SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In less than five years, China could grow its exports to nearly 10% of global trade, becoming the largest exporter in the world. Likewise, international trade stands to grow from a quarter to nearly a third of the U.S. gross domestic product within ten years. Those are the key predictions of a newly released analysis, published by the Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank ("The Trade Bank"). Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2005, the Trade Bank seeks to spark interest in trade issues among the next generation of American entrepreneurs by publishing "A Decade of Trade," a resource guide available to high school and community college students as a free download at http://www.thetradebank.com/. Written by Joseph W. Harrison, former president of the California Council for International Trade, and Dr. Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist for Wells Capital Management, "A Decade of Trade" examines major changes in the global economy, regulatory environment, and the balance of trade since 1995. Designed for use by general and specialist readers alike, the paper can provide helpful information for anyone concerned with the future of trade: business owners and students alike. It is available free for download at thetradebank.com, as well as several web-sites of high-school and community college-based trade programs nationwide. "Perhaps the best way to re-kindle public interest in trade issues is to emphasize the increasing importance of the world economy during formative school years," said Sanjiv Sanghvi, Trade Bank CEO. "Throughout its first ten years, The Trade Bank has created financial resources for companies growing through significant global commerce. We are excited to bring this educational resource to students now." "The California Trade Education Center's mission is to help our state's students understand how our economy is increasingly dependent on a strong global economy and on world trade expansion," said Everett Golden, President of the California Trade Education Center. "This paper gets right to the heart of many issues that are vital for our youth to know about, and I hope college and high school business and economics instructors will make this study widely available to their students." The Trade Bank -- one of "The Major Trade Banks" according to World Trade magazine (April 2004) -- helps local companies increase international sales while reducing risk, accelerating cash flow and improving operating margins. Combining Wells Fargo's wide array of financial services with HSBC's extensive network of international locations, The Trade Bank delivers import-export financing solutions and international expertise to U.S. companies doing business internationally. The Trade Bank delivers extensive trade services, cash management and international treasury services to its customers online over Wells Fargo's industry-leading Commercial Electronic Office(R) Business Portal. It also brings its customers local market knowledge through the HSBC network covering 77 countries and territories. Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $453 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance to more than 23 million customers from more than 6,200 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and elsewhere internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the United States to receive the highest possible credit rating, "Aaa," from Moody's Investors Service. HSBC Holdings plc is headquartered in the UK. The HSBC Group serves over 110 million customers worldwide from more than 9,700 offices in 77 countries in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. With assets of US$1,467 billion at 30 June 2005, HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organisations. HSBC is marketed worldwide as "the world's local bank." Visit HSBC at http://www.hsbc.com/ DATASOURCE: Wells Fargo & Company CONTACT: Susan Stanley of Wells Fargo, +1-415-947-3994 Web site: http://wellsfargo.com/ http://www.thetradebank.com/ http://www.hsbc.com/

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