Episode’s transcript

Julio Martinez: 0:00

Welcome to the Latin Med Tech Leaders podcast, a conversation with med tech leaders who have succeeded or plan to succeed in Latin America. Please subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast. Amazon Music is teacher. Tune in iHeart Radio, Pandora or these . Welcome to the Lata MedTech Leaders podcast Today, our guest is Chris Swick . It's great to have you here today. Welcome to the show, Chris.

Chris Sedgwick: 0:28

Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Julio Martinez: 0:30

Awesome. So, Chris Swick is the Americas Trade Specialist at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Office of Trade and Investment. After a few years in the freight forwarding and customs brokerage business, Chris went on to a career in international sales for a variety of industrial manufacturing companies, including the medical, gas sector and personal protection equipment industries. Chris is a licensed customs house broker and a qualified safety sales professional. He is fluent in Spanish and French and has a working knowledge of German and Portuguese. Chris received his bachelor's degree from the California State University Northridge and his MBA from the Thunderbird Graduate School of Global Management. So Chris, it's really an honor to meet you here and , uh, look forward to our conversation today. So Chris, let's get started talking about your , uh, link to Latin America. How did you initially get involved in the region?

Chris Sedgwick: 1:35

Well, you know, it just started, I guess. Uh , most of my career has been, you know, international sales with different manufacturing companies, and the bulk of our businesses in most places seem to be with Latin America, especially when I was involved in medical gas and respiratory care equipment business. So we did a lot of work in Latin America and the Caribbean and in that area. So a lot of experience, a lot of traveling, but just about every , everywhere down there. It's been a lot of fun, actually.

Julio Martinez: 2:00

I'm sure. Yeah, yeah. And especially if you , um, are familiar with the culture, you study French, right? Does your bachelor's degree and you speak Spanish, that helps a lot, right? Yeah,

Chris Sedgwick: 2:12

Sure. Down there . Spanish is very important. You need to have someone on your staff who speaks Spanish if you're gonna be successful there. And you should always have a customer service person who's bilingual, English and Spanish and well as well.

Julio Martinez: 2:24

Yes. That's really key. That's really key. So Chris, let's talk about some generalities about the region and your thoughts on a couple things here. First of all, I'd like to see what you think about Latin America from the political, economic or epidemiological standpoint. Um, what trends do you see happening in Latin America that are good for medical device or medical technology companies?

Chris Sedgwick: 2:53

Well, medical device is a great business to be in because , uh, you know, medical care is , is something that everyone's gonna need. It's not really an up and down business. It's pretty steady. I mean, people get sick, people get injured, people need things as the standards of living in a lot of these countries increases the need for more and better medical care. Um, equipment and services is increasingly important. So it's, it's just a great market to be in , um, especially in Latin America. I think it's helpful that Latin America, a lot of the countries are pretty much using , uh, US norms for a lot of things. You don't find that problem so much as opposed to going over to Europe. You really need to get a lot of certifications and things. So from the point of view of an American export, it's a fairly easy market to get into as far as these regulatory things are concerned. Um, you know, on the lower end that was in an area that probably isn't as specialized as , uh, maybe some of your pharmaceutical, your drug or , or some of the other things that might need more requirements. But , um, you know, normally US norms are , are pretty much accepted in most places. Um, I sort of divide Latin America into two areas. There are sort of the Pacific facing the countries like Mexico, the central American countries, you know, Peru, Columbia , Chile, that are probably more open to trade and they're easier to do businesses as, as opposed to the Merkel countries, Brazil, Argentina, where they do have more of a protectionist tendency. The markets on the west coast are much more open to trade, I think.

Julio Martinez: 4:22

Okay. I like that split <laugh>. I never heard that before, but I think it is accurate. Very much accurate, actually, now that you're talking about that, Chris. Um, the Pacific Alliance is Mexico, Columbia , Peru, and Chile.

Chris Sedgwick: 4:35

Yeah, yeah, that's it. Those four. It's easy to do business with those countries.

