State’s Trade Offices

Your June 6 report on Gov. Gray Davis’ plans to expand California’s network of foreign trade offices (which I helped Gov. George Deukmejian establish in the late 1980s) may be welcome news. However, the Davis administration has already set back the state’s international marketing effort by summarily firing several of our most experienced overseas office personnel without having their replacements in place. It would have been smarter to name new directors first and ask their predecessors to transfer their vital in-country contacts and knowledge during a reasonable transition period.

If Davis is serious about leading on trade, he should support NAFTA, which is responsible for much of the increase in California-Mexico trade. He should help lead his party and his labor union backers away from their protectionist posture and support new free-trade pacts with other nations in Latin America and Asia.

JAMES W. ROBINSON, Los Angeles