Port of Oakland Acting Executive Director Deborah Ale Flint is
the sole seaport executive involved in a California state trade mission to
China this week led by California Gov. Jerry Brown.
Ale Flint is expected to join the California-China trade
mission in Beijing April 10 and 11 for targeted meetings focused on development
of direct air service between China and Oakland, which the port says could
yield as much as $150 million annually for the region.
From April 6 to 9, before joining Gov. Brown’s group, Ale
Flint traveled to Singapore and Hong Kong to meet with key Oakland maritime
trading partners. She’s also scheduled to participate in the opening of the new
state trade office in Shanghai on April 12, as well as in a forum focused on
agricultural exports to China.
China-Oakland maritime trade totaled $14.5 billion in 2012,
more than three times the port’s second-largest trading partner.
“The Port of Oakland is proud to engage in the California
trade mission to China and combine it with face-to-face business development
discussions involving our maritime and aviation businesses,” Ale Flint said in
a statement. “This is an important time for the port to meet with overseas
maritime business partners to promote our competitiveness as a US maritime
gateway of choice.”
Although the Port of Oakland is the only seaport supporting
the trade mission, the delegation also includes many of the port’s business
partners, tenants and organizations whose members move cargo through the port,
including the Almond Board of California, which represents almond growers that
predominantly ship out of the Oakland seaport; and the Wine Institute, whose
exporting members also primarily ship through Oakland.
