World trade is not child's play: Mattel Inc. Vice President Fermin Cuza wins honors for going the extra mile for international trade.

The Stanley T. Olafson award is given annually by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce to a member of the Southland international trade community who goes to extraordinary measures to promote foreign trade, particularly during non-business hours.

"It is unequivocally, in Southern California, the most prestigious award you can receive" in the trade field, says Jay Winter, executive secretary of the Foreign Trade Association of Southern California.

Receiving that award in May was Fermin Cuza, vice president of international trade and government affairs for El Segundo-based toymaker Mattel Inc.

Cuza, 45, sits on the boards of nearly a dozen local and national trade organizations. He has been a strong advocate of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and renewing the General System of Preferences, a program for allowing certain products from developing nations to be imported duty-free into the United States.

More recently, he voiced his concerns about the Clinton administration's threatened refusal to renew China's Most Favored Nation trading status. That status has since been renewed.

Cuza testified last February before the trade subcommittee of the House of Representatives, on behalf of the New York-based American Association of Exporters and Importers. Cuza told the committee that trade is the best way to influence change in China, rather than isolating the country by terminating its MFN status, and that trade with China helps maintain U.S. exports and jobs.

At Mattel, Cuza and his department of 20 employees are responsible for managing the company's worldwide customs and trade activities. And those activities are extensive. Mattel sold $2 billion worth of toys during 1993, and that doesn't include the sales of New York-based Fisher-Price Inc., which Mattel acquired last December. Fisher-Price had 1993 sales of $700 million.

Half of Mattel's sales in 1993 took place in foreign countries, and even most of its toys sold in the U.S. were imported from overseas manufacturing operations, Cuza explains. Mattel operates 14 manufacturing plants worldwide.

Although he now works in the private sector, Cuza, who was born in Cuba and is fluent in both English and Spanish, spent the first part of his career working for the U.S. Customs Service.

During his senior year studying business administration at California State University, Los Angeles, Cuza was looking for an accounting job. So he signed up to interview for a job with U.S. Customs as an internal auditor.

But at that time (1971), there was a shortage of customs inspectors at the Los Angeles International Airport and at the Mexican border in San Diego, Cuza says.

The recruiters didn't have to twist Cuza's arm too much because an inspector's starting salary was higher than that of an accountant's, and Cuza had a wife and baby to support.

So Cuza became a customs inspector at LAX. He held that position for two years, and then worked with the Customs Service's internal audit group for another two. But Cuza decided he didn't like internal auditing after all, and took a position in downtown L.A. on the staff of the Customs Service's regional commissioner. Customs' regional headquarters later moved to Long Beach.

In 1979, there was an opening for an assistant district director for inspection and control in San Diego. Cuza was selected and moved his family down there.

There he oversaw all customs operations and the nearly 300 customs employees who cleared passengers and cargo through the San Diego airport and harbor.

He helped improve customs operations by employing automation to determine optimal customs staffing levels at the U.S.-Mexico border crossings at San Ysidro and Calexico at various times of day and days of the week. Cuza would later use automation to improve operations at Mattel.

His staff collected statistics on traffic patterns on an hourly basis, and plugged those statistics into a computer to determine the necessary staffing levels, he says.

At age 35, Cuza felt he had perhaps moved up through the customs ranks too fast and had little room for further growth unless he moved to Washington, D.C., where U.S. Customs Service headquarters is located.

But by now Cuza's roots were in California, and he didn't want to leave. So he began pondering the possibility that his skills could be translated to the private sector.

At that time, in 1985, Mattel had an opening for an assistant treasurer of foreign trade services. Cuza says he knew Mattel was an established and financially sound company that made great products. He applied for the job and was selected.

Cuza's role was to ensure Mattel's imports were processed through customs smoothly and efficiently. He oversaw a department of more than 50 employees to help him accomplish that.

Cuza again turned to automation to make his department more efficient. When he came on board, he succeeded in convincing Mattel's upper-level management to approve an investment in the hardware and software necessary to automate the customs process, he says.

Mattel's transactions through customs are now essentially paperless. Virtually everything is processed electronically. "We're the most automated importer in the United States," Cuza says.

On balance, Mattel's shipments are being processed and released a great deal quicker than they used to be because of the system Cuza implemented, adds John Heinrich, district director for the L.A. Customs District.

Due to this automation and to attrition, the number of employees in Cuza's department has been cut by more than half since he came on board.

Cuza has created a sense of mutual support and team effort in his department since coming to Mattel, says Chief Financial Officer Mike McCafferty, Cuza's boss.

Cuza was promoted to vice president of international trade and government affairs in 1992. He is now officially responsible for representing Mattel in dealing with government officials at local, state and federal levels. Cuza would not reveal how much Mattel pays him for handling those responsibilities.

He has also been instrumental in getting duties on toy imports reduced, Winter said. Toys are typically subject to higher import duties than other products. The average duty rate for most goods imported into the U.S. is 4 percent, while the duty on dolls is 12 percent, Cuza notes.

Mattel led an effort to convince U.S. trade negotiators to eliminate all tariffs on toys as part of the Uruguay Round of GATT talks, Cuza says.

Cuza testified at congressional hearings, spoke to trade groups around the country and helped petition U.S. trade agencies, among other things, he says.

As a result, all toys imported into the U.S. will be duty-free if GATT is ratified by the participating nations and implemented, hopefully by Jan. 1, 1995, Cuza says.

Outside Mattel, Cuza has been instrumental in providing the next generation of workers with opportunities to learn about international trade. He established a year-round internship program in his department for high school and college students, and initiated a scholarship program jointly sponsored by Mattel and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

He also urges trade organizations to dole out scholarships. "We'd be broke if we gave all the scholarships Fermin wanted to give," quips Winter of the Foreign Trade Association.

When Cuza isn't testifying before congressional committees or contributing time to trade organizations (he is slated to be the Foreign Trade Association's president next year), he spends time with his wife, son and daughter, takes runs along the beach near his home in Manhattan Beach and plays the acoustic guitar.

Heinrich described Cuza as confident, even-handed and fair. "If you're looking for somebody to negotiate with the Koreans, I think Fermin would be my choice," he says.

Snapshot

Fermin Cuza

Native of: Havana, Cuba Resident of: Manhattan Beach Age: 45 Education: B.S. in business administration, California State University, Los Angeles.