The "big 10" new markets.

• Author: Becker, Chuck
• Position: China, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Turkey - Access the World

In the visitors lounge at Elmendorf Air Force Base en route to China, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown recently underscored the redirection of focus and resources of the U.S. government toward 10 developing countries, now referred to as the "Big Emerging Markets" (BEMs).

These markets were identified by a federal interagency planning group, called the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, as those markets abroad that offered the greatest potential for growth and exports of products and services for American companies.

Criteria for identifying these BEMs included countries that had: large populations with vigorous rates of growth, or which clearly are on track for growth in the near future; prominent, compelling positions within their respective geo-economic regional spheres of influence; and redirected economic and trade policies toward the Western free-market model.

Using these criteria, the committee selected as BEMs the countries of China, India, Indonesia and South Korea in Asia; Argentina, Brazil and Mexico in Latin America; and Poland, South Africa and Turkey. Secretary Brown emphasized that the selection process might well include other countries in the future.

Exports from the United States to these 10 BEMs totaled $106 billion in 1992, approximately 25 percent of all U.S. exports. BEMs are expected to more than double their share of world imports, rising nearly 27 percent or to a collective $1 trillion by 2010. No other category of market shows such dramatic growth potential.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALASKANS

Alaskan companies can capitalize on the growth potential within the BEMs by taking advantage of the export development resources available through three public agencies: the Office of International Trade (OIT), the World Trade Center operated by the University of Alaska Anchorage, and the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Representatives of the OIT have already met with Ambassador Raul Granillo Ocampo to discuss a possible trade mission to Argentina. Director Max Hodel traveled to Beijing, China, to...