Simon Barber

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Interesting story about Vice President Gore's 
meeting with US business executives in South
Africa.   Jamie



http://www.bday.co.za/99/0901/news/n7.htm

                                         01 September 1999 
              STARS AND STRIPES 

by Simon Barber 

Such a simple solution to a complex US-SA dilemma


WHAT in Pretoria is called the SA-US Binational
Commission is commonly referred to in Washington as the
"Gore-Mbeki" commission. The nomenclature speaks
volumes about how the institution, launched in 1995 to help
normalise relations after apartheid, is seen in each country. 

    [snip]


. . .  the obsession of Gore's people with
political optics has not always been helpful. The irritants in
the bilateral relationship are nearly all trade-related. SA
fumes over US steel dumping cases. The US has gripes
about lax SA protection of intellectual property rights and
questionable government procurement practices, among
other things. SA has complaints about the way the US
pursues these gripes.

What that means is that US Trade Representative Charlene
Barshefsky and Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin
should not have had to wait until a July teleconference to get
to know each other. At the very least Barshefsky should
have been in Gore's delegation to the February commission
meeting in Cape Town. She was dropped from the roster at
the last moment, apparently out of concern that she would
commit substance in public and thus divert attention from
the vice-president. 

How keen his staff were to ensure that everything went
according to script can be seen from the following anecdote.
Gore visited the Baygen factory in the Cape where the
famous wind-up radios are made. The visit had two
elements. A plant tour and a session with members of the
American Chamber of Commerce. 

Gore was accompanied on the tour by SA's new
ambassador to the US, Sheila Sisulu. She was then politely
asked not to attend the meeting with US businessmen on the
grounds that her presence might hamper the "spontaneity"
of the discussion. Spontaneity, however, was never on the
cards (quite literally). Before the session Sally Miller of the
US commerce department drew up a set of questions and
answers. Gore was given the answers, and the questions
distributed on cards to members of the audience. A play
was performed. 


    [snip]

now Mbeki is president and Gore officially a presidential
candidate . . .

 [snip]

Mbeki, . . . would prefer his name off the marquee now that
he is president, but needs to find a way of achieving that
without being seen to slight Gore. His task is complicated by
that fact and that after seeing Gore he will be promoting SA
in Texas. He could not undertake such a high-profile
mission to any state without asking to pay his respects to the
governor. In Texas's case that is George Bush, at this stage
the odds-on favourite to win the Republican presidential
nomination next year and challenge Gore in the general
election.

 [snip]



				
-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org