California International Business Report

Online payment service PayPal, a subsidiary of San Jose-based eBay Inc. has announced that it has expanded into Mexico. Mexican buyers will now be able pay for online purchases using their credit cards or bank accounts with pesos as currency. According to a report in the San Jose Business Journal, the peso is [...]

Gap Inc. is expanding internationally with new franchise agreements to open stores in Mexico, Egypt and Jordan, according to a report in San Francisco Business Times:
The new agreement brings to 21 the number of countries with approved Gap franchisees. The first franchisee was signed in January 2006, and over 100 franchised Gaps and Banana [...]

Mexico has open the bidding process for the huge new port complex being planned for Punta Colonet - currently a village about 150 miles south of Tijuana. This project is being designed specifically to compete with California ports, and the economic impact could be huge. The project bid is being structured as [...]

Absolute vodka company set off a minor controversy by showing California, Texas and much of the Western U.S.as part of Mexico in advertisements in Mexico. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:
The campaign, which promotes ideal scenarios under the slogan “In an Absolut World,” showed a 1830s-era map when Mexico included California, Texas [...]

The feud between Mexican and California avocado growers continues. As reported in “The Packer”:
Last year the Irvine-based California Avocado Commission unsuccessfully sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture in an effort to keep out Mexican avocados because of concerns about armored scale insects.
Now, Mexican avocado exporters have two active lawsuits against California interests.
Following up on [...]

Press Release:
AT&T today announced a $500,000 contribution to be paid over the next two years to the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF), a community-based organization providing a wide range of family services to low-income residents throughout California. The contribution will fund a pilot program called “BeSchoolReady”, an Internet-based educational tool that introduces young children to [...]

“Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who cut short his trip to Central America and Mexico in the wake of the May Day clash between Los Angeles police and protesters, is scheduled to speak this afternoon about the matter, into which the FBI has opened an inquiry. The mayor, speaking to reporters Thursday in Mexico City on [...]

“Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will travel Tuesday to El Salvador and Mexico to discuss ways to boost trade and stem the rising wave of gang members who illegally enter the United States. Villaraigosa will meet with business leaders, elected officials and law enforcement officials from both nations during the four-city trip, according to Villaraigosa’s office. [...]

“Cherokee Inc. has entered a multi-year international licensing agreement for its Cherokee brand with Comercial Mexicana, the company said Wednesday. The deal with the Mexican retailer covers a range of categories including men’s, women’s, children’s clothing, footwear, accessories and more, the company said in a release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. [...]

“Mexico and the United States are in the middle of an international dispute over the 82-mile (132 kilometer) All-American Canal as a group of citizens in Mexicali, Mexico, is fighting to stop a 23-mile (37 kilometer) stretch of it from being lined with concrete. The Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the entity that provides water [...]

“Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Friday that U.S. border policies are marred by many “absurd” paradoxes that hurt the Mexican economy and force more Mexicans to migrate illegally to the United States. In an interview en route from Mexicali, Mexico, to Mexico City on his presidential jet, Calderon criticized construction of more border fencing [...]

At least that is what the El Paso Times of Texas thinks:
San Diego: A 10-foot-high wall snakes along the U.S.-Mexico border south of here, and behind it another fence, steel mesh and even higher. Cameras sit atop 50-foot poles, and stadium lights can turn night here to day. It’s a daunting sight that looks [...]

“The Chinese company Hutchison Whampoa, owned by Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing, controls 35 major ports in the world, including the four most important ports in Mexico. Hutchison is about to build a brand new port at Punta Colonet, a Baja California cove located just two hours south of the US border. Hutchison Ports [...]

“The mega container port and rail project planned 150 miles south of San Diego at Baja California’s Punta Colonet will benefit the United States as well as Mexico, a top Mexican federal official said yesterday. ‘This is a very important project. It’s a project that should be taken in the interest of both nations. [...]

“When it rains along the border, millions of gallons of sewage and industrial waste from Mexican slums and factories flow down the Tijuana River into the United States and end up in the Pacific Ocean _ a mess that closed the beach here to swimmers and surfers a total of 198 days last year. The [...]

Outrage, both real and staged, is growing as a result of the private recordings Governor Schwarzenegger made with his speech writer last year. A six-minute excerpt was first made public in September where Schwarzenegger and his Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy debated ethnic background of state Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia. After trying to [...]

“A Baja California legislative panel has publicly rejected plans for the development of a megaport at Colonet, saying state government officials have failed to live up to promises to provide details of the massive project… The port is expected to cost as much as $9 billion and be as large as the Port of Los [...]

Daniel Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee has expressed the opinion that the most interesting part of the Governor’s private recordings is his “earthy, blunt assessment of the immigration issue”. This discussion, he thought, was “rare glimpse at a politician working through a tough issue, one on which he is conflicted, and seeing how his [...]

Mexican drug-trafficking organizations have largely taken over the production and distribution of crystal methamphetamine in California, according to a report in the Arizona Republic. “As the raw materials become harder to get, small-time cooks are being put out of business. The Mexican cartels have rushed to fill the demand with California-based superlabs, which can [...]

Too late for the Superbowl, but Mexican trucks loaded with avocados headed north to the border on Friday, marking the final elimination of a decades-old U.S. ban on its import. Hundreds of locals in the western town of Uruapan, Mexico, waved at two trucks carrying Hass avocados bound for California and Florida, which along [...]