World Trade Week '93 descends on L.A. with flurry of festivities.

Los Angeles-area activities being held this month in observance of World Trade Week '93 will focus on promoting the job-creating ability of foreign trade, increasing awareness among local politicians of just how vital foreign trade is to Southern California and encouraging youths to choose trade-related careers.

World Trade Week, which is officially the week of May 16 to 22, is actually being celebrated throughout the entire month of May. The event was founded in L.A. in 1926 by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. It was soon emulated across the country and is now observed nationally. This year it is being organized locally by the chamber.

World Trade Week -- or month, more accurately -- consists of a series of seminars, luncheons, breakfasts, mixers and other activities designed to promote foreign trade in the Southland.

A recurring message this year will be that foreign trade generates a large number of local jobs, said Fermin Cuza, chairman of World Trade Week and vice president of international trade at El Segundo-based Mattel Inc.

For every $1 billion worth of goods exported from the United States, some 20,000 jobs are created in this country. Also, one out of every nine jobs in California is either directly or indirectly tied to foreign trade, Cuza said.

Also, the scheduled events will attempt to educate the Southland's politicians as to the importance of foreign trade upon the economy.

There are two congressional subcommittees that deal with foreign trade. One is the Trade Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. The other is the International Trade Subcommittee under the Senate Finance Committee, Cuza said.

Neither of California's two U.S. senators -- Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein -- sits on the Senate International Trade Subcommittee.

"If they understood how trade impacts Californians and California's economy, they would be knocking down doors to be on this subcommittee," Cuza said.

Likewise, the only two California representatives on the U.S. House of Representatives' Trade Subcommittee are William Thomas, R-Bakersfield, and Robert Matsui, D-Sacramento.

"I would feel better if we had a representative from Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco or Oakland on these subcommittees simply because there is more international trade activity in these districts" than there is in either Bakersfield or Sacramento, Cuza said.

Numerous decisions affecting foreign trade in the Southland are made at the federal level, such as the budget of the L.A. Customs District, the nation's largest district, Cuza said.

If the L.A. Customs District doesn't get an adequate share of the federal budget, the customs process here could eventually be slowed down and shippers might start going to other ports, Cuza warned.

Cuza said he will discuss the importance of educating local politicians throughout World Trade Week.

Besides stressing job creation and educating local politicians, a third goal of World Trade Week is to reach young people who may have an interest in entering trade-related professions, Cuza said. "I think it's important for this area to attract the best and the brightest," he said.

As a preliminary to World Trade Week, a foreign trade career day was held April 7 at Venice High School.

More than 600 high school seniors attended the event, in which more than 20 organizations participated, including Hughes Aircraft Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Southern Pacific Railroad and Mattel, Cuza said.

Another career day, though smaller in scope, was held the same week at Oliver Wendell Holmes Middle School in Northridge.

A third career day is scheduled to be held in Montebello on May 17. About 100 students, 10 from each of 10 different high schools in the area, are expected to attend.

Also, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is giving about $3,000 in scholarships to high school students interested in entering trade-related professions, Cuza said.

Some highlights of World Trade Week are the World Trade Week '93 breakfast at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce in downtown L.A. on May 13 from 7:30 to 9 a.m., where Greg Mignano, executive director of the California State World Trade Commission, is scheduled to speak; a tour of European aircraft manufacturing plants being taken by students at Loyola Marymount University; and the World Trade Week Luncheon, being held May 19 at 11 a.m. at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A., where Mattel Chairman John Amerman will be the keynote speaker.

The scheduled topic for Mignano's breakfast speech is California's export performance. The state's 1992 exports jumped nearly 10 percent to a total of $68.9 billion during 1992, compared with exports of $63.1 billion during 1991, according to statistics released by the California State World Trade Commission.

"Despite a worldwide economic slowdown, California's exporters are claiming an even larger share of the global market," Mignano stated in a prepared release.

Meanwhile, 55 Loyola Marymount students are traveling in Europe for three weeks during May to study aircraft manufacturing in European countries. Companies they plan to visit include British Aerospace, Germany's Dornier, Pilatus, which makes small aircraft, and Madrid-based CASA, which manufactures components for Airbus and McDonnell Douglas Corp., said Daniel Stage, associate dean of the college of business at Loyola Marymount.

Meanwhile, Amerman plans to speak at the World Trade Week luncheon about the global approach Mattel takes to its business. Half of Mattel's sales take place outside the United States, explained Mattel spokesman Glenn Bozarth. And its manufacturing also is spread worldwide -- in China, Malaysia, Mexico, Indonesia and Italy, Bozarth said.

Amerman also plans to touch on other issues pertinent to foreign trade in Southern California, such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade talks, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the issue of renewing China's most-favored-nation status, Bozarth said.