Industry’s protector turns informant

Date: 14/11/1996

By Tim Jones

SIX months ago, a representative of the Barcelona port authority walked into the office of Antoni Negre.

Why, he wanted to know, did the city's chamber of commerce own a tower in the castle overlooking the harbour and why was the port authority having to pay for it?

“I had no idea, so I decided to look into it,” explains the head of the Barcelona chambers and president of the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Eurochambres).

“It turned out that 200 years ago, merchant ships had come into the harbour and were fired upon by soldiers in the castle fearing they were enemy ships. The merchants came to the chambers of commerce and asked for protection, so a tower was set aside for representatives of commerce to look out over the bay, identify merchant ships and ask the soldiers not to fire.”

Two centuries later, the chambers' look-outs were still going to the tower. “They were still trying to live like kings all this time later. Obviously, I put a stop to it, but it does show what the role of chambers of commerce was and what it still is,” says Negre.

As the 20th century draws to a close, Europe's chambers of commerce are still there to defend their member enterprises - although not usually by dodging bullets.

“We are distinct from other organisations because we represent the whole enterprise, not the employers and not the unions, but the whole company - the general interest,” maintains Negre.

At a practical level, this means that Eurochambres promotes four key areas of policy: training, foreign trade and the EU's regional and enterprise initiatives.

Formed in 1958, the association has grown steadily to include the national chambers of 32 countries including all the EU member states, countries in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and central and eastern European nations.

Negre boasts that this is the largest single multinational business network in Europe, allowing it to act not only as a pressure group but also as a means of communication.

“In April this year, we started an Internet project linking all the associations, which are then linked with their constituent chambers. So, for example, a Canadian company wanting an agent in Cumbria can click on 'Eurochambres' and have all the information it needs on local contacts in that area,” he explains.

“This means that a businessman, if he wants to, can sell his products all over the world. Of course, he must be clever and market his products well so that they suit certain markets that are not his own. That is his problem, not mine. But we can certainly make it easier for him.”

Nevertheless, world trade is littered with obstacles for the unwary, making life particularly difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they seek to break into new markets.

Eurochambres has published a detailed analysis of the non-tariff barriers facing companies trying to sell their products in countries outside the single market. Different standards, product approval, certification, licences and quotas, packaging demands and insurance obligations are just a few of the hurdles they have to jump.

However, companies should not be overawed, says Negre. Plenty of opportunities exist for European companies, even in markets they would probably consider to be hopeless.

For example, Eurochambres is operating a 'Gateway to Japan' programme on behalf of the European Commission, helping firms to burrow their way into markets where they could well have a competitive advantage over Japanese companies. These include machine tools, medical equipment, furniture, waste management technologies, packaging machinery and building materials.

“We admit that the trade deficit will remain large between the EU and Japan, but we are opening the minds of entrepreneurs and showing them opportunities they knew nothing about,” says Negre.

On a visit to South Korea last week, he was taken to a new Samsung factory building high-technology cars. “I am absolutely certain that the opportunities for European components manufacturers to supply that plant will be huge,” he insists.

While Eurochambres fights the corner of European companies on the world stage, it also keeps a sceptical eye on the single market in Europe.

The failure to transpose internal market laws or to enforce them even after they have been passed into national law irritates Negre particularly “In Spanish, we have a name for this kind of behaviour - pickpocket.”