While the federal government has been hosting trade missions for years, a new kind of trade mission is emerging, one that doesn't involve politicians, round-the-world TV coverage, or gobs of free publicity.

PBB Global Logistics, a Fort Erie, Ontario-based global logistics service with offices in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, hosted Canada's first-ever private trade mission to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in March 2000. Thomas Equipment Ltd. of Centreville, New Brunswick, which makes heavy equipment, was one of 20 companies involved.

John French, vice-president of export sales, says Thomas Equipment spent just under $10,000 to send him on the 16-day excursion. He sees the PRC as a huge potential market that will be more accessible to his product as soon as China's membership in the World Trade Organization is confirmed.

"We feel China is a market we have to be in," says French. "When China joins the WTO, we want to be on the ground floor."

Exporters and manufacturers have questioned the value of trade missions for years, suggesting that at $20,000 a pop, they're too expensive for small firms to take part in, and they provide Chinese delegations with repetitive saturation coverage of similar industry interests.

John Ferguson, director of marketing for PBB Global Logistics in Halifax, Nova Scotia, says the PBB trade mission tried to fix some of the faults many private companies found with past federal government trade missions. "We went for a longer time, covered more towns, met more people, and had a smaller group of participants [than the government missions]," says Ferguson. "Going with a smaller group let them get more attention from Chinese concerns than they would have in a larger endeavour."

Ferguson says most participants thought the price tag for the event, which came in at about $10,000 per person, was good value compared to government trade missions that can cost up to $20,000 per delegate. (As a logistics company, PBB, which only breaks even on the missions, has access to better travel discounts than the feds.) "We picked up the visas, the packets on how to deal with the culture, set up the trade forum, printed the business cards, and generally got everybody ready for the trip."

French says he's confident that his company's opportunities in China have widened because of the PBB trade mission. "I had two reasons for being there," he says. "I wanted to see what construction was going on and I wanted to make some contacts. I did both." French says he's seen more construction in that country then he has "ever seen going on in any other country [he's] been to."

He describes a China back lit by horizons that are virtually impaled with the silhouettes of heavy-lift cranes and half-built skyscrapers. French thinks Thomas Equipment's 105 and 153 skid steer loaders would be perfect pieces of machinery to assist the Chinese in their present building boom. One of each of the loaders is waiting in a Hong Kong warehouse for the WTO to accept China as a full member. Once that happens, the two demo loaders will be able to enter the mainland under far lighter import duties than presently exist at the border. "With the quality of our machines it's just a matter of getting in the door," says French. "But there are still lots of logistical problems to work out."

Meanwhile, French is continuing to discuss business with two Chinese heavy equipment distributors who French says are the best match for his firm. He's been sending translated market studies, video tapes, and brochures on Thomas Equipment's products to distributors. "We're also having internal discussions with sales on how to orchestrate this," he says.

Because of the success of the first mission, PBB seems poised to go into the trade mission business. Ferguson says his company has already been approached by at least two Canadian municipalities that want in on a mission and a number of Chinese trade agents who want PBB to come to China again soon. Ferguson says that will happen sometime in the spring of 2001, a date that won't clash with the government's Team Canada trip this fall. "[The original PBB mission has] been good to us on a lot of levels," says Ferguson. "Freight, ocean, land, air carriers, and freight forwarders from China are lining up to see us."

"Trade missions eliminate the fear of China. Everyone who went on the mission now knows for sure the Chinese are shrewd, nice, and non-violent. They're poised for great things."

Is Thomas Equipment poised for great things in China also? French says he's bullish on his company's future in China. "We see a great opportunity here," says French. "If someone has a useful product, the Chinese market is unlimited."