Julio Martinez: 4:40

Exactly. And one of the reasons why it's easier to do business is because they are OECD countries. So Peru is actually in the process, but Mexico, Columbia , and Chile are already members, official members, so that helps a lot. Yeah.

Chris Sedgwick: 4:55

Yeah,

Julio Martinez: 4:55

Sure. Excellent. Uh, Chris, let's move on here. Let's , um, talk about the overall perception of Latin America that , uh, your clients or yourself have in terms of commercializing medical technology. I know you touched a little bit on that, but , uh, can you get a little deeper in in that answer?

Chris Sedgwick: 5:14

Well, yeah, it's not a hard one to get to. There's a lot of good ways to make connections down there. Um, and I think a lot of people maybe are not aware of the opportunities that are available to , uh, to get help with the market. A lot of, I'm right now working with a lot of small exporters. These are people, they're their first time new to exporting, maybe they don't know anything about Latin America. They don't know anything about, you know, bills of relating , getting shipped , shipping, things getting paid. Um, and for example, right now I'm working with the , uh, Illinois , um, department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity in their , uh, in their trade and investment area where I work with small exporters and we walk them through the steps of , of getting out there and , and getting involved in exporting. And , uh, there's a lot of resources that we have that can be of great help to , uh, anyone who wants to get in for the first time.

Julio Martinez: 6:03

Very good. Let's talk about that. What type of companies typically look at Latin America? Have you found like a potter of companies that wanna venture?

Chris Sedgwick: 6:12

Yeah, it's probably the first place people look. And I would say a lot of these people, they just sort of stumble into it. Maybe they do their regional trade. So you're in a medical business, you do a medical show in the United States, and somebody from Mexico or Columbia or Peru stops by your stand and says hello, or you get some inquiries on your thing. And, and the thing about that is people have started out that way and they , they've really not made any concerted effort to get involved, but that just tells you right there that there's probably something you can tap into there. So , um, that's a pretty, it's a first step market for , for people when you're thinking of getting out of the United States, you know, Mexico's nearby. We have the US Canada, and, you know , uh, U-S-M-C-A as we call it now.

Julio Martinez: 6:59

That's a good point, especially in the Trump area. Mexico was all over the news, especially at the beginning of the <laugh> . Yeah , his term

Chris Sedgwick: 7:05

<laugh> . It was, we had a real period of uncertainty there. Um, what people like is certainty, and that was a period of uncertainty, and it's bad for business. Nobody knows what to do. I was, you know, job hunting at a time right when this happened. And , uh, all of us sudden now , companies that was working for us , well, we don't wanna make any decisions on our international business now. Everything's just too iffy. It's too dangerous. We , we don't wanna make an investment there. But once the U-S-M-C-A was ratified, I think that that was very helpful and that , uh, that the trade does go on and , and , uh, we have a much more stable environment now.

Julio Martinez: 7:40

Yes, that's true . All right . Um, what specific , um, uh, help do you guys provide to us exporters specifically in the medical device area?

