Gov. Scott Walker departed to China Friday to lead his first international trade mission, intending to grow business, build relationships and bring back money into Wisconsin.
The governor said in a statement Friday China is an important market for Wisconsin industrial, medical and clean energy and water exports. The state’s exports to China increased 11.8 percent and totaled $1.5 billion last year, according to the statement.
“This trade mission will strengthen our relationship with the country, build trade ties between Wisconsin firms and Chinese businesses and investors, and reinforce the strong position the Wisconsin has in the global marketplace,” Walker said.
Walker will accompany the governors of Virginia and Iowa, along with 42 business and government agency delegates from Wisconsin to Beijing, Shanghai and Harbin.
There is speculation among professors and business leaders that Walker’s motive behind the trip to China is boosting his publicity and foreign policy experience to enhance his position as a 2016 presidential candidate.
Edward Friedman, a University of Wisconsin political science professor and expert in Chinese politics, said the primary purpose of Walker’s trip is expanding the state’s economy, but having an international presence helps his resume too.
“Obviously, if a person has higher ambitions, the president is commander and chief of the armed forces, it does not hurt to have some international exposure,” Friedman said.
Walker visited Las Vegas two weekends ago for a Nevada Republican Party event and will travel to Arkansas, Iowa and California for other GOP gatherings before July.
Friedman called Walker’s visit to China “a very ordinary trip” that governors from every state have been making since China opened its markets to the world in 1979. But, Friedman said the difference is China has been looking to invest in the U.S. recently, as it has accumulated $3.4 trillion in foreign exchange.
While Walker hopes to increase state exports, establish new Chinese trade partners and boost investment back into Wisconsin, it will be difficult to evaluate the successfulness of his visit in the short term, according to Dan Paulson, executive director of InVision Business Development in Madison, a consulting firms for companies interested in going into business with Chinese corporations.
“The short-term results will be immeasurable, much like [former Gov. Jim Doyle’s] trips,” Paulson said, comparing Walker’s trip to Doyle’s five visits to China in his eight years in office.
However, Paulson said the long-term impacts of Doyle’s foreign diplomacy are coming into fruition now, as exports have increased 49 percent last year compared to 2011 increases. Wisconsin is now expanding its Chinese exports to agricultural equipment and consultative services, Paulson said.
China needs all the farming help it can get from the U.S., and Midwestern states like Wisconsin in particular, because just 7 percent of Chinese land is tillable, while the nation is home to a fifth of the world’s population, Paulson said.
“There is a huge offset in the number of people that need to be fed and the amount of land that can actually produce the product needed to feed those people, which is why you’re seeing a large amount of exports from food staples and equipment to make the land that is available more productive,” Paulson said.
