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Ambassador Ashe’s Remarks at the American Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Meeting
September 13, 2005
Mr. Chairman, members and guests, I am pleased to address the AmCham just a year after I met you shortly after my arrival. This also marks my first year of service as your Honorary Chairman. I am delighted to note AmCham’s growth by 25 new members just since last year and pleased to say that our membership is now over 300 companies. I look forward to celebrating our 15th anniversary next January.
At the outset, I want to congratulate the Boeing company on LOT Airlines’ selection, that was made final last week, of the Boeing 787 to replace its current long-range fleet. To call this a “major milestone” is almost an understatement. I also want to say here very publicly that the choice of the Boeing 787 is a very clear illustration of Poland’s commitment to base commercial decisions on sound business criteria and to protect them from political pressure. I applaud the government of Poland and LOT Polish airlines. You share our business values and this reinforces the U.S.-Polish friendship.
I also want to congratulate Whirlpool for opening its new production line in Wroclaw (VROTS-waf) last Friday and General Motors on the inauguration of its new production line in Gliwice (Glee-VEETS-eh), this coming Friday.
When I arrived, one of my primary goals as Ambassador was to raise the U.S.-Polish commercial relationship to a higher plateau – to reach the level attained in other bilateral areas such as the political and security relationships.
I am satisfied that we are well on the way to that goal and, more important, we can begin to see that the U.S.-Polish commercial relationship is contributing to a new day in trans-Atlantic commerce.
As a global source of innovative technology and business processes, American enterprise offers much to Poland at this stage of its economic development. As a new European Union market, there is no country that holds out better opportunities for American exports and investments than Poland.
The milestones of the AmCham member companies that I just mentioned are just the latest examples that prove that this business relationship is the fastest growing in all of Europe.
I know that you are not going to let me out of the room without commenting on certain things, so let me comment on the overall U.S.-Polish relationship before I come back to our commercial relationship in greater detail.
Like all of you, we in the U.S. government are following the election campaigns—both for the Sejm and for President with great interest.
We are, of course, neutral in these elections, and look forward to a continued strong and close relationship with Poland once the new government and new president are in place.
We are fortunate that the U.S. relationship—and even Poland’s participation in Iraq—are not major issues in the campaign. We look forward confidently towards very close cooperation with the new government, whoever come out as the victors.
We are certain that after the elections, Poland will remain one of our closest strategic partners in Europe. From Iraq and Afghanistan to the Balkans, several thousand Polish troops are deployed abroad with U.S. and other national counterparts to promote regional security and stability.
We continue to maintain a robust program of defense cooperation with Poland. Through our security assistance projects, such as the International Military Education and Training program, and an extensive scope of bilateral military activities, we are helping the Polish Armed Forces become more NATO-interoperable, professionalized, and deployable. This effort is vital to ensuring that Poland's military remains a capable, responsive, and reliable ally as we face future security challenges.
I anticipate that the issue of visas will continue to be a topic of discussion between our governments, after the elections.
We know how sensitive the visa issue is for all Polish citizens. This past February, Presidents Bush and Kwasniewski agreed to the “Visa Roadmap,” which is intended to help Poland focus on meeting legislative requirements for eventual inclusion in the Visa Waiver Program. A number of items on the roadmap have already been achieved: we no longer consider pre-1989 overstays in the U.S. by Poles in adjudicating visas and we recently hosted a Polish government expert on passports to a broad overview and discussion of our program to issue biometric passports.
Much remains to be done. In the meantime, the Embassy has taken a number of steps to facilitate the visa application and issuance process for all Poles. These steps have been successful and any of you who have driven past the Embassy’s Piekna Street entrance have no doubt noticed that the long lines and crowds of applicants are gone. Not because Poles are no longer applying, but because we are able to bring them into the Consular Section, interview them, and issue their visas more efficiently than previously.
