In Effort To Increase Commerce, State Appoints Trade Director

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The New York Sun

ALBANY — New York is trying to catch up in the race to attract more trade with China.

A state trade office in China has been proposed repeatedly and New York officials even allocated $1 million for it in the budget. But because of a failure to agree on details, the office never opened.

“Twenty-eight states have centers in China,” the minority leader of the Senate, Malcolm Smith, who returned this month from China with a small delegation, said. “New York doesn’t, which is actually embarrassing.”

Mr. Smith said New York needs to catch up fast. He said China could be a huge market for the state’s fruit and produce.

Soon the state will have its first international trade director to try to make that happen. Peter Cunningham, a New York state native who had done a similar job for North Carolina state government, will begin the job October 1, state spokeswoman Stephanie Zakowicz said yesterday.

“We are just beginning to address this whole international trade issue and until New York state is engaged in the global community we obviously can’t compete,” she said. “But with the establishment of Peter’s role, we’ll begin to explore all of our options and we’ll go from there.”

In 2005, Governor Pataki said in a news conference from Shanghai that he was optimistic a major China business, Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co. Ltd., would open up offices in lower Manhattan. That deal fell through, but Vantone is negotiating with the state for space in the planned Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan, Mr. Smith said. Mr. Smith said the Vantone, a real estate development company, is also considering a building a facility upstate.

Mr. Smith went on the trip with two staff members and senators Kevin Parker of Brooklyn, Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera of the Bronx, and Assemblyman Jose Rivera of the Bronx. Mr. Smith said campaign funds were used.

The trips cost $1,800 each because of subsidies by the Foreign Affairs Institute of China, which he described as similar to a state commerce department, not a lobbyist. Such a subsidy by a lobbyist could violate state laws.

Mr. Smith says he hopes to get legislation passed in 2008 to establish more New York-China trade, but political disagreement may be an obstacle again.

“Our members are focused on creating jobs in upstate New York,” a spokesman for the Republican Senate leader, Joseph Bruno, Mark Hansen, said. “We’re focusing on places like Syracuse, Utica, Rochester, and Buffalo rather than China.”


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