BC Manufacturing metal shop produces fabricated goods more affordably and jobs that ease immigration pressure into the U.S. (BC Manufacturing photo via CrossborderBusiness.com.)

The best way to understand the billions of dollars changing hands every year, tens of thousands of people working hard and the impressive variety of products being manufactured, warehoused and transported near and across the border is to tour the factories and warehouses on Otay Mesa and Mesa de Otay, in San Diego and Tijuana, California and Baja California. A good one-week tour would do it.

The second best way is to attend MEXPORT, the ultimate trade show for serious cross-border business. It is awesome. And it’s free. You could spend an hour there, or all day May 8. Good food too. The exhibitors are eager to show off, and everyone walks away with goodie bags to impress the kids.

Built on nearly two decades of experience in cross-border enterprise, Mexport has become the premier industrial trade show in the region promoting maquiladora sourcing opportunities — and much more.

“It’s a way to do business in Mexico without crossing the border,” says Wendy Gillespie, president of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce. She credits the chamber’s executive director, Alejandra Mier y Teran, for distilling the message of the annual trade show.

Mexport runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 8 in Three Piper Ranch Business Park, 1210 Air Wing Road. The Otay Mesa Chamber organizes the show, which this year will attract about 2,000 business leaders and 250 exhibitors on 75,000 square feet of exhibit space.

Some of your old favorites will be there, from Barney & Barney to FedEx, from CB Richard Ellis and Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial to Holiday Inn, Neighborhood National Bank, Union Bank, California Overnight and the Port of San Diego. And plenty of companies and organizations you may not know but should: San Diego Paper Box Co., Corrugados, Hospital Infantil de las Californias, Deloitte Baja, Joe’s Plastics, Vanard Lithographers, Plaza Mayor, Diario San Diego, Zisser… The list is long.

“We have a broad regional audience and we’ve been expanding our market to other states,” says Mier y Teran. San Diego businesses remain very welcome — at the show and on the mesa. A dozen manufacturing companies have moved to Otay Mesa over the last few months.

“There’s a growing market in Otay Mesa looking to buy services and products,” says Mier y Teran. The goods can be as simple as pallets and as complex as plastic injection processes.

“The show has become more sophisticated. Our market has evolved,” she says. “The manufacturing industry has changed radically. It’s become more high tech.”

Chamber President Gillespie has seen many market changes over her 20 years in the export business. Among the most daunting was the Mexican currency devaluation right after the initial NAFTA boom. That was 13 years ago.

Gillespie says the latest binational growth wave now is in Otay Mesa. “With SR 125 and 905, we’ve had more companies moving in — probably because this is the only place left in the city of San Diego they can grow.”

Mexport provides the new face of Otay Mesa and a look across the border at the opportunities emerging in the light of binational development. Almost 1,000 manufacturing companies — about one-third of all Mexican maquiladoras — are in Baja, primarily in aerospace, automotive, chemicals, electronics, medical devices and metal goods.

The trade show presents markets and buyers for products, components, processes and services. In a time of domestic economic stagnation, any regional business might want to consider the new opportunities down Mexico way.

“All the economic indicators are down in California, except one: international trade,” says Mier y Teran. “We are not seeing a significant decline in business.”

The Otay Chamber has sought to develop a more competitive exporting base in San Diego since 1987, two years after the Otay Mesa port of entry opened. Membership now numbers 350 companies.

Mexport remains the chamber’s signature event, and the day in Otay Mesa is meant to foster new relationships and refresh old ones. For enterprises entering the binational arena for the first time, it also will provide lessons from the complex to the mundane: information on getting a temporary business visitor’s visa, how to bring samples into Mexico, trans-border transportation options, customs brokers, and loan and trade programs.

Mayor Sanders will open the 19th annual Mexport in ceremonies at 9:30 a.m. The day concludes with a two-hour reception, including mariachis, munchies and more.

To avoid lines the morning of Mexport, pre-register at mexport.org. For more information, call the Otay Mesa Chamber at (619) 661-6111.