Apostle of free trade seeks out converts in Europe

US chamber chief Thomas Donohue wants to remove transatlantic trade barriers, writes Colm Keena

Thomas Donohue's job is to represent three million companies operating in the world's largest economy, and when you meet him it is hard not to feel that they are in capable hands.

President and chief executive officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, he is based in Washington DC and is recognised as having significantly increased the chamber's clout in the US capital since his appointment in 1997.

When The Irish Times met up with him earlier this week (at 8.30 a.m.), he was in Dublin to meet Irish and European business leaders and politicians as part of an initiative which, if it goes according to plan, will see him increase his clout on this side of the Atlantic.

The way he sees it, the transatlantic relationship between US and European business is a key, interdependent, win-win relationship and he wants to make it easier for US companies to do business in Europe and for Europe to do business in the US.

With this in mind he is looking at possible structures that might be put in place involving the US Chamber of Commerce and Eurochambres, the association of chambers in Europe, which could be used to press for reforms that would assist trade.

Any structures that might emerge would be used to pursue a project that is already under way. "This is already happening," he says with great energy and emphasis, something that seems to be a personal trait. "It is not a case of putting structures in place so you can do something. It is the other way around... The relationship between the US and Europe is alive and well and vigorous."

He comes across as a man with strongly held views who knows how to express himself clearly and forcefully. When he gets on a roll it is clear he is enjoying himself.

He and his Eurochambre counterpart, Dr Christoph Leitl, are planning to bring business figures from their respective member companies to each other's patches, so to speak, so they can impress on the regulators there the changes to regulation that they believe would assist trade.

"We are operating on the principle that a prophet never does too well in his own neighbourhood." They hope that US regulators will be more impressed by the views European business leaders might put, with the same applying to European regulators and US business figures.

The obstacles to transatlantic trade identified by Mr Donohue include excessive regulation, the "overactive legal system" in the US, some recent corporate governance initiatives, and complex structures and rules in the EU.

Increased transatlantic cooperation could help reduce the obstacles to trade and investment, as well as allowing the US and Europe work together on such issues as the Doha round, UN economic projects, and "the challenge of Africa".

He says Europe and the US are interdependent trading partners with a very healthy and deeply embedded relationship, which politics cannot be allowed upset. "We may be fighting on geopolitical issues but we are extraordinarily interdependent trading partners."

Since being appointed to the US chamber he has tripled the size of its lobbying team and added new policy experts to its staff. He is a member of the US President's advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations and a member of the President's council on the 21st century workforce. He has fought for US tax cuts, a trade agreement with China, and increased funding for transport.

The chamber endorses candidates for office in the US whom it believes will be good for business. It monitors votes in the US Congress, telling members beforehand what vote it would like to see on particular issues. At the end of the year it assesses the records Congress members in terms of how they voted on issued of concern to the chamber. It then decides which members it will endorse and which it will not.

In close contests where a preferred candidate is identified, the chamber will even contribute to a candidate's electoral fund and, more importantly, host fund-raising events for that candidate. "That's where a candidate would get a lot of money."

The chamber can help bring out the vote for chosen candidates, mailing letters and making phone calls. It has been known to make up to 500,000 telephone calls on behalf of particular candidates.

The choices are not party political as much as candidate-driven. "Our view is that politicians come before policy. If we can have the right people in the seats, then there is a better chance of getting constructive policies."

As well as making his voice heard in the US, he is anxious to make his case for change in Europe and feels this can be done by way of lobbying with what he says are the more "innovative" and successful countries in the EU.

He mentions Ireland as one such state, along with Spain, Finland and the UK.

"I think Ireland has done extraordinarily well from US foreign direct investment generally. You have more than 570 US firms here, which for a small country of four million people, is really something."

He says the attractions of Ireland for the US are its language, its education system, its regulatory, banking and taxation regimes, and its position between the US and mainland Europe.

"Plus there is a union of spirit. There are a lot of Irish people in the US and you are looking at one of them."

He is a strong advocate of the view that outsourcing, currently a hot issue in the US, brings benefits to the US economy rather than threatening it.

He also believes that outsourcing, and the developing economies of India and China, pose no threat to US investment in Ireland.

"If Ireland keeps the environment it has, then the US will not just keep the trade and investment it has with Ireland, it will expand on it."Name: Thomas Donohue.

Factfile

Name: Thomas Donohue

Age: Born 1938.

Position: President and chief executive officer of the US Chamber of Commerce.

Background: Born in New York City. Lives in Maryland. Member of the boards of: Union Pacific Corporation; Qwest; XM Satellite Radio; Sunrise Assisted Living Corporation; and Marymount University. He is President of the Center for International Private Enterprise, a programme of the National Endowment for Democracy, which is dedicated to the development of market-orientated institutions around the world.

Family: Married to Liz. They have three sons.

Why he is the news: In Dublin for a conference on Overcoming Obstacles to Transatlantic Trade organised by the US Chamber of Commerce, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland.