In this epoch of globalization, when so much depends on successful trading strategies – and with so many cities, states and provinces marketing themselves as international business centers, just how secure is Washington's place in the world as a center for trade?

As auto parts factories or even entire industries move routinely from the United States to Mexico or China, can Washington always depend on trade to provide one in three of its available jobs?

Despite its proximity to Asia, can Washington expect to remain a prime port of entry for goods heading into North America? As new technologies help to "shrink" the world – Boeing's new planes, for example, can fly directly from most cities to Asia without stopping in Seattle as they once did, bringing Omaha closer to Beijing and Memphis closer to Tokyo – what advantages can we catalog in the Pacific Northwest to help assuage our fears of new competitors, unpredictable markets and uncertainty about this state's trading future?

Of course, virtually every expert in international trade points to the deep-water ports of Seattle and Tacoma, through which hundreds of thousands of containers filled with all manner of goods flow each year. A seaport is an invaluable resource, something Omaha, Neb., will never have. But there are major plans to expand ports in Canada. And highvalue goods travel, increasingly, by air.

The truth is, it's not just about ports. "There are plenty of port cities that don't have the breadth and depth of international logistics that we do," says Bill McSherry, director of international development at the Puget Sound Regional Council. For example, he says, "We are an international law center now," pointing out that the region teems with attorneys specializing in China, Japan, Korea and other Asian trading partners.

Helping McSherry drive home his point, Bill Stafford, president of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, adds, "If you're a wheat farmer in Montana and you want to sell to Russia, you may not have lawyers in Billings who have the expertise you need. Seattle does."

Add to these specialists other layers of trade support, from savvy freight forwarders to venerable customs brokers, and someone with boxes to bring across the Pacific begins to sense the potential for a kind of one-stop shipping shopping here in western Washington. "How are we different from, say, Portland?" McSherry asks. "The intellectual infrastructure here is superior to that in Portland."

However, insiders say that Washington's catalog of trade advantages goes far beyond the obvious, including everything from the region's ethnic diversity to recent decisions by retailers such as Target and Ikea. But first, some useful history.

Even before Washington attained statehood, when it was thought of as the barbarian sister of civilized Oregon, trade advocates touted its advantages. In "A Report on Washington Territory," written just before statehood in 1889, W.H. Ruffner insisted: "This market will not only grow rapidly in its demands, but the currents of trade will be diverted from Europe to America." Ruffner pointed out that Puget Sound was closer to Australia, Canton, Shanghai and Japan than England was and predicted that "the bulk of trade will be taken from England and Holland by the merchants of San Francisco and Puget Sound."

And prior to the arrival of trade-dependent white settlers, coastal natives would follow river valleys up to mountain passes, traverse the Cascades and trade with tribes in Yakima. The Western natives would swap clams for a kind of reed they used to make their fishing nets. So, as Stafford quips, "Maybe trading's just in our blood."

Sounds funny, yes, but it's no joke.