KEY POINTS:
Tom Donohue, the energetic president of the US Chamber of Commerce, is a master of the art of making the seemingly impossible seem completely do-able.
This is particularly so in relation to the World Trade Organisation's global trade talks, which, while no longer at an impasse, need some major sacrifices to get the Doha deal done.
A Doha agreement cannot be signed during the Bush Administration's remaining months because the President's trade promotion authority has expired.
This has dismayed New Zealand's farming exporters, manufacturers and service providers, who want the WTO deal done so they can bag a greater commercial dividend.
But Donohue is adamant that President George W. Bush is committed to getting the negotiations finalised.
If WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy can get the 151 member countries to agree a basic text in the next few months, Donohue plans to sell it to the US Congress to ensure sufficient support to get it over the line.
Donohue's got a lot of clout - he represents some three million US companies around the world: "If we don't do this we're not the brightest people in the world," he says. "We've got to get out and get it done and take the tough decisions."
Donohue's perspective, which was laid out for 200 delegates at the Apec Business Summit, will be of immense interest to the participants at the second United States New Zealand Partnership Forum, which begins in Auckland tomorrow.
A high-powered US delegation, including US Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill and senior agriculture official Mark Rey, will take part in two days of discussions about strategic and business interests with their New Zealand counterparts.
Many delegates already have strong links with New Zealand, either through time spent here as diplomats or as Washington officials dealing with the 1980s nuclear impasse. But there are also many representatives from US companies that do business with New Zealand, such as Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and Dairy Farmers of America.
Donohue - an unreserved champion of New Zealand's bid for closer trade and economic ties with the US - promotes New Zealand as a good trading partner which shares the US view about the importance of open markets. He's also backed a free-trade deal between the US and New Zealand, which is unlikely to get up in the near future.
Trade Minister Phil Goff this week successfully pushed an initiative for the Geneva-based WTO representatives from the 21 Apec nations to support Lamy and the negotiating group chairs in brokering an agreement to bring the Doha Round negotiations to a successful conclusion.
Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss later played down the impact of Goff's initiative, describing the use of the word caucus as a "little strong".
But it is clear that Truss recognised Goff's initiative as going further than the usual Apec statements of support for the Doha Round. "We wanted to demonstrate that we have in place a practical route in which we can contribute to that process," he said.
What is possible - and expect to hear more of this if the Doha round fails - is that the US may take a lead by endeavouring to pull Nafta (US, Canada and Mexico) and CER (Australia and New Zealand), among others, into a broader arrangement that criss-crosses the Pacific.
New Zealand might be a pipsqueak in comparison with the US but it has useful insights to share.
Former US Deputy Secretary of State Rich Armitage, who will also be at the forum, has criticised the US for failing to comprehensively engage with Asia. Armitage reckons China is making real hay right throughout Asia while the US ignores it.
"We're playing foreign policy at the moment like 5 year olds play soccer - everyone is going after the ball at once rather than covering the whole field."
The US contingent will be immensely interested in the progress New Zealand is making on its dealings with with the Asian economic power house.
Prime Minister Helen Clark came away from her Sydney meeting with President Hu Jintao optimistic that the free-trade negotiations with China would be done and dusted by April.
There are still some potential fishhooks, chiefly over the concessions New Zealand wants for its dairy exports, but after 14 rounds of negotiations the two countries are now in the final straight.
The Chinese side is considering New Zealand's offer. The final round of negotiations, when the text of the deal will be hammered out, may not take place until early next year. The Chinese have a major political conference coming up, which will affect the membership of the leadership elite. But this is not expected to impinge on the outcome of the final talks.
The strategic interest will centre on whether China is prepared to insert a "most favoured nation" clause in the agreement, enabling a matcher if other countries later achieve bigger concessions than New Zealand.
At the first US New Zealand Partnership Forum in Washington last year the long-standing nuclear bogey was confronted head-on. New Zealanders were surprised at the lingering hurt Americans displayed over what they clearly regarded as a betrayal by the Lange Government over a diplomatic accommodation they believed had been reached.
US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Chris Hill, who will join Clark in making the second forum's opening addresses tomorrow, described the anti-nuclear issue as a bit of a relic and signalled the US wanted a closer defence relationship with New Zealand.
The ghost appears to have been laid and is unlikely to directly feature this week - particularly as Clark sensibly decided not to make a rerun of New Zealand's independent stand on nuclear issues a major feature of her Apec foray.
But the role nuclear energy may play in helping to slow climate change will inevitably come up for debate.
It's important that New Zealand does not exhibit a closed mind to the positions the US may adopt.
But it's also important that the US takes on board the concerns this country has about the disposal of nuclear waste.
The forum will be useful for both sides if it enables the different perspectives to register without rancour. But much of the big game will centre on the potential for New Zealand and the US to work together to progress open trade and increase business partnerships.
* Disclosure of interest: Fran O'Sullivan is an Executive Board member of the NZ US Council, which is hosting the forum.
