MOBILE, Ala., March 6 (UPI) -- Three Southern U.S. states have teamed up to lure $2.9 billion in business -- a move some experts say is the start of a trend, a published report says.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, all Republicans, are working together in the hope of attracting a German steel mill to Mobile, Ala., The Christian Science Monitor reports.
The mill, shopped around by German industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG, would employ 2,700 people.
Mississippi and Florida are helping Alabama because 30 percent of the jobs would go to Mississippians and Floridians, the newspaper said.
"Market forces don't care about state lines, so we don't need to think about boundaries anymore," says Pete Whalley, an economic development expert at the University Research Center in Jackson, Miss.
The traditional state-eat-state model is becoming outdated as the United States faces increasing competition from countries such as China, Whalley says. "I think we're going to see a lot more of these (regional agreements) as we go forward."
