Border Woes
Show managers deal with new federal visa and food regulations
By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 4/19/2004
Intl. Trade Information is postponing the launch of its API Pan Asian Food & Beverage Show,citing difficulties due to new regulations governing the import of food – and people – into the United States.
The inaugural API show, initially scheduled for the Los Angeles Convention Center June 13-15, has been moved back to Feb. 21-23, 2005 at the same venue. ITI is still evaluating whether to stage an APIshow at the Meadowlands (N.J.) Convention Center Sept. 12-13. The APIevent scheduled for Toronto's Natl. Trade Centre Oct. 3-5, however, remains on track.
"Canada is going well. It's much easier there," said ITI President Denyse Selesnick, who blamed postponement of the Los Angeles show on the double trouble created by the U.S. government's more stringent visa and food importation rules.
ITI's decision to delay the show came as the U.S. State Department further tightened travel rules and the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management continued to lobby for more streamlined visa processing.
As of Sept. 30 this year, the State Department will require all visitors – except those from Canada and Mexico – to be photographed and fingerprinted before entering the United States. Previously, travelers from the 31 countries that participate in the visa waiver program were excluded from fingerprinting and photographing.
Meanwhile, IAEM repeated its call for the State Department to adopt a "fast-track" visa processing program for tradeshow visitors who do not appear on any watch lists and who have a history of legal travel to the United States. The March 30 testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business by Jack Withiam, George Little Management executive vice president and general counsel, came nearly a year after Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Assn., made a similar appeal on behalf of IAEM.
In the past, the scope of the problem has been difficult to grasp due to lack of documentation. But Withiam offered specific instances of declining international attendance at U.S. shows. He said GLM's Sources show, for instance, saw 100 fewer exhibitors, mostly from Asia and Africa, because they couldn't secure visas in time. The Intl. Woodworking Machinery & Furniture Supply Fair-USA reported a 15-percent decline in foreign participation, with 500 exhibitors unable to attend the biennial show for the same reason. One-third of expected attendees from China and Taiwan, meanwhile, didn't make it to this year's OFC, for the optical fiber industry. And Withiam also read from a message sent on behalf of 250 would-be attendees to the Image Wear Exposition,stating that the buyers find the U.S. government's treatment of visitors "humiliating" and worry about their human rights being violated while in the United States.
CONEXPO-CON/AGG,the United States' largest show in 2002, reported a 68-percent decline in attendees from the Middle East compared with 1999. During that same period, South American attendance decreased by 67 percent and Asian attendance by 10 percent. At the same time, Withiam testified, CONEXPO-CON/AGG's German competitor is reporting more Chinese exhibitors, purportedly due to European countries' simplified visa processing.
Selesnick said she started planning for the API Panasian Food & Beverage Show a year in advance. She enlisted support from the Asian community, and urged foreign participants to apply early for visas. Recently, however, potential foreign participants began asking for letters assuring them their money would be refunded if they didn't receive their visas in time. Selesnick said she wasn't comfortable with that level of risk, so opted for postponement.
On the East Coast, Diversified Business Communications is launching All Asia Food Expo Oct. 26-27 at New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Since it is collocating the Asian food show with its Expo Comida Latina and Integrated Marketing Communications' Kosherfest,Diversified is under less pressure than if it were launching a standalone event. Steven Philips, show director for All Asia Food Expo,said overseas exhibitors and attendees have been urged to apply for visas at least 90 days in advance.
Although some show management companies still provide exhibitors and attendees with letters of invitation, Diversified opts instead to include links on its Web sites to the regulations themselves. Producers of food shows like Diversified and ITI must also keep abreast of the Bioterrorism Act, which requires international food suppliers to register their facilities and provide prior notice of their import of food products into the United States.
At the very least, said Diversified COO Brian Perkins, the Bioterrorism Act will inhibit new-exhibitor growth at U.S. food shows. Long term, there are fears the stringent rules on foreign visitors and food imports will drive exhibitors and attendees to shows in Europe and Asia. "It's like the whole visa issue. It's just one more thing," he said.
Later this month IAEM is scheduled to sign a cooperative agreement with the Council for the Promotion of Intl. Trade, the Chinese ministry that oversees the exhibition industry, in order to help expedite visa processing for Chinese delegations. As a backup the pact will also include plans to help American show managers participate in Chinese tradeshows.
