FTAA on his mind

Newly elected president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), David Chaney believes that Trinidad and Tobago has its work cut out for it on FTAA.

He was cautious when he said TT will be “semi-ready” for the Free Trade Areas of The Americas (FTAA), when it comes on stream in 2005. Such pussyfooting by TT businesspeople is one  reason why AmCham has been strongly supporting the FTAA International Trade Negotiations Unit (ITNU), headed by Larry Placide. The ITNU is a joint chamber initiative and includes chambers and service organisations from all across TT. According to Chaney, the ITNU gives organisations in the services sector all the need to know about the FTAA and how it is going to affect them  in a “digestible” format so that they can comment and make note of all the issues that will affect their industry. In his distinctive Texan accent, Chaney said countries like Mexico and Canada started preparing 20 years while Chile set things in train early.

Chaney was elected AmCham president last week. He replaced Catherine Kumar who was the first woman to serve as AmCham’s president since its inception in 1992. He previously served as vice-president for two consecutive years. “I think that the challenge is finding ways to keep members interested and make them want to be educated about the FTAA. The interest has to be heightened. Many people think that they know all about the FTAA and they are not prepared to get involved,” he said of TT’s involvement in FTAA. FTAA is going to come and TT has to deal with it whether it wants to or not, he said, noting AmCham is going to be holding seminars and lecturers about the FTAA to keep educating people.

Apart from serving on AmCham’s board and running his business, Chaney also has a wife, Diana, from Venezuela; daughter, Stefani, 10, and a son Carlos, who is currently studying in Texas, all of whom he loves spending time with. He said while he lived in Texas, one of his hobbies was horse back riding, but now that he lives in Trinidad, he said there is not much horse back riding to be done, so he just spends his spare time with his family visiting the islands and travelling. Chaney’s first official engagement will attend the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACLA), which will be held in Washington next week. He will represent AmCham at the meeting which keeps tabs on US trade. “You basically get an idea of what is going on in all countries so that you can benchmark against where your country is and where it is you need to be.”

This will be the first of many engagements for the Texan native. Born in Beaumont, Texas, on July 13, 1948 he worked all over Southern Texas doing work in the process control business and engineering. In 1987, he moved to Latin America to start a company for the company he worked for, Puffer Sweiven. “I am not an engineer. I did not study engineering in school just business. Most of my engineering expertise I acquired from on-the-job-training. When I started to work I got into an engineering position and liked it,” he says. Chaney stayed with Puffer Sweiven for 23 years and after working in exotic countries like Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. He got the opportunity to open up his own business in TT in 1993. The primary company is Trinidad Valve and Fitting and its major subsidiary is Process Management Limited, both of which are located in San Fernando. “We are in the process control business. We provide control systems and other products for the industry that is responsible for process control granted that a lot of it is in the energy sector,” he says. “We do work for just about anybody that has a piece of pipe; Nestle, SM Jaleel, Carib and bpTT.”

Chaney said it was really the British, American and German companies, all involved in the process control business, that brought him to TT. Some of the companies that Trinidad Valve represent include US-based Emerson Process Management; Swagelok; Rotork (British) and Wika a German-based gauge company. But, the newly elected AmCham president said he has no intentions of leaving TT anytime soon. “I like TT. The people are nice, there are lots of business opportunities. Its just fine. Right now TT is permanent until I decide to retire.” He boasted that he is often the envy of friends who live abroad and have to face heavy snow in their countries while he enjoys the tropical weather.

Chaney did not want to say anything major about his plans for AmCham until he met with the committee and its members. “I have not gotten my feet off the ground as yet.” It is not the first time that Chaney has been involved in the Chamber, he has been actively involved in the American Chambers in Venezuela and Ecuador. Since his appointment, Lisa Chamely-Aqui, AmCham’s executive director and other secretariat members, have been showing him the ropes. However, he wants more participation from AmCham’s members. “I have heard it said that everybody is happy and everything is good so they do not have a lot of problems but I would like to see more members take active participation in the meeting and committees.” Hi focus is not to increase the Chamber’s members. AmCham currently has 270 members and dismissed claims that AmCham is only for American-based companies operating in TT.

Twenty-five parent of Amcham are actually American companies or subsidiaries of American companies, but the other 75 percent represent other countries in TT, Europe, Canada, Australia and many other countries around the world, he said. Chaney said at some point, TT is going to have compete globally and the exposure to foreign companies will allow those here to see how companies operate on global basis. The local companies, too, he said, also give an idea of the way they do business in this culture, so it is really a great mix of experiences. Additionally, Chaney will also be working on ensuring that the environment for trade and investment remains positive. “A lot of what I am going to be doing is listening to our members and their concerns and I will represent them to ensure that as things go forward or new legislation is put in place, that the business environment for trade and investment remains as good as it is.” He said the mission of AmCham is to foster trade between the US and TT and keep it along its growth path. He added that more American companies and others from around the world as well are definitely interested in doing business with TT.