On a point closer to home for this gathering, we work very operatively with Amcham – in particular with Dorota Dabrowska -- to ensure priority treatment of Amcham members both in Warsaw and Krakow and look forward to continuing this relationship.
Over the course of this past year the AmCham has worked effectively to improve the business climate in Poland. I have worked with AmCham on several successful activities including last year’s Council of U.S. Mayors visit and this spring’s Business Outreach Mission to Ft. Worth, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. I plan a similar mission in the new year that we hope will include Los Angeles, New York and Hartford.
By some accounts, when the Polish government next releases statistics, they will show that we’ve increased our share of investment and that the United States is now the second largest investor in Poland. The list of new investments is growing so quickly--Gillette, Avon, Johnson Controls, Pratt and Whitney, 3M, Firestone, and so on—that I risk inadvertently overlooking someone. These add up to hundreds of millions in dollars in investments, thousands of new jobs, and billions of dollars worth of future business activity.
American investors are taking advantage of Poland’s skilled labor and European Union market access. Claiming 17% of Poland’s foreign direct investment, U.S. enterprise is a potent force in a range of product and service sectors.
As for trade, U.S. suppliers increased their exports approximately 18% last year. Total trade between the two countries should reach approximately $2.5 billion this year.
Our Commercial Service—the part of our embassy that devotes itself to trade promotion--has given priority to several sectors, under the Department of Commerce’s priority “Manufacturing Initiative.” I would like to mention just a few.
Aerospace: American companies such as Pratt & Whitney United Technologies, Lockheed Martin, General and Electric Aircraft Engines are investing in Poland’s aviation industry – a sector employing 16,000 skilled workers. There are discussions with Sikorsky and Boeing that we hope will add them to the list. The American presence has created extraordinary growth and fostered a sense of pride. Poland’s keen achievement is amply represented by the locally produced engines that will power the Polish Air Force’s new F-16s, for example.
In the year ahead, we plan to work with the new government of Poland to strengthen Polish-American cooperation in this sector. Our goal is to build upon the company-to-company relationships that address particular needs and create an industry-to-industry partnership in the aviation sector that benefits both nations’ defense and economies.
Defense and Security: I do not need to explain that the United States and Poland have forged a very significant partnership in the defense and security industries since Poland joined NATO six years ago. Poland’s order of 48 fighgter jets remains the largest defense contract with the United States in the history of Central Europe. While some in the media enjoy trying to poke holes in projects in the offset program, in reality, this has been a very successful stimulus to the overall growth in the U.S.-Polish commercial relationship. The American and Polish companies who have been involved have every reason to be proud of their efforts. I look forward to being involved in the effort to work with the next government of Poland to ensure that this contribution to Poland’s economy and this major defense sale continue steady on course.
Automotive: U.S. companies have confirmed Poland’s status as Central Europe’s automotive capital and have invested billions of dollars in this sector. These include GM with its $1 billion investment in Gliwice, Delphi, Goodyear, Eaton, Federal Mogul, Fiat-GM Powertrain, Lear, TRW, Visteon, Gates and Wabco. These companies supply the domestic market and export throughout the region. They also serve the more than 300 tier one and tier two plants in Poland which employ more than 75,000 people. Here again, we are striving to provide leadership to expand on company-to-company partnerships to create industry-wide U.S.-Polish cooperation in the sector.
Environmental Technologies: We are striving to bring American leaders in the environmental technologies sector to Poland. A number of industry leaders are present in Poland, including Atkins, Fluor, Parsons Brinkerhoff, C.D.M, Foster Wheeler, Caterpillar, U.S. Filter and others. Opportunities are fueled by Poland’s ongoing adoption of EU environmental standards and access to Cohesion and Structural Funds. The United States continues to support Poland through the Ekofund, and I encourage companies in this industry to work more closely with our Commercial Section as you prepare new project proposals.
