Another Daley takes centre-stage

William Daley is making a pilgrimage to his ancestral roots in Co Waterford this weekend before heading for Belfast with a highpowered delegation. He is bringing his daughter, who has just graduated from high school, to Dungarvan to meet distant cousins and visit the monument his father, the famous Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, built to his grandfather outside the town.

The Daleys are still a powerful political force in Chicago where brother Richard is mayor like his father had been. William (49), the younger brother, has long been an influential adviser to the mayor. "He has always subjugated himself and his own ego and his own interest to the mayor's interest," a campaign consultant to the mayor has observed.

But for the past 16 months William has been emerging from this role in the shadows to be President Clinton's Secretary of Commerce in the Cabinet and playing a key role in the President's aim of linking foreign policy with US trade in the era of "globalisation".

Mr Daley feels pride as the first Irish Catholic in the historic Commerce Department set up by a Republican President, Theodore Roosevelt, whose portrait hangs in his office. There is also an aquarium of "aggressive African fish" which Mr Daley can watch as they devour each other.

This will be the first US trade mission to Ireland headed by a Secretary of Commerce since the late Ron Brown's visit in 1995. There have been several at lower levels since then.

"Business development mission" is preferred to the term "trade mission". Trade deals may be done by some of the smaller companies, but the main idea is to let the US companies explore with the Northern Ireland administration and the Dublin Government, as well as with individual companies, how the present climate of political confidence can lead to greater investment.

Although the Daley mission was in the pipeline before the Belfast Agreement, it and the referendum results have given it a big boost.

As the Secretary put it in an interview in his enormous panelled office looking across 15th Street to the White House: "The very attractive thing about Ireland right now is the prospect that you can have, for the first time in a helluva long time, some stability and this is what business people are looking for. These people can look anywhere in the world for investment."

The mission is a combination of large US multinationals like General Electric and small companies interested in communications, environmental technology and tourism.

It might seem strange that Fruit of the Loom, already so well established in Northern Ireland and Donegal, should be part of the mission. However, Mr Daley is a good friend of the company chairman, William Farley, also from Chicago who is on the trip, and he says that Fruit of the Loom is "sending a message along with us of continued interest" in Ireland.

The Secretary refers to the threat last year by Fruit of the Loom to move out of Ireland and says that the mission will give the company "an opportunity to meet certain people and help them make a judgment on future expansion".

The president of Boeing, Mr Richard James, will be discussing expanding business with Shorts which already supplies parts for the Boeing 737.

Monsanto has been encouraged by the peace process to explore investment opportunities. Motorola has a small sales presence in Northern Ireland but would like to expand there.

Pfizer, already with a subsidiary in Cork involved in manufacturing the wonder potency pill, Viagra, also wants to invest in the North. "I wonder if they'll be bringing samples," jokes Mr Daley.

The Boston Concessions Group, a food service company that specialises in leisure, recreation and entertainment, will be looking at opportunities for tourism in the Border counties on the Republic side. The last day of Mr Daley's tour will bring him to Sligo and a meeting with the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, where US investment in the Border areas will be the theme discussed with business leaders.

He will also meet the Taoiseach at the end of the trip to brief him on the mission before returning to the US.

Mr Daley does not see much future in a proposal, languishing on Capitol Hill and dear to some Irish-US politicians, of turning Northern Ireland and the Border counties into a free trade area with the US. It will probably be raised during this trip "but not in a formal way".

"I think it is a very, very long shot and does present enormous problems for the EU and the UK." He adds that to negotiate such an arrangement "you need to have fast-track authority", pointing out that Congress has so far refused to grant President Clinton this power to negotiate trade agreements which cannot be amended by Congress but only voted up or down.

This is a subject dear to Mr Daley's heart. During President Clinton's first term, he was called on to help push through the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico (NAFTA). Mr Daley had to lobby fiercely to get the legislation through against the suspicions of many Democrats and the big unions worried about job losses.

Now that he is Secretary of Commerce, it has been a big disappointment that free trade is again under fire among Democrats and the unions who have to be wooed in this mid-term election year.

But for now, he is looking forward to his Irish trip. He will have more US initiatives to announce and "there are other things going on that the President is interested in for Ireland".

Another big investment conference like those at the White House in 1995 and in Pittsburgh last year is not planned, however.