miami has raised more than $13 million, but most of that will go toward hosting the weeklong trade meeting.
And leaders of the movement have traveled to 14 nations to promote Miami since formally organizing the Florida FTAA in June.
Meanwhile, Atlanta officials have traveled to all the FTAA nations in the past year and have raised over $2.5 million to bring the office to their city.
Houston has an advantage over Atlanta because it is closer to Latin America, local business leaders say.
"We've got proximity to the middle of the continent," said Massey Villarreal, president of TexasOne, a nonprofit corporation created for economic development in Texas. "This is a free trade to the Americas, not to Europe."
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