'We are playing with courage'.

• Author: KRISTIE, JAMES

Thomas J. Donohue has put the U.S. Chamber Of Commerce back in the ball game of business advocacy. Look out, regulatory oversteppers and opponents of free trade.

POLICE SWAT TEAMS firing tear gas[ldots]thousands of protestors chanting "Death to the WTO" and "Down with Globalization" [ldots]Street clashes[ldots] bashed-in storefronts[ldots]a mayor declaring civil emergency and overnight curfews[ldots]and, amidst this headline-grabbing melee, teams of frustrated trade negotiators and, ultimately, toppled trade talks. That was the "Seattle storm" that blew through this Pacific seaboard city late last year as ministers to the World Trade Organization met -- or tried to meet -- to advance the progress of global trade. Further progress will have to await another day.

If anyone was equipped to do battle in such a confrontational setting as was Seattle, it would be Thomas J. Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Donohue lead the Chamber's delegation at the talks. During the tense week of navigating trade negotiations inside and ugly protestations outside the meeting hall, Donohue was spotted by this interviewer going toe-to-toe -- actually, split-screen to split-screen -- on CNN in a verbal skirmish with that old warhorse of social activism, Ralph Nader. To know that Tom Donohue has been called "the George Patton of the trade association world" by a former White House deputy chief of staff is to know who won that sparring match.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region. Donohue became its president and CEO in September 1997, after having served for 13 years as the president and chief executive of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), which he built into "a potent force," according to the Washington Post, revving up by several magnitudes the organization's revenue base and membership. In a comment on his helming of the ATA, the New York Times stated, "The militant and immodest Mr. Donohue fought the railroads, the unions, and Congress and became a standout tough guy in a city where arrogance is an admired art form."

Other portrayals of Donohue by the press, colleagues, and competing interests have pegged him as a "tough and wily operator," "hard-nosed New York Irishman," "bodacious, hard-charging, in-your-face kind of guy," "white-haired dynamo," "master persuader," and someone who "threatens, cajoles, badgers[ldots]whatever it takes to get what he wants." Donohue brushes off the strong-man appellations -- but not too strenuously. As he told DIRECTORS & BOARDS during our visit with him, "Some people say we are tough guys. We are not tough guys. Our children like us." Then, barely skipping a beat, he declares, "We are just trying to represent business with the same enthusiasm and strength that other organizations represent their constituents."

This is his second term of duty with the Chamber: he was a group vice president there for eight years before heading the ATA. Since his return, Donohue is widely credited with revitalizing the venerable business lobby, attracting thousands of additional large and small companies as members, strengthening relations with state and local chambers, and significantly expanding the organization's policy expertise and lobbying muscle. Who should know better than the Washington Post that "Nobody has mastered this new Washington game better than Tom Donohue."

He was born in New York City in 1938 and earned a bachelor's degree from St. John's University -- working his way through college as a union truck driver -- and a master's degree in business administration from Adelphi University. When not tending to Chamber business, he serves on several boards, including corporate directorships at Union Pacific Corp., Sunrise Assisted Living Inc., and XM Satellite Radio Inc.

Donohue had only recently returned from Seattle when DIRECTORS & BOARDS called on him in early December at the Chamber's offices, situated just across the street from the White House. In addition to probing him for his "post-game" analysis of the trade talks, we wanted to learn what other initiatives were on the Chamber's plate to help keep the world safe for free trade and to help continue the U.S. economy's record run of uninterrupted expansion. Excerpts from the discussion follow.

Let's start with the Seattle trade talks. What went wrong there?

What happened was very predictable. If you study trade negotiations, negotiators meet all the time and very often they don't get done what they want to do. There were several things going on there that we ought to reflect on.

First, we went to that negotiation having already accomplished our most significant objective, which was negotiating China's entry into the WTO.

Second, we wanted to open up some big-time questions on agricultural issues with the EU. They weren't budging at all, but was that unexpected? Of course not. Remember, they had all new commissioners, having thrown the other guys out, and they were going to be strong on behalf of their countries and their trading cartel.

Third, we were spending some time trying to see what we could do to open up trading relationships around the world in a more positive way for American business. In the process, the emerging nations -- and there are 100 of them in the WTO -- felt that they were left out of these discussions. We have to do something to get them more engaged.

Then, finally, there were all of these external issues: environment, labor standards, and so on. Environment doesn't belong in trade negotiations. We have 169 existing treaties around the world, plus a bunch of regional treaties, on environment, so we are doing a good job on environment. And labor Standards should not be a part of trade negotiations. We have working groups within the WTO to look at the effect of global trade on American workers and workers around the world. That is a legitimate thing to do -- but not coupled to trade. When the President of the United States started musing in one of those after-speech press conferences about putting some labor standards in and putting sanctions against people who don't play, that was the end...