Information and Communications: Another sector where we see exciting developments and room for more rapid growth is in the information technologies and communications sector. Next month Hewlett Packard will inaugurate a Finance and Administration Outsourcing Center in Wroclaw that will eventually employ 1000 people. Motorola’s software development center in Krakow continues to develop as a significant success story.
While we are on this subject, let me acknowledge that Mr. Kip Thompson, Vice President of Worldwide facilities for Dell Computers is visiting Poland and is with us this morning. Welcome, Mr. Thompson. Sir, I hope your visit here will convince you that Poland should play a significant part in your strategic development.
2005 marks a new beginning in U.S.-Polish business relations. This was the result of steady improvement in Poland’s regulatory environment and further economic integration following EU entry. There is potential for exponential growth.
U.S. trade with Spain and Ireland boomed following EU accession and could be models for commercial trends with Poland. The U.S. exported $8.2 billion worth of products to Ireland last year and $6.6 billion to Spain. Our roughly $1 billion export volume to Poland last year affords us ample room for growth.
I want to acknowledge the role of AmCham in persuading the Miller government to develop a corporate tax structure that paved the way for all of the new investment that I mentioned. In fact, AmCham is one of the leading organizations acting in an advisory role to the American and Polish governments to shape policies that will stimulate greater bilateral business activity. The selection of AmCham as the Chair organization in Poland’s “Entrepreneurship Council,” the umbrella organization of business chambers in the country amply shows this.
I am committed to assisting AmCham in continuing this role with the next government and I am sure that once the new government is formed, its leaders will quickly learn how valuable an ally AmCham can be in reaching goals for trade and economic expansion.
It was once said that “the Business of America is Business.” One thing we can boast of is that business savvy is an American strength and one of the most important things we can contribute through the dozens upon dozens of business-to-business relations between Americans and Poles that grow every day because of AmCham’s hard work. Private sector leadership is one of the most important factors that contributes to the economic transformation of Poland, by which, the misery of Poland’s post war communist past is fast becoming a distant memory.
Recognizing that commercial success is also dependent upon government policy, we are keen on further improvements in several key areas. Protection of Intellectual Property remains problematic. We look for heightened and consistent enforcement of laws protecting those companies introducing innovative technologies onto Poland’s marketplace. In the critical health care sector, we look for greater transparency in admitting innovative drugs onto the marketplace.
Which brings me to the current Doha round of trade negotiations. The upcoming ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December is critical to laying the path to a successful conclusion to these negotiations. As U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Portman noted in a recent speech in Geneva, the United States played a leadership role in launching these negotiations and we will continue to show leadership in trying to bring them to a successful conclusion. We are ready to be bold and creative, and to bridge differences. We look to Poland to take a leading role within the European Union to find solutions to differences so that we can move forward from Hong Kong to a final agreement that opens markets and enhances trade for all countries.
These are trade policy items that we will bring to our agenda with the next government. I ask for AmCham’s continued support in these areas as we bring them to our dialogue with the next government.
During my tenure, I have used my office to further U.S. commercial interests in various ways. I have welcomed trade delegations from various parts of the United States. One 11-company delegation representing New England and the middle-Atlantic states generated $7 million in projected sales. A recent mission from my home city of Knoxville had a fruitful visit from which we expect significant success. Looking ahead, we are expecting manufacturing and environmental technologies missions in the fall and hardware products and health care technologies missions next year. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is working with us on his planned business mission to Poland in November. We are also planning an Aviation Day event in the early spring to add emphasis to that important sector.
I have also used my office to support U.S. companies in public competitions and to help resolve specific problems – a role I am delighted to play. However, I want to take this opportunity to offer the United States Embassy in another capacity. I encourage you to work closely with my Commercial and Economic Sections in offering your ideas on how to grow our commercial relationship. I am always eager to hear your suggestions and innovations and I would welcome your contributions.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I look forward to celebrating our anniversary, and continuing to work with AmCham in the years ahead.
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