WASHINGTON-Commerce Secretary William Daley next month will lead a trade mission to Latin America, a hotbed for the wireless telecommunications business that the Clinton administration does not want to lose to foreign competitors.
The trip to Brazil, Argentina and Chile, May 11-19, will be the first for Daley since becoming Commerce head in February. Shortly after taking office, Daley put a 30-day freeze on trade missions while procedures were revamped for appointing American executives to U.S. trade delegations.
“The goals for my first trade mission are clear: to reaffirm President Clinton’s commitment to hemispheric free trade; to advocate on behalf of U.S. products and services in these fast-growing markets; and to underscore the benefits of trade liberalization and economic integration for our hemisphere,” said Daley.
“Only through continued cooperation will we be able to embrace the 21st century prepared to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that will reap the economic benefits for all citizens in this hemisphere,” Daley added.
The administration has been under siege for months over charges that trade trips under late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown were tied to Democratic National Committee fundraising.
Congressional and Justice Department investigations are probing whether trade policy toward China, Vietnam and other countries has been influenced by Asian-linked campaign contributions to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign and to congressional races.
Government investigators also are examining whether the United States was made vulnerable to economic espionage as a result of alleged Chinese-tied campaign donations and whether national security was compromised.
As a result, American companies have expressed fear that the U.S. government may choose not to be as aggressive as in the past in pursuing trade with China and other Asian nations.
Under Daley, the Commerce Department said “an applicant’s partisan political activities (including political contributions) are irrelevant to the selection process.”
“The economic reforms and trade liberalizing measures taken by the governments of Brazil, Argentina and Chile have resulted in unprecedented opportunities for U.S. business,” said Daley.
He added, “We must take advantage of these opportunities to boost sales of U.S. products and services in these markets and raise awareness of how U.S. businesses and workers can benefit from further trade liberalization and hemispheric commercial integration.”
Indeed, Brazil’s cellular business is booming at a 70 percent annual clip. Last year’s 2.7 million subscriber total is expected to leap to 16.1 million by the end of 2001, according to Pyramid Research Inc., of Cambridge, Mass.
“Wireless is very hot there because wireline infrastructure is vastly underdeveloped and people are desperate for telephony,” said Jonathan Streeter, a specialist in Latin American telecommunications for the Telecommunications Industry Association.
Streeter said Motorola Inc., Ericsson Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and Northern Telecom Ltd. all have relatively strong operations in Latin America.
Overall, Commerce projects Latin American markets will average 5 percent or more growth a year through 2000.
For example, Brazil’s population of 161 million is severely undeserved. Only one out of every 11 people receives landline telephone service. There are 10 million people waiting for wireline hook-ups and between 2 million and 5 million are on hold for cellular service.