Chris Sedgwick: 7:51

Well, we do a lot of things and we work with all sectors, but we do have, we've done a lot of work with medical devices and we grow , we have what is known as the ISTEP program. All states have a , a program called the , well almost all states , I would say probably have a , the step program. Ours is the istep , the Illinois Step State Export Promotion Program, where we work with small companies to get them into exporting. Our main things are Illinois, state of Illinois will do several group trade missions every year overseas, where we will have an Illinois pavilion, and we will take six to eight Illinois companies with us. And they'll get, you know, usually the 10 by 10 booth , uh, on the Illinois Pavilion . We will give them that booth free of charge. So they're in our pavilion, they've got a booth free of charge, and then we will actually , uh, reimburse them for , um, part of their travel. Usually 50%. Sometimes it could be more, sometimes it's less, but we'll , we're reimbursed for travel for, for two people to go down to the show . Plus we're there to help, you know, holding hands. We're there on the booth helping you. We have a pre-show orientation thing. The companies are very well prepared. We're with them the whole way we organize transportation. So the whole group will go to the trade show and, and we can take care of any glitches. We can make sure your goods get down there, get on the stand, and everything's taken care of. 'cause , you know, for a company going on their own or international trade show for the first time is going to be intimidating. And there's so many things that can go wrong. I don't know how many trade shows I've been to in , in , in Latin America where , you know, everyone has their booth and the show's going on, and everyone's talking, dude in business, and you see one booth, there's a couple guys just standing around looking frustrated, embarrassed because there's stuff didn't get to the show. There's a lot that can go wrong. So the first time you do a show, it's great to do this, you know, with, with us or with the US Department of Commerce will do things like that as well. And, and it's very helpful. So that's the group trade mission. Like I say, afterwards, you get a reimbursement. We expect you to give you a , uh, you know, follow up with us . Um, you know , as far as we want reports, we have to come back and say, look what we got. We have to justify this to the governor. You know, we're spending all this money taking people to trade shows, so we , we wanna see some results. Now, in a lot of cases, you know, maybe we're not doing a show that you, there's a show you are interested in as a company, but we are not doing a pavilion at this show. We also have a pavilion vision for , uh, individual foreign trade shows. For example, you know, talking about Latin America, you know, we sent people to hospitality in Brazil several times. In that case, we're giving you a , a partial reimbursement from some of your travel and hotel expenses, and we're also giving you some money for partial reimbursement for your booth expenses. That's if you wanna do a show on your own. Plus we have a , a lot of things we can also do. Um , we can arrange matchmaking. So we do a lot of matchmaking out there , um, to help people, you know, connect with distributors and things. Uh, you know, if you're doing a show, we'll , we'll see what we can do for you before the show, so maybe we can generate some interest so that you will be having people come to your booth with , at , at , at the show. Other things we do, we do another thing as part of the ISTEP program, we can reimburse you for website localizations. Uh, and we have a lot of people doing that. We were doing up to $3,000 , uh, reimbursement on website localizations. However, this year, because of covid and our inability to travel, we still wanted to help people. So we decided we bumped that up to $6,000. Now, I , I've got, you know, some of my customers, they'll get quotes roughly about $12,000 for a website localization, maybe for two markets, and , uh, they're getting half of that money back from the state of Illinois. So we do that, and we also have a program to give you reimbursement that say you have to get, well, not so much in , in , in Latin America, but you know, for medical, like you need CE certification. We can give you a bit of a rebate on that as well. So we have a lot of programs. We're doing a lot of , uh, webinars on different aspects of international trade and what's going on. Um, right now, as far as the medical is concerned, I have at least two clients who will be doing the FEMA show in Miami. So that's a show that I tell people, if you're in the medical business and you wanna make Latin American connections and Caribbean connections, that is by far the best show. I would say 60% of the visitors to that show are distributors up from Latin America and the Caribbean looking for , um, new products, new distribution. That is by far, I think, the best show , uh, for the Latin American market, especially as a first timer. Plus, you're not really leaving the United States, you're going to Miami Beach, you know, you're kind of leaving the United States. It's Miami. Is that sort of, I don't know what you're calling it .

Julio Martinez: 12:49

I like to say that , uh, the United States starts at West Palm Beach. <laugh>. Yeah ,

Chris Sedgwick: 12:53

<laugh> , yeah, that's pretty much the case. You know, in fact, you know, we're even, we're taking a look at possibly doing a pavilion at that show , uh, in in

Julio Martinez: 13:03

2020 . So I was gonna ask you about that. Yeah. How's the pandemic affected your help or your activities helping these companies?

Chris Sedgwick: 13:13

Well, it's really put a crimp in it, you know , um, we do several shows overseas every year where we have an Illinois pavilion, and so we've done zero shows this year, you know, and then we have a lot of customers we send out on the individual trade missions, who, again , uh, they have not been able to go, we've been improvising this year. You know, we've worked, we do what we've tried a lot of the virtual shows and, you know, sometimes it , they've had mixed results. They've had mixed result . People are saying it's not the same. I mean, you go to a show and there's that interaction. People come to your booth, you're talking , you're chatting, you know, you end up going for a beer afterwards or a dinner or something. And there's that intangible kind of thing that you're not getting with these virtual shows. So , uh, you know , that's one area that I , there's, I mean, you could do a lot of things on Zoom. You can do a lot of things with the virtual platforms in certain aspects. Like you wanna do a webinar on something and demo a product or something , uh, that they're very useful tools, but there just is no substitution for the in-person trade show.

Julio Martinez: 14:17

Well, the, the issue here is finding the service . I guess that's a , a , a key pain point for these companies . So trade shows facilitate that process. So in the absence of trade shows , then virtual trade shows are not the same. So we argue that these companies are having a really, really hard time, Chris , finding distributors. So what are you doing now to help these companies with their matchmaking, with finding distributors, et cetera , activities?

Chris Sedgwick: 14:45

We will do matchmaking, you know, no , we've done in-person matchmaking very often. Sometimes that's one of our trade missions. We take people to a country and we arrange matchmaking. We will contract with people on the ground, for example, maybe in Columbia . And we have some very good, good people on the ground that know the local market, and they'll , so when you're gonna go down, you're gonna be getting some serious , uh, you know, we're not just trying to run up numbers. We want to make sure, we wanna make sure that these people really are a good fit for, for what you're doing and where you're going. We do that, of course, the , uh, US Department of Commerce does their , um, gold key program, which is another way of, it's an excellent way of meeting distributors. Yeah.

Julio Martinez: 15:27

At every embassy they have an office and they help companies. And , um, do you think that companies really, really take advantage of these type of services? I mean, not only on Illinois, but the other states?

Chris Sedgwick: 15:41

No,

Julio Martinez: 15:41

I don't think so.

Chris Sedgwick: 15:42

No. No. You know, even before I , I got this job, you know, when I look back upon it, I think, wow, I could have really used some of this stuff. I could have really gotten some things through on the budget. People are saying, you know, we don't wanna spend money or something, and all of a sudden they say, well , if we get a booth for free, you know, they're good programs and people are not as aware of them as , as they , they should be.

Julio Martinez: 16:05

What needs to be done for that to get better?

Chris Sedgwick: 16:08

Well, things like this podcast for

Julio Martinez: 16:10

Stances . Okay ,

Chris Sedgwick: 16:10

Excellent. You know , that's , that's a thing. The podcast, we try to get the word out. We, we really network with everyone who's involved in international trade community here in , you know, in Illinois, in Chicago, here , here in particular, there's a lot of great organizations that are involved in trade. And , uh, we work with them. Uh , you know, we're also working, another angle that I really like working with is we like to work with the ev Every industry has a trade organization, you know, every, you know, every medical sector has its little, you know, the association. And it is really good to team up with people in these associations. They've got their network and they also help people wanna , you know, be focused towards, towards their industry and see what resources are there. You know, I do that in other industries. So , uh, you know, they have their trade show, they'll have an event. A lot of these associates, they'll have a trade show in the United States, but they'll have some sort of events, you know, receptions or something geared towards international visitors and , and things. And, and those are always helpful and it's always nice to go with them. And then a lot of these associations, they will team up with the US Department of Commerce on international trade shows. So the u maybe the US will have a pavilion. Once again, it's an easy way for people who are nervous about doing the international show that have, you have the help there. Maybe you have some language help interpreters on the stand and things like that, that are very helpful for, for people going out on these shows.

Julio Martinez: 17:36

Chris , um, one benefit that we didn't talk about is product registration. You know, regulatory registration in case of medical devices, is that something you guys subsidize or something?

Chris Sedgwick: 17:48

Well, like I say , you can get, that's one of our programs is , uh, if you need some type of registration or something, we look at it on a case by case , but we have a program for that. If you need to get a certification or something , uh, you can get a rebate

Julio Martinez: 18:01

On that . So you have your list of vendors and there's like a voucher, something?

