Although some may not know it, Ventura County’s Port Hueneme is the largest port of entry for California’s Central Coast. In addition, many of the port’s shipments come from Latin America.
The port will be the focus of one of four lectures at Oxnard College this Fall. The lectures, hosted by the Center for International Trade and Development (CITD), in honor of Latino Heritage Month, will discuss international trade with Latin America.
The lectures will be held at the new Banco Buenaventura located in downtown Oxnard on the corner of 5th and A Street, on Wednesday evenings from 6-9 p.m. Refreshments will be served. There is no cost to attend the lectures, although reservations are required by contacting CITD at 805 986-5896 or [email protected].
The first lecture on Sept. 17 will be about benefiting from free/fair trade agreements in Latin America.
According to CITD Director Sunil Trivedi, free trade in a nutshell is when “We are trying to reduce tariffs between nations”.
Next week’s lecture will bring Martin Selander of the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office for International Trade and Rob Guthrie of the Export-Import Bank of the United States who will speak about the programs the federal government has to help exporters with financing and insurance.
“It is a good story for someone to hear,” said Trivedi. The third lecture on Oct. 1 will feature Port Hueneme director Will Berg, who will discuss the port’s transactions with Latin American nations.
Businessmen from Argentina, Chile, and Peru will come to give the final lecture on Oct. 8, discussing how business can be done with their respective nations.
“(They will) talk about what products and services that they have”, said Trivedi.
In a nutshell, these lectures “Help every student understand how international trade works with Latin America”, Trivedi said.
The goal of the Oxnard Center for International Trade Development (CITD) is to enhance the competitive strength of California businesses in the international marketplace and to support international trade development.
The primary target market for CITD program services is the small to medium sized business, which has an adequate resources to undertake the development and establishment of international markets and (2) is seeking to diversify its client base.
Such businesses usually have 20 or fewer employees. One may visit the organization’s website at http://www.oxnardcollege.edu/departments/administrative/econdev/citd.shtml.
