Mr. Personality and Mme. Stonewall

He is so personable, he can tease a smile from dour North Korean officials. She is so tough, her Japanese counterparts-- themselves the toughest of the tough--dub her “Stonewall.”

But whatever people say about Mr. Personality, as New Mexico Rep. Bill Richardson has been called, not to mention Madame Stonewall, trade negotiator Charlene Barshefsky, there’s no question that these are two of America’s best. Even in Asia, which can frustrate the most experienced diplomat, they have made their mark. The Senate will want to waste no time concurring with President Clinton’s nominations of each for Cabinet-level positions.

Last month, Barshefsky, the acting U.S. trade representative, now named to take the post officially, faced a mountain in the molehill of diminutive Singapore. Could she rally enough support at the first ministerial meeting of the newly minted World Trade Organization for a new global technology agreement? The aim: to open foreign markets and lower consumer costs for some $500 billion in products-- semiconductors, telephones, software, computers and computer equipment. How? By eliminating import taxes, or tariffs, and other import restrictions at national borders. For high-tech businesses in the U.S., particularly in California, Utah and Washington, with their internationally competitive technology and software firms, the stakes were enormous.

The bargaining wasn’t easy in steamy Singapore. Clouds hung over the World Trade Organization. With 127 trade ministers from all over pouring in, with their 127 different agendas and 127 giant egos, at first nothing seemed doable. How could the marathon WTO session produce more than the usual pile of press releases that even the press would not want released? But when Asian nations (especially, says Barshefsky, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and to a somewhat lesser extent Korea) started siding with the U.S. delegation, the tide turned.

Barshefsky lavishly praised the work of the president at a previous Asian economic showdown--the APEC summit outside Manila in November. That’s not all hype: There, a personally charming President Clinton lobbied one Asian head of state after another to back America’s plan for a worldwide technology tariff reduction and market-opening agreement. The Chicago-born-and-toughened Barshefsky delivered the package in Singapore. Her stock in trade: keeping an infinite number of trade-talk details in her head without losing her cool, or her mind. That’s certainly what’s needed these days for trade agreements that are scarcely less complicated than a double-helix formula encoded via calligraphy. Says outgoing Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor, her former boss at the U.S. trade office: “Yes, Clinton’s lobbying in Manila helped, but without her setting it up in Singapore and finishing the deal, it wouldn’t have gotten done. If I had to pick one quality of hers out of all the others, it is preparation. No one is more organized and disciplined. And no one is tougher.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Asia, Bill Richardson, now up for the U.N. ambassadorship, was inadvertently helping pave the way for North Korea’s public admission of “deep regret” for that commando-packed submarine that went aground in South Korean waters. Recall what went before: Two years earlier, Richardson had helped sweet-talk the North Koreans into releasing a captured U.S. helicopter pilot. Then the Richardson charm struck again. In November, amid all the tension over the sub incident, the North Koreans talked with Richardson and then released one Evan Carl Hunziker, an errant and emotionally troubled American missionary they had been holding for straying into their territory. With that, Richardson, former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, boldly predicted a breakthrough on the sub incident impasse. In December, the North Koreans bowed to worldwide public opinion and the South’s demand.

To be sure, Winston Lord, the outgoing U.S. assistant secretary of state for Asia, rightly reminds us to keep the champagne corked: “I don’t want to inject euphoria here: The Korean negotiations are still going to be tough. But Bill has had a very positive impact.” Says a nongovernmental source who has good contacts in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital: “Richardson deserves a lot of the credit. He has tremendous style. When the North Koreans would get difficult, Bill would just sit there, light up a cigar and smile. Then, suddenly, he’d jump up, go over, practically put his arm around someone, and say, grinning and just about bear-hugging the negotiator: ‘Come on now, work up an apology for the South Koreans, you know you’ve got to do that some time or other.’ You had to laugh--even the North Koreans would laugh. His style broke the ice but he always showed the North respect.” Respect--now, that’s something Americans don’t always display in Asia.

In fact, Barshefsky and Richardson do not possess a true expert’s long history with Asia. Neither, of course, does almost anyone currently at the top tier of this European-oriented second-term Clinton Administration. But if Pyongyang and Singapore seem remote from America--and organizations like the WTO and APEC seem even further out--these two recent efforts have brought the relevance of Asia home in a most dramatic way. Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse. Having talents like Richardson and Barshefsky on the job gives America a better chance.