Chris Sedgwick: 18:06

No, so what it is, is, for example, you need, I have , I dunno , something, the CE certification, you'll go to a company who does that. Uh, you'll fill out a ISTEP application with us. And for compliance ss plus you'll get a quote from the , uh, the vendor,

Julio Martinez: 18:23

Any vendor that you consider that is a good fit.

Chris Sedgwick: 18:26

Yeah. You get the vendor, we , we look at the quote, it comes into us for an approval, and if we approve it, then you go out and you do your thing, and then you file a claim back with us to get your , your rebate.

Julio Martinez: 18:38

Interesting. Because , uh, going back to the issue of more marketing, more companies need to know about all this . I'm just kind of , uh, surprised that more companies don't take advantage of this because this is fantastic.

Chris Sedgwick: 18:50

Yeah . So there's a lot of, a lot of resources out there. You know, we also work closely with , um, the small business development people, and they , a lot of the small business development corporation, they have international trade centers. There is about for, I think there are eight or nine of them here in , in Illinois. And this is sort of your first stop as a new exporter because they will help you put together an export plan, and they will walk you through the nuts and bolts of exporting, shipping, you know , getting paid compliance issues. And it's a first stop. We like to , people come to us, we like to ask them first, do you have any experience with exporting? Do you have a plan? Um, well, if not, well let , let us put you in touch with one of the small business development councils, international trade centers, and they will sit down with you and you work through an export plan. So there are just so many resources out there that can make , uh, starting up for a new exporter, a very easy thing. It could take away a lot of the headaches. Wow .

Julio Martinez: 19:55

And this is available in pretty much all states, the country.

Chris Sedgwick: 19:58

I think most states have a program I know we do. And, and it's free of that is free of charge.

Julio Martinez: 20:03

So I wonder if , um, it's just an idea here, if you guys , um, could match or could , uh, interact with companies like ergo , uh, like , uh, bio access , uh, companies of this sort, I mean regulatory referral consultants or market access consultants to let them know about these programs so that they can tell their clients

Chris Sedgwick: 20:26

That's a good idea. That's what we've been doing with a lot of things. For example, we talk to a lot of companies that do website localization, and we make them aware. We like to do that. That's a good idea. You know, you tell these people that this is a possibility for

Julio Martinez: 20:39

Exactly. You market to the vendors so the vendors can tell companies <laugh>.

Chris Sedgwick: 20:43

Yeah. I've been doing a lot, a lot with like trade associations, you know, know someone's trying to get someone to go to their show, you know, an Illinois company. I tell 'em , you know, if , if they need that extra push, tell 'em they may be available for some , uh, you know, reimbursement from the state of Illinois. And that's all that , that little push that sometimes the salesman needs to close the deal. Yeah.

Julio Martinez: 21:02

Yes, totally. Yeah . To close the deal. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Good, good. So let's go back to Latin America. We kind of , uh, started talking about something else. So let's go kind of , uh, country by country. Uh, what's your experience in Mexico? What's your experience in Brazil and Columbia ? Tell me about , uh, that Yes ,

Chris Sedgwick: 21:20

Mexico's a pretty, pretty good market. It's pretty easy market. It's different from other countries and in a lot of countries you maybe in Columbia or or Costa Rica or pa you'll have one distributor. Mexico is more, you need regional distributors. You have a guy in Mexico City, you have a guy in Monterey, you have a guy in Guadalajara. It's sort of, that's one of the few places where you really need more than one distributor to , uh, to cover, cover the

Julio Martinez: 21:44

Country. Yeah . 125 million people. I mean, of course you need different cultures. Yeah ,

Chris Sedgwick: 21:50

Yeah. I'd say it's a big area. Maybe you have someone up in the border, maybe you have someone down south and in the Yucatan area. So it's, it's a bigger country and it's an area you probably need more than one distributor. It's a pretty easy market in that , uh, you know, most of the time you're shipping to the border, you know, most of the time you're quoting , um, you know, free carriage to Laredo or McAllen or something like that. And it's taken across by your, your Mexican customers. So it's, it's pretty easy. Uh ,

