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08.06.2007
MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEET WITH MR. PATRICK CLEARY
by Secretary-general Mr. J.W.B. Baron van Till:
The members of the Executive Committee assembled in Washington D.C. for the ExCom Meeting on Friday 4 May 2007. This meeting was hosted by IUCAB Vice President Mr. George Hayward and also attended by the new MANA President/CEO Mr. Brian Shirley CPMR, the APAC President Mr. Olivier Mazoyer and the CCRA President Mr. Kriton Phitidis as observers. Prior to this Board Meeting, meetings took place with several high placed US Officials among which Mr. Patrick Cleary, Senior Vice President – Communications of the National Associations of Manufacturers (NAM). Mr. Cleary has been at the NAM since 1997. He served in the Labour Department in the Reagan Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for policy and also served in the Bus Administration as Member and Chair of the relations in the airline and railroad industries. Mr. Cleary launched and srites the Manufacturers Blog (www.shopfloor.org), the highest-traffic page on the NAM (www.nam.org).
The IUCAB President Mr. Wolfgang Hinderer opened the meeting with Mr. Cleary by giving a summary of the current political and economic situation:
“My friends and colleagues of IUCAB and I are very pleased that we have the opportunity to meet you, the leader and representatives of NAM and MANA, here in the wonderful city of Washington. This is my third visit in this political centre of our western industrialised world and I am always fascinated.
It may be that we Europeans are not always happy with some decisions taken by the US government or political administration. I think this is normal between friends. However, we have to acknowledge that the US is the only power which is able to protect all of us in Europe and other parts of the world against threats from extremists and the reappearance of more aggressive countries under dictatorship.
The European Union with 490 Million inhabitants is the biggest trade partner of the US. The trade between these two parts of the world represents 40% of the world trade.
Nevertheless, Europe has limited political influence and Europe doesn’t have sufficient military Authority. It remains a Union of 27 states with 27 or more different languages. These countries fought each other for over 1.500 years. These wars were one of the reasons that so many Europeans left their homeland to build up a better life in the – at this time so called – new world.
At the beginning of this week meetings took place here in Washington between the political leaders of your government and the EU. The most important topics beside the climate protection were the increasing or remaining trade barriers and regulation hurdles. It was a good decision to create a transatlantic Economic Affairs Council with regular meetings in the future to discuss all problems impeding an increase of the exchange of goods and to fulfil common goals like food quality protection, drug control, patent laws and others.
The current period favours these efforts. The gloomy view of the economic situation in Europe has totally changed. We are not yet euphoric but are very optimistic. Independent of the strong Euro, the European countries benefit from the excellent development in numerous countries in Asia and South America. The investment in Europe in new production facilities increases. The outsourcing has lost some of its appeal. The relatively high value of the Euro can be bridged against lower prices for imported production parts and energy.
This is – if I may mention it – the right moment or the US industry to intensify their deliveries and penetration in European countries. Our meeting therefore is happening in the right moment. The European market is open. The buying or spending power is stronger than ever. In addition, the value of the Euro helps to intensify the presence of US products in Europe. Such a situation presents opportunities and it would be correct if we are later held to account for failure to seize them.
When I mentioned that the trade between Europe and the US represents 40 % of the World Trade than I have to add that the transatlantic economy represents $ 3 trillion. However trade accounts for just 20% of this figure. The rest consists of investment. Europe accounts for two third of all investment flows into the US (2005) and almost half of all US investment abroad goes to Europe. That means there is always a big field for the trade.
The world economy has benefited from one of the strongest grows period ever in the last five years. Real GDP has expanded at an average annual rate of 4.4% per annum after the short but severe recession in 2001 (5.4% in 2006). Every region of the world economy is doing well. The growing share of China and other Asian states have admittedly significant influence in achieving these high over-all annual gains.
However, there are some threatens of a recession which cannot totally be ruled out. The US housing market for example seems to continue to be weak. Nevertheless, we all hope that the international exchange of goods in our global world will contribute to stabilise the current strong economic situation and we all have to play our role in this context.”