GOVERNOR SAYS 10-DAY TRIP ON TRADE SUCCESSFUL

Gov. Mel Carnahan returned from Central and South America Tuesday touting the 10-day trip as a success for Missouri's businesses.

The trip through Chile, Argentina and Mexico allowed the governor and 15 business leaders to meet with heads of state and encourage contractual relationships with companies in those countries.

The governor's office said agreements reached in Guadalajara, Mexico, will benefit Missouri businesses to the tune of $15 million and other deals are pending that could mean millions more.

Agreements reached during the trip included:

-- HESSE Corp. of Kansas City signed a letter of intent to sell truck bodies to the Guadalajara area.

-- St. Louis Conveyor Co. of St. Louis recently completed a foundry project in Juarez and is working on an expansion of that foundry.

-- The Tire Factory of St. Louis agreed to deliver tires to Argentina for $580,000 this year.

-- Tracker Marine of Springfield established three distributorships in Chile, Argentina and Mexico City.

-- Shaw Medical of St. Louis and Advantage Tiremate of Kansas City signed a letter of intent to establish a distributorship in Guadalajara.

-- Hunter World Wide Systems of Fulton negotiated construction of storage facilities for a grain rail port in Jalisco, Mexico.

Also participating in the agreements and trip were John Sander and Joe Driskill of the state departments of agriculture and economic development.