Commerce Chief, CEOs Head for Asia

Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher, in a push to expand the market for U.S. exports, is escorting a party of chief executives from seven U.S. corporations to Indonesia and Thailand next week to meet with government officials and business executives there.

The visit is part of Mosbacher’s 10-day swing through Asia, which includes stops in Hong Kong and Singapore and is his first trip to Southeast Asia since taking over the Department of Commerce last year.

Two Orange County executives, David Tappan Jr. of Fluor Corp., and Safi Qureshey of AST Research Inc., are the only California business representatives on the trip.

In Singapore, Mosbacher and Secretary of State James Baker III will meet with foreign affairs and trade ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Commerce officials in Washington said the trade mission to Indonesia and Thailand was planned to clear the way for increased U.S. exports to those countries. Last year, the United States had a $2-billion trade deficit with Thailand and a $2.1-billion deficit with Indonesia.

In the first five months of 1990, the U.S. trade deficit with Thailand was $600 million, down from $700 million in the same period in 1989.

The U.S. trade deficit with Indonesia, whose main exports are crude oil and mineral products, is $679 million, down from $830 million in the first five months of 1989.

“Secretary Mosbacher considers this trip an important step in the U.S. government’s effort to help American industry compete in Southeast Asia,” computer maker Qureshey said Friday.

Qureshey and Tappan, chief executive of Fluor Corp., the international engineering and construction management firm, are to join Mosbacher and chief executives of five other companies Wednesday in Jakarta where they are to meet President Suharto and Indonesian industrial leaders to explore trade opportunities.

Other chief executives on the tour are Charles Johnson of General Datacomm Industries Inc., Middlebury, Conn.; William Atwater of Foster Wheeler International Corp., Clinton, N.J.; Kenneth Lay of Enron Corp., Houston; Robert Valentini of Bell of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Lee Thompson of Smith Corona Corp., New Canaan, Conn.

The group is scheduled to travel to Bangkok on Thursday to discuss trade issues with Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan and Thai industrial leaders.

AST, which has become a major personal computer manufacturer in recent years, has distributors in the two countries and is looking for a possible manufacturing joint venture with a Thai concern, Qureshey said.

Fluor has been involved in Indonesia for 30 years and in Thailand for 20 years. In Indonesia, the company has built a number of hydrocarbon facilities and maintains an office in Jakarta. It also is exploring several mining projects, said company spokesman James Rollans.

Mosbacher, in Hong Kong to discuss trade issues with Governor David Wilson, could not be reached for comment.