Julio Martinez: 22:18

Yeah, it's good to you . You mentioned that because , uh, I've had people in social circles and or in business circles tell me, oh, I'm looking for a distributor in Latin America. I'm like, wow. One distributor in Latin America, 30 something countries, 600 million people, like five different languages. Uh , <laugh> 2000 different cultures within the <laugh> . Yeah ,

Chris Sedgwick: 22:47

Yeah , Yeah. It's just <laugh> here . One guy. It's , you're the distributor. No, I mean the distributor. What , what , what's the distributor doing for you then ? I mean , you know, you do have a situation where you have a lot of guys in Miami, you know, you have your trading companies out of Miami that, you know, for some people they don't really wanna get involved. They don't have that much business that work with someone in Miami. You've got a big business down there in that maybe you've got some small distributors and they're buying from, you know, maybe 10 or , or or 15 different US manufacturers, and they're consolidating in Miami, and then a container gets shipped out from Miami to Panama or Costa Rica or Columbia . But there is that business. Um, you know , it's kind of a nice thing on the side 'cause they catch some of the small markets. But if you're really interested, then you, you do really wanna get your own distributors in each each country. But they do cover that little niche, and there's little islands that need things and little places that, you know, they're not gonna be big enough to bring in , uh, you know, a a , a viable shipment of goods into their country. So they're consolidating with someone in , in , in Miami. So there's always gonna be that little Miami niche to cover the small guy market.

Julio Martinez: 23:58

No wonder why Miami's a capital of Latin America. <laugh>.

Chris Sedgwick: 24:02

No , exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah .

Julio Martinez: 24:04

So people in Columbia actually meet for business in Miami. You fly in the morning and come back in the afternoon.

Chris Sedgwick: 24:11

Yeah, it's , it's true. It's , uh, you know, I guess that's why the , the Florida International Medical Exhibit is there because it is indeed, it's the easiest place for people to all over Latin America get everyone's, almost everyone's within a , uh, you know, a nonstop flight of Miami to get there. You know, that's always been the , uh, the situation in a way it is kind of changing because Panama is now, you know, they're making themselves the axis of the Americas. And now you get from Panama City to almost anywhere with , uh, you know, Copa, they've done amazing job. It just always amazed me when I first started going down to , uh, Panama in the early nineties, you had your Toku Mount airport there, and there was maybe like 20 flights a day. <laugh> , you go in a day and there's like 20 flights an hour, and you could get anywhere for with Copa these days , you know, it's so , uh, but I guess then against the convention facilities , um, you know, Miami still has the big convention center, which, which makes it easy for the show. That's neutral ground too. I think that's another thing that's neutral ground. It's nobody's home turf. <laugh>.

Julio Martinez: 25:15

All right , so that's Mexico. Uh , what about, oh , Brazil.

Chris Sedgwick: 25:19

Brazil is another story that is a tougher market to crack. You know, it's part of Miracle Sur they have a lot of domestic industry. They have a huge medical industry down there, and it's, frankly, it's pretty protectionist. It's not an easy market. Um , you get a lot of low price product down there that's, that's made locally. And I mean, there's a lot of opportunity if you're probably in might the higher end type of equipment and things. Uh, there's a great market and, you know, hospital r is probably the biggest show in , in that area. But like I said , that's more of a me kind of a show, I would say, as far as the bulk of the people of Brazilians, and , and that's, that's the show. If you wanna crack the Brazilian market would be the , uh, the hospital r

Julio Martinez: 25:56

Good point. Good point. You know, I've never had that comment before. I think it's very clever. I mean, if you're in the higher end, you have a better opportunity in Brazil because Brazilians export to many countries around the world.

Chris Sedgwick: 26:06

They do. And they're, they , yeah , they're doing some high tech , uh, medical equipment themselves. So you see , you'll notice, I mean , you go to the female show there , there's always a huge Brazilian , uh, contingent of companies there, and it's a pretty high tech economy.

