IMPACT OF NAFTA VICTORY : Winning With NAFTA

For opponents as well as supporters, NAFTA’s approval will create a new business climate for U.S. companies. Following is a list of suggestions, offered by trade experts and consultants, to help prepare for the new environment:

GET AN ATTITUDE

Lose the inferiority complex; U.S. workers and companies make good products that other consumers want. Start thinking export, export, export.

THINK AGAIN

Now adjust your thinking about Mexico. It is more than Tijuana; it is fast-paced and sophisticated. Its labor force toils long and diligently. U.S. products are coveted by its emerging middle class.

LOOK INWARD

Take a good look at your company to evaluate which goods or services might be marketable in Mexico, or examine whether you might benefit from a joint venture.

WATCH OUT

Assess your competition. If you are not now planning to export, carefully consider how your product would stack up against Mexican or Canadian imports. Don’t like what you see? Review your production costs.

LOOK AROUND

Many companies make the mistake of trying to do business in Mexico as if it were just another branch office. Go there. See for yourself what the economy, the workers and the competition are like.

SPEAK UP

For heaven’s sake, learn to speak their language. Don’t assume that your company’s Latinomiddle manager is the person to head up your Mexican business. Pick the best manager and send that person to Berlitz.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Find out all you can about the culture, marketplace, work force and consumers. Hire experts--yes, even lawyers--for the hard stuff. Talk to trade groups, chambers of commerce and, for California companies, R.C. Schrader, who directs the state’s foreign trade office in Mexico City. He’s got the skinny.