Tag: trade

A note from Nikia: WTCSD on trade

By Nikia Clarke,

Navigating trade uncertainty in a binational region

As tariff threats loom and the country teeters on the brink of an all-out trade war, we all wonder what it means for our binational region, the future of the popular USMCA, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs tied to global commerce in San Diego.

This will be a volatile period for the North American supply chains that enable this region to compete globally. We have been here before.

In all the economic development work we do in this region, we strive to do it binationally, as a metropolitan region of close to seven million bisected by an international border. We travel together on investment attraction missions to South Korea or Singapore; we advocate together in Washington, D.C. and Mexico City for better infrastructure; and we work every day with counterparts in Tijuana to help companies create deep and resilient binational supply chains in critical industries.

What we have learned is that in the midst of uncertainty, we should return to what we know to be true about this binational region:

  • We know that our border economy, anchored by the busiest port of entry in the Western Hemisphere, has been a tremendous driver of economic growth, job creation, and competitiveness—not just for San Diego, but for America as a whole.
  • We know that what we do here is not trade, it is co-production: a single component—in an automobile or a medical device—may cross the border six to eight times, with value added at each stop, before finally reaching its customer. This means that 40 percent of what we import from Mexico was made by American workers in the first place. For imports from China by contrast, that number is less than four percent.
  • We know that this ability to regionally produce goods is a compelling reason why foreign companies invest here, and why local companies can compete globally and export their goods and technologies around the world, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in this region alone.
  • And we also know how critical these supply chains—in aerospace, electronics, semiconductors, and medical devices—are to the broader U.S. economy. Notably, 60 percent of all medical devices imported to treat patients in hospitals in Boston and Atlanta are produced in this region and cross this border every day.
  • Finally, we know how important long-term investments in infrastructure—like Otay Mesa East or the Cross Border Xpress terminal—are to enhancing the remarkable economic engine we have created in this region.

Here in San Diego we have been finding solutions for decades, by working collaboratively to build border infrastructure, to facilitate trade and immigration, to fight crime and enhance education, and to create better outcomes for businesses, for consumers, and for communities.

The coming weeks and months will be bumpy—as barriers to trade and market access rise around the world—and they will be especially difficult for the 98 percent of U.S. exporters that are small businesses. Yet despite this turbulence, the overall calculus for American policy makers and global business leaders has been consistent for well over a decade: Regionalize supply chains closer to the customers they serve, and rebuild U.S. manufacturing capabilities in industries critical to national security and competitiveness. And there is no way to achieve those goals without relying on our North American neighbors. Even in the most extreme tariff scenarios, trade with Mexico and Canada would likely increase, but businesses and consumers would pay higher prices for the pleasure.

Our job in this moment is to be agile and creative in helping firms of every size—who have played by the rules and made significant investments in this country and its neighbors—to navigate uncertainty, continue to reach their customers and suppliers, and maintain jobs and supply chains in our most critical industries.

Nikia Clarke
Nikia Clarke

Chief Strategy Officer

Resources and action:

  • Understand San Diego’s Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ) Program, which allows for duty free imports and warehousing. Learn more
  • Apply by June 30 to WTCSD’s MetroConnect export accelerator program supporting small- and medium-sized businesses in going global
  • Stay tuned for WTCSD’s upcoming Binational Trade & Competitiveness Report, launching Q3 2025

Need support? Contact our team.

EDC and WTCSD work directly with companies—free of charge—to help them grow in San Diego.

Contact us

WTCSD’s statement on tariffs

By World Trade Center San Diego,

With the rest of our region’s business community, we’re closely watching updates around the new tariff on China and the paused tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

EDC’s Chief Strategy Officer Nikia Clarke shares in a formal statement:
“We know that this will be a volatile period for the North American supply chains that enable this region to compete globally. We have been here before. Here in San Diego, from medical devices to semiconductors and consumer goods, our supply chains are so integrated that 40 percent of what we import from Mexico was made by American workers in the first place. Our job in this moment is to be agile and creative in helping firms of every size—who have played by the rules and made significant investments in this country and its neighbors—to navigate uncertainty, continue to reach their customers and suppliers, and maintain jobs and supply chains in our most critical industries.”

EDC and World Trade Center San Diego remain a resource and partner to our regional business community, offering free assistance, information, and guidance.

Need support? Contact our team.

EDC and WTCSD work directly with companies—free of charge—to help them grow in San Diego.

Contact us

Additional resources:

  • Ongoing: Learn about San Diego’s Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ) Program, which allows for duty free imports and warehousing. Learn more.
  • February 7: Join the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce for a free webinar on the latest news, mitigation options, and more. Register here.

