…Patrick plans to bring along more than a dozen life sciences and clean energy executives when he travels to China for a trade mission tomorrow.
During the weeklong trip, Patrick plans to hold a series of meetings with government, business, and academic officials in Beijing and Shanghai in an effort to help Massachusetts companies collaborate more with their Chinese counterparts.
“This is the first in a series of steps the governor wants to take to strengthen the relationship between Massachusetts and China,” said spokeswoman Becky Deusser.
Genzyme Corp. spokesman Bo Piela said two company executives, one based in China and the other in Singapore, will participate in portions of the trip. Piela said the Cambridge biotech already has two small offices in China and is considering building a research or manufacturing facility in the country. Genzyme sells three drugs in China.
“The trip will allow us to build relationships and provide access to key officials,” Piela said.
According to a schedule of the trip released yesterday, Patrick is slated to outline his vision for collaboration at a public keynote address on Monday in Beijing.
But most of the meetings in Beijing and Shanghai, including a tour of Shanghai Electric Co. and meetings with chief executives of Chinese companies, are closed to reporters.
Deusser said most of the events were closed at the request of the Chinese government. She said she wasn’t sure whether Patrick would attend two cultural events on the agenda, a trip to Beijing’s Forbidden City and a visit to a nearby section of the Great Wall.
The Patrick administration said the $200,000 cost of the trip will be paid by Massport, which operates Logan Airport, and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasi-government agency committed to boosting Massachusetts’ life sciences and clean energy industries.
Timothy Wilkinson, an associate professor of marketing at Montana State University in Billings, Mont., said he was originally skeptical of the value of such foreign trade missions.
But after studying the issue, he found evidence they can lead to increased foreign investment in a state, though he couldn’t confirm they led to increased exports.
“I have a much more positive viewpoint than when I first started looking at it,” Wilkinson said. He said the trips are particularly useful when they include executives from emerging companies with little international trade experience that need help to get started.
“The fact is that a governor can open doors,” Wilkinson said.
In addition to Genzyme, executives from several local life sciences companies, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., Novartis AG, Nypro Inc., ViaCell Inc., and Biogen Idec Inc., are scheduled to participate in the trip.
The clean energy industry will be represented by Wilson Turbopower Inc., Advanced Electron Beams, Satcon Corp., Cape Wind Associates LLC, and Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials LLC, among others.
Patrick will also be accompanied by a number of government and industry officials, including two Cabinet secretaries, University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson, and UMass Medical School professor Craig Mello, who won a Nobel Prize for his research into a new way to silence genes called RNAi.
Now, Eabo, does that make you happy? He, like you, is pretending that there is no federal government. It’s the federal government’s job – exclusively – to negotiate international trade agreements. Someone should shut this trip down – it’s unconstitutional, a waste of our money, and really troubling that he thinks of Massachusetts as a biotech corporation.
afertig says
I may be fuzzy on my constitutional law, but I’m certain he’s not making any treaties with China, just talking to their government and businesses about investing in MA companies. It seems like a silly idea to suggest that the only people who can go and do that are private businesses and the federal government.
joeltpatterson says
Governors do this all the time and have done it for decades.
they says
Section 8 – Powers of Congress – “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations”
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p>Section 10 – Powers prohibited of States – “No state shall…enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power”
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p>Governors may have been going on trips for decades (decades? really? when did it start?), but it’s one thing to go somewhere as a tourist and make friends, maybe accept a state dinner as a mayor or governor, but this trip seems to be about making agreements and treaties regarding siting factories, importing and exporting workers and technology and sharing research, as a function of Massachusetts.
shillelaghlaw says
Where in the news article does it say that the Governor is making any type of agreement or compact with the Chinese government? There’s no mention of Patrick proposing any treaty with the Chinese government.
they says
so the article wouldn’t be able to say that he entered into an agreement or made any promises to China or Chinese companies. Surely he is not going to try to sign a treaty with China, but he’s getting too close to that. He’s not just “opening doors” he is getting way to far into bed with biotech companies and China, and I think probably making “agreements” and unconstitutionally bypassing the Federal government’s role in regulating foreign commerce.
johnk says
I can’t make up my mind if this is a fake or not. Each post is more bizarre.
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they says
It’s an international role, not a role of the states. And, he’s doing it on behalf of corporations and the biotech industry, and spending $200,000. It’s damn creepy. Mihos wouldn’t be doing this, he wouldn’t be governor of the genetic engineering industry.
ed-prisby says
Governor of the Commonwealth. And there’s a reason for that.
eddiecoyle says
I am just wondering if Gov. Patrick will be including on his China junket a Massachusetts resident to represent the interests of the Bay State consumer who would has been sickened by the carcinogenic Chinese shrimp, poisoned by the lead in Chinese toys, or mourned his/her deceased dog or cat because of melamine-contaminated gluten provided by our friends in China.
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p>Governor Patrick, I volunteer to represent the Massachusetts consumer in your important meetings with Chinese businessmen and government officials to drum up Chinese trade and economic investment for Massachusetts. I have always yearned to meet the people holding the notes on our trillion dollar national debt.
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p>Governor, could I suggest a side trip to Macau so you can report back to your Mass. constitutents on the “minimal impact” expanded casino gambling will have on the character of the Commonwealth? If you decide to venture to Macau, Governor, please remember to bring along a full complement of heavily armed state troopers since armed robbery, assault, rampant domestic violence, revenge killings, and attempted murder now the constitute the essential post-casino character of this island nation. BON VOYAGE, Gov. Patrick!
johnk says
Yes, yes, hear, hear, we should completely avoid China. But if we do go there for economic development for MA we should change course when we get there and solely become consumer advocates. Then we should never discuss anything with Canada because of the mad cow issue a few years ago. Anything else?
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p>Oh yes, from Wiki:
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p>Yup, sound just like what we are trying to do in MA. Who the heck gave this a six?
lasthorseman says
it has something to do with BU’s brand new bio-safety level four lab also.
annem says
Who thinks Patrick will bring that up, or is it not his/not our issue?
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p>The world sure is complicated these days.