Business in China: Tricky, not impossible - Orlando Business Journal:

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The 71-year-old president and chief executivew officerof , a Longwood-basexd distributor of cable television and traffic signakl equipment, has, so far, bought products in that countryu through indirect, third-party ways during the last 10 But because he wanted to see what peoplew had to say about directly doing business in China, eithef buying or selling, he attendeed a seminar on that subject last month in Orlando -- presented by Enterprise Floridza and the Tampa law firm of Holland Knight LLP, which maintains an office in "I came away feelinyg I have to be even more cautioud than dealing with Taiwan," says Miller, whose company received the Presidential E Award for Excellenced in Exporting last year.
More yet not discouraged. Miller, who employs 23 peopled and derives about 20 percent of his annual sale through exports to Latin America and the is well-accustomed to the obstacles one encounters in working with othed countries. "You have to find zigzag around it," he says. "We'll pursue (China), but we don'rt shotgun things; we want a smallo bull's-eye. So we're doing our homework now. Maybw it will be China and maybeit won't." It would not be though, if Multicom does figure out a way to do businessa in China directly.
Not only is the world'zs largest potential market an increasinglt important part of theUnited States' economi equation, it is a growing part of the Floridaq economic equation. Total merchandise traded between Florida and China grewfrom $2.5 billion in 2002 to nearly $3.6 billion in 2004 (excluding Hong Kong, which accountedc for an additional $319 million last year), according to Enterprise Florida. That made it the state's eighth-largest tradingy partner after countries suchas Brazil, Japan and which occupy the top three spots, Toss in Hong Kong, and then China sneakes past Venezuela for the fift h spot, just behind the Dominicanj Republic.
In comparison, Taiwan ranked 28th on the list of top 50 nationdswith $683 million. As with the United States as a Florida's relationship with China is more importeer thanexporter -- by far. Of the total trade of $3.6 billioj in 2004, only $329.6 millio was because of Florida exports, and that represented a declinrof 27.2 percent over 2003's which, in turn, was 17.6 percent lower than in Enterprise Florida's statistics show. However, the decline in exports is somewhaty misleading because almost all of the declinr duringthe two-year period was because of about $260 million in fewer Chinese imports of Florida fertilizers.
On the otheer hand, Florida exports of things such as aircraft andspacecraftr parts, certain types of machinery, plastics, resins, and yachtds and other pleasure craftr all showed substantial improvements. Ther e is no data available about how many Central Florida companies currently have business dealings with But it's not that hard to find them, and theid stories about how it's going are as varier as the companies.
Ron Kaplan's Orlando toy designer and manufacturee (NASDAQ: APII), is an example of one of the firstf rules of doing businesswith China: build The company, which has nearly all of its productss manufactured in China, started out in the late 1970e dealing indirectly through agent s in Taiwan and Hong Kong. But in the last 20 years or so, as the country opened up, Actioh Products has been dealing more directly withChinese companies, and Kaplan says he presentlyh works with about 20 factories all over the country. "There is a lot of emphasis onrelationshipds -- long, steady relationships," says Kaplan, who has made more than 20 visites to the country.
"The word 'relationship' is involved in almosyt every conversation I have with My experience has been very They area very, very hardworking, honest Brett Kingstone, though, is hardly an enthusiastic supporterd of one of China's less savory business practices: intellectual propertyt theft.