International
Chemical companies stress trade policy George M. Swartzwelder, manager of new products development in Allied Chemical's dyestuffs group, was sweating out a tour of jury duty earlier this year. When his tour was finished and he returned to the company, he was Allied's new coordinator of trade act issues. In naming Swartzwelder to this recently created post, Allied becomes the third chemical company to assign a man to the full-time task of handling an increasingly complex array of international trade and economic problems. And, with international trade becoming more important to the bottom line of many chemical companies, it probably won't be too long before other chemical makers create similar slots. U.S. chemical exports last year topped $8.8 billion. Chemical imports were $4 billion. Thus chemicals chalked up a welcome $4.8 billion trade surplus. In addition, chemical sales of foreign affiliates probably are running about $25 billion per year. Obviously, the stakes are high and the issues that bear on this large volume of business are many and complicated. They run the gamut from the politics of foreign governments to politics in the U.S., from the economies of foreign countries to international monetary affairs. Little wonder, then, that chemical companies want to keep abreast of everything and anything that affects their international business. Three of them, at least, think the task requires the full-time attention of an international specialist. Many other chemical companies have men who spend much, if not most, of their time doing the same thing. Of the three chemical firms with full-time specialists, Monsanto's Myron T. Foveaux set the pattern. A veteran of the days of the Kennedy round of trade talks of the mid-1960's when he was Monsanto's director of international trade and tariff policy, Foveaux now is the company's director of government affairs.
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C&EN August 25, 1975
Richard M. Brennan is Union Carbide's director of international affairs. He "got started in this international racket" in the waning days of the Kennedy round. The job of these full-time international specialists is a multifaceted one, as Allied's Swartzwelder says he is rapidly finding out. Simply stated, their primary function is to keep their managements abreast of international developments and to make international policy recommendations. The world is becoming a highly structured web of international organizations, each of which can have an impact on a company's international operations. These men must keep a finger on the pulse of these organizations —OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development), UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade & Development), and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade), to name just a few. Because of GATT, chemical industry men such as Foveaux, Brennan, and Swartzwelder probably are busier—and certainly much more evident—than they have been for some time. Under the auspices of GATT, working groups have been laying the groundwork in Geneva for the Tokyo round of multilateral trade negotiations. Hard-nosed bargaining is expected to start this fall on such important issues as tariff reductions, nontariff barriers, import safeguards, and access to raw materials. Since late last year, when the Trade Act of 1974 finally became law, chemical companies have been busy pouring data and recommendations into the many government channels set up to obtain industry's view on the trade negotiations. Much of this effort is spearheaded by men like Foveaux, Brennan, and Swartzwelder. They were instrumental in coordinating their companies' answers to questionnaires sent out earlier this year by the International Trade Commission. They helped prepare the testimony that their executives presented at a
Foveaux
Brennan
series of ITC hearings and, more recently, at hearings conducted by the Special Trade Representative. Both Foveaux and Brennan serve on one of the 26 industrial sector advisory committees set up to advise the Special Trade Representative and the Commerce Department on the upcoming trade negotiations. Their committee covers industrial and agricultural chemicals. Foveaux is chairman; Brennan is vice chairman. Serving on international committees of various industry trade associations is a big part of their jobs. Brennan, for instance, is also chairman of the Manufacturing Chemists Association's international committee. Swartzwelder chairs the cyclic intermediates task force established under the Office of the Chemical Industry Trade Adviser. All three are members of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association's international commercial relations committee. Swartzwelder, in fact, serves on four SOCMA committees, including the statistics committee. Part of his—and the statistics committee's—job will be to work with ITC as it tries to develop a new international classification system to replace the antiquated U.S. Tariff Schedules. Because his association with the old Tariff Commission and with customs goes back many years, the product classification project is one of Swartzwelder's pets. It is also close to the heart of Du Pont's Dr. Samuel N. Boyd, who is typical of those in chemical companies who spend much, but not all, of their time on international affairs. Boyd, who is in the dyes and chemicals division of Du Pont's organic chemicals department, says he wears three hats: "I'm manager for environmental affairs when I'm in the environmental area; I'm manager for international trade legislation when I'm working on trade; and I'm manager for technical liaison which covers all other evils." Throughout the chemical industry, no two companies are set up to handle international policy exactly the same. At Hooker, for instance, trade matters fall to William F. Christopher, who is director of marketing. Christopher, an old hand at tariffs and trade dating back to the Kennedy round, figures he spends about 20% of his time on trade. Dow Chemical's trade expert is Dr. Lewis C. Sellers, an economist who holds the title of business counselor at the corporate level. He estimates that he spends about half his time on trade and international issues. In other companies, the titles may be different and the organizational structure may vary. But the trend is apparent. More chemical companies are putting increased emphasis on their trade and international economic policies. Earl V. Anderson, C&ENNew York