Julio Martinez: 26:20

Yeah, it is. It is . It is . Yeah. Argentina used to be like that. Probably not anymore. <laugh>.

Chris Sedgwick: 26:25

Well, it's , you know, Argentina, it's a great place, but it's , it's a tough place. As far as, you know, the economic series is probably one of the , uh, probably one of the most difficult things I've had to deal with in my career in , in Latin America. You know, I've had situations where I remember back , it was early nineties, and I was just about to close a big deal with a guy in Mexico. He says, okay, I'm opening up the letter of credit . I'm going to the bank tomorrow to open up the letter of credit the next day to pay. So plunged , uh, yeah, you , you get a lot of that with the , the currency things , you know, I i , I always just , I always had a laugh whenever we'd have a sales meeting at one of my companies. I was working for the , uh, the domestic sales guys were saying, I don't know if these customers are gonna take this 3% , uh, price rise that we're we're doing this year. My guy in Columbia , his currency has dropped 30%. I've gotta deal with that. You guys got it easy. Yeah, you

Julio Martinez: 27:19

Got kind of it . That's true . <laugh> . Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately , um, Argentina is going through that. It's very, very , uh, unstable market, beautiful country, beautiful people. Uh , highly educated workforce. Yes, yes . Wine, cheese , uh, beef, I mean everything. Yes , it is a nice country. It is nothing

Chris Sedgwick: 27:41

Like a beef and a Mabe .

Julio Martinez: 27:46

<laugh> is a country full of Italians who speak Spanish. Exactly.

Speaker 3: 27:50

<laugh>.

Chris Sedgwick: 27:54

Yeah .

Julio Martinez: 27:55

So let's talk about my home country, Columbia , what do you think about it?

Chris Sedgwick: 27:59

Columbia is amazing. It is a country that has gone so far. I first started going down there in the early nineties and, you know , it was marked by political instability. Had the gorilla movement , uh, around , they've got a lot of things to overcome. But over the last , uh, when I first went down there, you know, I'd go to Bogota, I'd go to Medellin or Ali , you know, you'd fly in, you'd fly out, you'd never drive very far outside of the city because it was dangerous. You know, last trip, I was down there a couple years ago, I go down and I fly down. I'm with my distributor in Bogota, and we're gonna see some guy in cio . So , uh, we , we drive that road out to Illa Vice and it's, no , no problem. It's all tranquil. And, and we're out there, we're doing business and we stopped off for dinner in Illa Vice and we take the same road back to Volvo type night . And I said, my God, you couldn't have done that 20 years ago. Today. It's, you know , yeah, the economy's doing well. Uh, it's, it's a pretty thriving place. It's, it's probably one of the easier places to do business. Uh, they've got a good business ethic going there and, and , uh, I , I thoroughly enjoy Columbia as far as , uh,

Julio Martinez: 29:05

Very happy to hear that Chris. Awesome. Thank you for that. <laugh>.

Chris Sedgwick: 29:11

We may be doing a little trade mission at Columbia later .

Julio Martinez: 29:13

Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, Chris, we're towards the end of the show. Let's talk a little bit about importation and corruption. I mean, do you have anything to share in terms of importation or shipping products to Latin America? Any, any best practices?

Chris Sedgwick: 29:31

Uh , you know, it's , uh, it's just use a good freight forwarder. Okay. You know, this is another resource that, that people realize. If you have a question, ask your freight forwarder. Uh, they should be very knowledgeable on these things. They know the pitfalls. They're doing hundreds of shipments every day in these countries. They can help you coach you on, you know, how to prepare your documentation so there are no issues and make sure your inco terms are correct. People have a lot of trouble with the concept of inco terms. It can save a lot of headaches if , if you know all those. And , but the freight forwarder is there to help you. That's their job. And they can suggest the best way to ship. Um, you know, whether it's container load or or LCL or air or ocean in any kind of documentation that might be, if you have a good freight forwarder, it , it's , it's a great resource and now you'll avoid any of the problems that that come up as far as shipping is concerned.

