Since 9/11, the United States has faced a difficult balancing act between maintaining security and keeping the doors open to international businesspeople.

The issue arose during conversations I had with buyers from the Mideast and other areas during shows I attended in Asia this past winter. The U.S. visa process, it seemed, was so cumbersome that they were skipping High Point to attend shows in the Far East and Europe. And since most products were coming from China and other parts of Asia anyway, they figured there wasn’t any need to come to the States.

The issue surfaced again during a conversation I had after market with Peter Garner of Houston-based Garner International. He is a distributor who sells furniture to clients in the Middle East. Garner lived in that part of the world for about 12 years and has done business there for the past 39, so he has a good working knowledge of the area’s businesspeople.

At market he was kind enough to call me after seeing an article that Furniture/Today ran on the difficulty Mideast buyers were having getting into this country. And it doesn’t just have to do with getting a visa, he said. That is just one hurdle.

According to Garner, some of his furniture clients have been questioned for hours at airports about why they are here and who they are going to see. In many cases, they had to provide detailed information and documentation to security officials. In other cases, they were stripped and had their luggage searched.

“Even when they do get visas, when they arrive, they are treated horribly,” Garner said. “They would not get this treatment in Europe or Asia. And it’s opposite of the treatment I receive in their countries. There has to be a rationale in all this.”

The negative effects are far-reaching and probably go beyond what the current administration ever dreamed possible.

In the past six to seven months, Garner has had Mideast furniture clients who were treated so badly that they promised not to return to the U.S. Since 9/11, Garner’s Mideast client visits to High Point are down 80%.

The situation affects Garner’s clients in other industries too, including fitness and apparel. Many have also said they won’t return, no thanks to the poor treatment they have received in airports.

Garner isn’t alone in his observations. Emad S. Alonaizi, a Mideast engineering and interior design consultant, said many of his furniture industry associates stopped coming to the United States because of the difficult visa process and problems in airports. One client, he said, was stuck in a U.S. airport for more than six hours because he was a perceived security threat.

“They don’t want to be considered a terrorist,” Garner said. He said the U.S. is losing a lot of business because of its strict security policies.

“Just because you buy a box of tomatoes and one is bad, you don’t throw the whole box out,” Alonaizi said.

The problem, as Garner sees it, doesn’t lie in the need for additional security. Sept. 11 proved we needed to do a better job of that. Garner simply believes that the taxpayer-funded foreign embassies and consular offices need to do a better job identifying the legitimate businesspeople. And once they do, he said, they need to help expedite the visa process for them and communicate with security officials about those individuals. That way, they won’t likely get frisked in U.S. airports like common criminals.

In response to complaints they have heard, High Point market officials are looking for ways to help make it easier for these businesspeople to come to market. In some cases, that could include sharing information about the market with various embassies.

Anything these officials do to improve the situation would be welcome. But the situation reaches beyond the furniture industry. Because of the cumbersome visa process, universities have seen a drop in interest and applications from foreign students wanting to attend graduate school in the United States. In early April, USA Today reported that the visa situation also has hurt tourism here in spite of the weak dollar.

Obviously, there are far-reaching implications for all of this, not the least of which is our growing trade deficit. We don’t want to drop the ball on security ever again, but Garner’s comments show that there needs to be some sort of middle ground. Otherwise we will continue to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world.   (to add or view public comments click on "Add your Comment" below, or to email Tom directly click here.)