Reflections on our Korea Trade Mission

By Nikia Clarke,

From San Diego to Korea: Collaborative partnerships to strengthen global competitiveness

It has been six years since World Trade Center San Diego—which EDC operates on behalf of the Port, the Airport, and the City of San Diego—ran its very first trade mission. Since then, we have taken annual targeted, cross-sector delegations to Canada, the UK, Japan, Germany, and the Netherlands. Led by Mayors and Members of Congress, flanked by Port, Airport, and University leadership, and accompanied by senior executives from our most innovative firms, these trade missions connect San Diego companies large and small to international markets, seek foreign investment that creates new jobs in our region, and tell the San Diego story: one of life-changing innovation and collaboration.

This year’s destination: Korea. And like every other year, San Diego showed up and impressed. Led by Mayor Todd Gloria—and joined this time by SANDAG and County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas—this year’s trade delegation of more than 30 civic, academic, and corporate partners also included peer organizations like Biocom and the Tijuana and Imperial Valley EDCs, as well as companies like Qualcomm, Illumina, Dexcom, ASML, General Dynamics NASSCO, and more.

At a time when more than a trillion dollars of federal investments are aimed at modernizing American infrastructure, enabling a green energy transition, and building domestic capacity in strategic industries like semiconductors and biomanufacturing, Korea is a natural partner for the United States, as evidenced by the deepening collaboration between our two countries. Korea is second only to China in manufacturing intensity, and Korean firms produce almost 25 percent of all EV batteries and almost 60 percent of global memory chips used in phones and laptops.

Why Korea →

There is also perhaps no more complementary partner for an innovation incubator like San Diego than a country that scales innovation more efficiently than anywhere else.

The trade mission opened with a Sunday visit to the residence of the Governor of Gyeonggi-do, Korea’s largest and most dynamic province. Governor Kim and his cabinet hosted us for a roundtable discussion focused on revitalizing the MOU between the state of California and Gyeonggi. We delivered a letter from Governor Newsom and invited a return delegation to visit California in 2024 to continue the conversation on economic cooperation.

This set the stage for a whirlwind four days packed from morning to night with more than 15 briefings, meetings, and events:

  • With the help of Dentons and the U.S. Embassy, we convened representatives from more than 30 of the largest Korean companies for an Invest San Diego Luncheon. We provided an economic overview of investment opportunities throughout the binational mega-region, followed by quick pitches on manufacturing, energy, innovation, and real estate projects from Tijuana, Imperial Valley, and San Diego.
  • We visited the rapidly growing Korean offices of Illumina and Qualcomm, and announced a new partnership between San Diego’s Dexcom and Korean tech giant Kakao.
  • We toured and met with leadership of Samsung Biologics, which in just a few years has grown into the world’s largest contract manufacturer of biologics and is considering the location of a large investment in the United States.
  • We celebrated partnerships between UCSD and SDSU—both developing new state of the art innovation districts—and Seoul National and Yonsei Universities, two of South Korea’s finest.
  • We spent a day in the City of Incheon—a city of millions that has been master planned and developed on land reclaimed from the ocean over the last two decades and is now the innovation hub of the greater Seoul area. Incheon is also home to the international airport, completed in just eight years, as well as the Port, completed in four.

See the FULL agenda

Finally, we closed the trip with a VIP meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Korea Philip Goldberg to discuss the evolving political and economic environment in the region, followed by a reception at the Ambassador’s residence in the former legation district of Seoul. As is the tradition on these trade missions, this reception gave us an opportunity to reconnect with the hundreds of partners we met during the week, cement new friendships (and perhaps most importantly, make sure everyone knows which team to root for when the Padres play the Dodgers in the MLB opener in Seoul next March).

We returned home this week to a region in which the entire urban core is being reimagined—with massive mixed-use projects under construction from the border to the bay; to a country attempting to rebuild its infrastructure and establish new industries to take us into a cleaner, smarter future; and in a post-pandemic world where supply chains and geopolitical alliances are shifting rapidly.

One thing is clear: Our binational region has always been a remarkable place, but at this moment—with San Diego’s innovation ecosystem, Imperial Valley’s clean energy leadership, and Tijuana’s advanced manufacturing prowess—we can compete like never before. Add the right international partnerships like those we are building in Korea and elsewhere, and we have all the necessary pieces to anchor the supply chains of the future: collaboratively, efficiently, and sustainably.

Thank you to our sponsors Qualcomm, Dentons, and Townshend Venture Advisors, as well our partner the U.S. Embassy in South Korea for support on this trade mission.

Best,

Nikia Clarke
Nikia Clarke

Chief Strategy Officer

 

   

Learn about WTCSD’s trade missions