When executives at Torrance’s Pelican Products Inc. and Louroe Electronics Inc. in Van Nuys look for their next growth opportunity, all signs point toward the Pacific Rim. And that’s why they’re eagerly hoping the agreed-upon Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal gets final approval.

With the promise of little to no import tariffs, a fixed schedule for fees and standardized shipping paperwork – the deal among the United States and 11 other countries with coastlines on the Pacific Ocean has local exporters drooling over the potential boost to their businesses.

However, the deal, signed in October, requires approval from Congress, and has its fair share of critics. Opponents warn that by reducing import costs and other restrictions, the deal could result in American jobs moving overseas – making it a potential political flashpoint as a presidential campaign season kicks into high gear.

But business owners, commerce advocates and international trade lawyers say it will be a boon for American manufacturers, who will be able to get their products in the hands of new markets much faster and cheaper than previously.

Pelican and Louroe are among those confident they will get a significant boost in export sales from the proposed deal – because that’s what’s happened before with similar free trade agreements.

Pelican’s costs to sell its industrial lighting equipment and heavy-duty protective cases to South Korea and Colombia dropped by 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively, said Vice President Scott Ermeti, after both those countries’ free-trade agreements with the United States took effect in 2012. Pelican’s equipment became more competitive in Korea, and sales to Colombia jumped 15 percent to 20 percent.

Ermeti anticipates the same benefits from the TPP.

“We’ve been through this for so long we just know it’s beneficial,” he said. “Reductions in costs are usually passed on to ultimately the end users, and if products have a lower cost to them, people are going to buy more of them.”

Trading places

The TPP agreement among the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam has been in the works for about five years.

The agreement has a small-business focus, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and aims to cut taxes on more than 18,000 goods imported by the 12 countries involved, such as industrial products, yarn and agriculture. The office also said China is moving forward on its own trade deals that don’t reflect America’s best interests, which could cost the country in the long run.

Gary Toebben, chief executive of the downtown-based Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, said chamber members support the deal because companies can’t lower trade barriers themselves and need help in exporting overseas where the new growth is.

“The U.S. is a strong market in which to sell, but many businesses recognize that if they are going to grow their businesses, they have to reach out to the 95 percent of customers located in other parts of the world,” he said. “They see strong growth in the 11 other countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and they see that these countries in Asia particularly have strong growth in their middle class and they consume.”

Pelican sees the potential tariff reductions as benefiting them most in growing sales to Japan, Peru, Vietnam and Malaysia, where the tariffs range from 10 percent to 15 percent on average, Ermeti said. Those costs are added to Pelican’s products, making them more expensive.

Cuts of Malaysia’s and Japan’s import tariffs would help the most, said Ermeti, who added that Pelican’s seen high demand from Malaysia’s oil and gas companies for the company’s lighting equipment and cases, and expects sales to that country to grow 15 percent next year.

“They have quite a large economy with respect to other countries in Asia,” Ermeti said. “We’ve been selling there about five years, so we’re still new there, and see quite a bit of opportunity.”

In Japan, eliminating or reducing tariffs on imports would make its lights and cases cheaper to sell there, he said, and make it more competitive with local firms.

Ermeti acknowledged that Pelican’s Japanese competitors that sell to the United States might also benefit from TPP’s proposed reduced tariffs, but he believes the deal’s benefit to his firm will override any negative effect from that.

Certainty helps

Under the TPP, countries have agreed to publish schedules of when tariffs are reduced or phased out – as well as trade rules, such as customs laws and regulations. They’ve also agreed to common rules determining product origin for what tariff cuts or reductions are applicable.

That’s exactly what exporters want, said Cameron Roberts, an international trade attorney and customs expert at Roberts & Kehagiaras in Long Beach.

“What you want from factory floor to retail door is lower costs and certainty and predictability,” Roberts said. “(With the TPP), there will be greater certainty and greater predictability, and that’s going to be a good thing.”

That’s how Louroe Chief Executive Richard Brent sees it as well. His business makes and distributes audio monitoring and recording devices for surveillance and security purposes and exports to TPP member Chile as well as other Latin American countries. Exports make up about 15 percent of the company’s overall sales.

The TPP, if approved, would significantly reduce the money the company spends on tariffs and the time it takes to fill out the different paperwork currently required by each country, Brent said.

“If I know the rule, I can work with it. I want certainty,” he said. “The TPP provides certainty in export-import regulations from tariffs and financial structures to how we do the paperwork.”

Brent wants to grow his exports to 40 percent of the business, and he sees the TPP as a way to do that – especially once the federal government hosts and organizes trade missions to participating countries. He said that he’s attended similar meetings in the past and they’ve been fruitful.

On his radar are potential missions to certain Latin American countries where the company’s security and surveillance equipment are in demand.

“People buy our products because they are made in the U.S.A.,” Brent said. “This just opens more doors.”