NORTHERN IRELAND: US BUSINESS DELEGATION VISITS BELFAST

(9 Jun 1998) English/Nat A business delegation led by the United States Commerce Secretary, William Daley, will visit Northern Ireland's second largest city, Londonderry, on Tuesday after a successful day in Belfast. The group is in Northern Ireland to weigh the opportunities for American investments in the province. On Monday, Daley addressed Belfast City Council and met separately with two politicians crucial for Northern Ireland's future in peace - Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. The United States Commerce Secretary, William Daley, is in Northern Ireland with a delegation of 16 top American business executives. They're weighing up the opportunities for American investment in the province. Firms represented in the delegation include Boeing, Monsanto, Pfizer and Sara Lee and executives are eager to build on last month's ratification of the Belfast peace agreement. Daley emphasized the opportunities which exist for Northern Ireland. SOUNDBITE: (English) "These are serious business leaders who run major companies, they are not here on a mission of mercy. This is about looking to see if there's opportunities and hearing from the leadership, government and business communities of Northern Ireland as to why they should take a look at investment here. It can only be done in the context of the political improvements that are going on because as these people know the most important trade barrier that they often have to overcome is violence. And that trade barrier in Northern Ireland has subsided." SUPER CAPTION: William Daley, U.S. Secretary of State for Commerce Others warned that if something negative happens, the whole world is still watching. SOUNDBITE: (English) "To a large extent this part of the world has been defined to the world as a place where people bomb each other all the time and I think it's very important that we begin to seek a new definition of Belfast, a new definition of Northern Ireland and that definition probably is something out of a knowledge based capability coming out of your universities, something like that, upon which you are going to build the industries of tomorrow ." SUPER CAPTION: John McCarville, Senior Vice President, Sara Lee Corporation During the delegation's visit to Northern Ireland's largest private employer, Short Brothers P-L-C, the Canadian-owned aerospace firm announced it had secured a new parts contract with The Boeing Co. of Seattle that would produce 350 new jobs. SOUNDBITE: (English) "When President Clinton came here in 1995 there were 70 US companies doing business in Northern Ireland, today there's about 106 employing over 12,000 people in Northern Ireland. So American companies are seeing it for what it is and that is a good place to invest and to possible to grow and use it as a platform as I say and to be selling into the rest of Europe." SUPER CAPTION: William Daley, U.S. Secretary of State for Commerce Daley and the business executives travel on Tuesday to Northern Ireland's second- largest city, Londonderry, which already has several U-S factories, including Seagate disk drives, Fruit of the Loom textiles and DuPont chemicals. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...