Julio Martinez: 30:19

Very good. Alright . What about corruption and bribery in the region? Do you have anything to share there?

Chris Sedgwick: 30:24

You know, I haven't really come across it . You know, it may be for the bigger kind of products. You know, I'm usually dealing with , uh, distributors in my field . I guess the Distribu has usually probably been a family company. You know, you got a lot of that down there, you know, father runs it and the son's there taking over and it's sort of a family business and , and you work with them and , uh, you know, so you don't really, you know, have to come across anyone asking you for a bribe or anything myself. You know what I'm doing. Maybe if you're getting tenders or different things like that. It's, it's a different animal. And the government purchases , uh,

Julio Martinez: 30:57

Yeah, I was gonna say that. Government purchases, yeah,

Chris Sedgwick: 31:00

Do that . But I mean, business is pretty straightforward and as far as , uh, that

Julio Martinez: 31:04

Is concerned. Okay. Excellent. Good to hear that. All right , so before we set up for today, Chris, do you have any final thoughts or mores of wisdom or other museums for our listeners? Well ,

Chris Sedgwick: 31:17

It's gonna be an adventure

Julio Martinez: 31:18

<laugh>. I mean, what would you say to the CEO of a small medical device company if you have him in front of you right now of Latin America? <laugh>,

Chris Sedgwick: 31:27

You gotta have a sense of adventure when you doing it . You never know what's gonna happen now . Yeah .

Julio Martinez: 31:31

Good advice.

Chris Sedgwick: 31:31

You never know things you , and you gotta be ready to improvise and you gotta be able to laugh it off at the end of the day when

Julio Martinez: 31:37

Improvisation. Yes,

Chris Sedgwick: 31:39

Enjoy it . There's a lot of fun. There's a lot of good food and things to enjoy. And if you like travel, it's , it's a good way to go. And you , you learn a lot and you meet a lot of people and it's a lot of fun.

Julio Martinez: 31:50

It's a lot of fun. Actually, I have a a , a very short story to tell here. I have a client who has been to Columbia with me like , uh, four times already. And right now he's in a state of mind where he's looking for any excuse, any business excuse, even if he's this minuscule to travel to Columbia and spend a couple days.

Chris Sedgwick: 32:10

It is really an underrated country as far as tourism is concerned, you know ? Yeah . It's funny 'cause I, when I was going down there back in , in , in early nineties, you going to Columbia ? Yeah . Isn't it dangerous if I was subtract talking to some attractive woman? Whoa . Yes it is very dangerous. But my middle name's danger <laugh>, but it's, you know, but I remember the first time I came in, I was driving, I landed at the airport meeting , I'm coming , I'm driving in through all those little hills and forests and coming out . Wow. This is a beautiful city. It's a nice town, nice restaurant and friendly atmosphere. You know, all the cities , Bocata Ali , you know , CARNA is just a gem. You know, this is the fun part of , uh, the international business. Yeah,

Julio Martinez: 32:54

It's a fun part of it, <laugh>. But it's a lot of fun. It is a lot of fun. It is worth it. It is because the opportunity is huge, so it's worth risking it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, Chris, thank you so much. Uh, how can people, listeners get in contact with you or your , uh, organization?

Chris Sedgwick: 33:12

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Office of Trade and Investment? I'm the Americans Trade Specialist. We have a other , the trade specialist for the other regions as well. Um, I got my number 3 1 2 2 0 4 9 4 8 0 that you reach me on the phone. And , uh, Chris dot sedgwick@illinois.gov CHRS do SE DG , WIC k@illinois.gov . And we have our website , uh, Illinois, www illinois.gov/dce. Our export illinois.gov will get you there, I think.

Julio Martinez: 33:49

Alright , Chris , thank you so much. Have a great rest of the afternoon and , um, I look forward to working together somehow in Latin America. Excellent.

Chris Sedgwick: 33:59

Very good . Thank you . Bye-Bye .