Armenia Trade Office criticized

The Los Angeles Times has published a highly critical review of California’s sole international trade offices- a privately fund office for the small country of Armenia. The California-Armenia Trade Office in Yerevan is a legacy of a confused period for the State in international business development as lawmakers struggle to determine the proper role of the Government in this area. At the time when the Legislature was closing the other trade offices, California’s influential Armenian-American community convinced then to accept private funding in exchange for official status and recognition.

Critics consider it ludicrous to put the state’s sole overseas trade office in such a small and isolated country. If California were a nation, it would have the world’s eighth-largest economy, they note. Armenia ranks 128th. The contract with the state required a minimum of $150,000 (amount of business) for 2006, a June 30 report from the Schwarzenegger administration to the Legislature said. The report cited only one significant achievement, a deal between a North Hollywood spirits importer and Safeway to market a high-end Armenian vodka. “It appears the trade office did not successfully complete any of the priorities set forth in the contract,” read a letter signed by Dale E. Bonner, secretary of the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, which oversees the trade office.

What’s more, critics warn that bureaucrats in Sacramento don’t have the money to effectively supervise the operations of a faraway entity. Bonner noted in his letter that the Scott legislation did not provide “budget authority for direct supervision or ongoing oversight.” As a result, the state could be legally liable for any misconduct by unsupervised representatives working in a part of the world not known for especially honest or stable governments. “This is an invitation to a scandal,” said Jock O’Connell, a veteran trade consultant in Sacramento. “They’ve created a system that allows a private company to obtain for a ridiculously small amount of money the right to represent California commercial interests in a distant country, while effectively prohibiting any state agency from looking into the activities of the people who are representing us overseas.”