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Mexican entrepreneurs fill UTSA seminar

Adolfo Pesquera, Express-News

Going north or south, U.S.-Mexico trade is down, but Mexican national entrepreneurs put worries aside and filled the downtown University of Texas at San Antonio auditorium to learn the U.S. market.

The all-day “How to Do Business in the United States” conference provided briefings on U.S. immigration rules, tax law, import/export rules and the other nuts and bolts of doing business here.

“There are customers shipping half of what they were shipping, some even less,” said Fernando Paez, owner of Monterrey-based Transportes Olympic, the first trucking company to make deliveries directly to any U.S. destination.

Despite the economic crisis, Paez said shying away from starting a venture is not the right way to think. “With every difficulty, there is always opportunity,” Paez said. “The United States is still the biggest market in the world.”

Ramón G. Castillo traveled from Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, a university near Mexico City specializing in agribusiness studies.

“We have relations with many small businesses in agriculture, everything from commercial flower farmers and vegetable growers to producers of value-added agricultural products,” Castillo said. “I’m here to inform myself on how to advise them on exporting their goods.”

Exporting to the United States is not as risky these days as importing U.S. goods to Mexico, said Jose Antonio Opengo, a Frost Bank vice president of international private banking. The peso went into another volatile phase in January that has dropped its value to the dollar to around 14.50 pesos to 1 dollar.

“Last summer, your pesos could buy you $20,000, whereas, the same quantity of pesos gets you $15,000 now,” Opengo said.

The peso’s volatility diminishes the ability of Mexicans to buy U.S.-sourced inventory. It makes it difficult for business owners to forecast income and expenses. And the banks are more cautious about lending because the exchange rate complicates the repayment of debts, Opengo said. “But if you’re exporting to the U.S., you’re making good money,” he added.

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