NEWS ANALYSIS : Has Bush Taken the Right People to Asia? : Trade: Heavily weighted toward big firms and old-line industries such as autos, the entourage is not broad enough, some observers say.

For 21 heavyweight U.S. corporate executives, traveling with President Bush on a high-profile visit to Asia is an honor and a valuable opportunity to open up markets.

But did Bush pick the right people?

While most of the executives on Bush’s caravan represent industries that complain of being blocked from Asian markets, the entourage is not broad enough, some observers familiar with Asian markets say. Heavily weighted toward big companies and old-line industries such as autos, auto parts and oil, few of the executives represent more dynamic, entrepreneurial industries that are widely seen as making the fastest headway in foreign markets.

Many of the executives are also major contributors to Republican political causes, raising new questions about a trip that has already been criticized as politically motivated.

“This group is clearly a Big Business group,” says Gregory Mignano, executive director of the California State World Trade Commission, the state’s export development arm. “These major multinationals continue to make a strong contribution to U.S. export performance, but much of the growth in U.S. exports today comes from the smaller, progressive firms who have found market niches.”

The White House defended the choices as representing industry groups widely affected by foreign market hurdles. And the executives enjoy considerable clout and name recognition in U.S. business circles.

Picked at virtually the last minute, the American executives will meet in round-table discussions with their industry-executive counterparts in Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

“Bush picked the leaders of those companies which are perceived to be most impacted by lack of access to the Japanese market,” says Peter Schwartz, president of the Global Business Network, a Berkeley-based research and consulting firm for long-term corporate strategy.

“The auto industry is the most obvious case,” Schwartz says. “But ranging from financial services to food retailing to aerospace and electronics to TRW in the satellite business . . . these are the guys who have a gripe with Japan.”

In Sydney, White House spokesman Roman Popadiuk said today that the executives invited on the trip had been selected as leaders of major industry trade groups. And in advance of the trip, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher told reporters: “We picked them on the basis of not just being CEOs of a particular corporation, but because of their ties to an industry or an industry-government association.”

Only the Big Three auto executives were apparently brought to represent their own companies.

Otherwise, the executives head such groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the President’s Export Council and the National Assn. of Manufacturers. Also included are the chairmen of the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council and the U.S.-Japan Business Council--which were formed to give input from top-level U.S. and foreign executives into the highest levels of U.S. policy-making on international economic and trade issues.

As part of the charges that the Bush Asian trip is motivated by political as well as economic concerns, other critics have pointed to the fact that most--though not all--of the executives back Republican political causes.

In the first 10 months of 1991, for example, Robert Galvin, chairman of Motorola Inc.’s executive committee, Maurice R. Greenberg, chairman and chief executive of American International Group Inc., Harold A. Poling, CEO and chairman of Ford Motor Co., and Heinz Prechter, chairman and CEO of ASC Inc., each gave $15,000 to the Republican National Committee, according to federal election records.

They and others on the trip, or their wives, also contributed to the Republican House-Senate Dinner Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the failed Pennsylvania senatorial bid of former Bush Administration Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh. C. J. Silas, chairman and CEO of Phillips Petroleum Co., gave $5,000 to the Republican National Committee, while his company in 1989-90 gave $75,000 to the Republican National Committee to use for state party-building activities.

“A different signal might have been sent (had smaller) growth-oriented, progressive companies--from which much of our export growth is coming these days”--also been represented, Mignano says.

These, Mignano says, would include not only auto parts firms but scientific and precision instrumentation, medical equipment, environmental-controls technology, specialty agriculture such as kiwi fruit, new food products and aerospace avionics--all of which California produces in abundance.

Several observers of U.S. export policy also noted that with the exception of Motorola--represented by Galvin--most companies whose executives are on the trip were not among those doing well in Japanese and other Asian markets.

“It’s interesting that it does not include John Akers of IBM, which is an enormously successful company in Japan, or the chairman of McDonald’s--just to take a service business that has done rather well in Japan,” Schwartz says.

Meanwhile, a recent report on the best prospects for U.S. exporters to Japan listed a wide range of goods, not all of which are produced by big, traditional companies.

The list--prepared in March, 1991, for the U.S. Commerce Department by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo--includes prospects chosen either for short-term potential or the fact that a large Japanese market seems receptive to more U.S. exports.

Among the top 25 were: architectural/construction/engineering services, aircraft and parts, drugs and pharmaceuticals, telecommunications equipment, seafood, medical equipment, automotive parts and service equipment, laboratory scientific instruments, plastic materials and resin, apparel, films/videos, jewelry, fine ceramics, computers and computer peripherals.

A similar April, 1990, report by the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, saw “strong demand” there for U.S. industrial raw materials, heavy machinery, electronics and high-tech scientific products.

Executives Accompanying the President

The U.S. business delegation to Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan, as listed by the White House.

Dexter F. Baker

Chairman, president, CEO

Air Products & Chemicals Inc.

Chairman, National Assn. of Manufacturers

Dr. Winston H. Chen

CEO/Solectron Corp.

Baldrige Award winner

Beverly F. Dolan

Chairman, CEO/Textron Inc.

Vice chairman, President’s Export Council

Robert W. Galvin

Chairman, executive committee/Motorola Inc.

Baldrige Award winner and vice chairman of U.S.-Japan Business Council

Joseph T. Gorman

Chairman, CEO/TRW Inc.

Chairman, Industry Policy Advisory Committee

Maurice R. Greenberg

Chairman, CEO/American International Group Inc.

Chairman, U.S.-ASEAN Business Council

Bronce Henderson

Chairman/Detroit Center Tool

Japan Corporate Program participant

James Herr

Chairman/Herr Foods Inc.

Chairman, National Federation of Independent Business

Lee A. Iacocca

Chairman, CEO/Chrysler Corp.

Robert J. Maricich

President/American of Martinsville

Japan Corporate Program participant

Raymond Marlow

President/Marlow Industries Inc.

Baldrige Award winner

John C. Marous

Chairman, CEO emeritus

Westinghouse Electric Corp.

Chairman, U.S.-Japan Business Council

Harold A. Poling

Chairman, CEO/Ford Motor Co.

Heinz Prechter

Chairman, CEO/ASC Inc.

Chairman, President’s Export Council

John P. Reilly

President, CEO/Tenneco Automotive

Chairman, Auto Parts Advisory Committee

James D. Robinson III

Chairman, CEO/American Express Co.

Chairman, President’s Advisory Council for Trade Policy and Negotiations

David M. Roderick

Chairman Emeritus/USX Corp.

Chairman, U.S.-Korea Business Council

C. J. Silas

Chairman, CEO/Phillips Petroleum Co.

Chairman, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Robert C. Stempel

Chairman, CEO/General Motors Corp.

Michael von Clemm

Executive vice president/Merrill Lynch & Co.

Chairman-elect, U.S.-Korea Business Council

Patrick Ward

Chairman, CEO/Caltex Petroleum Corp.

Chairman, U.S.-ASEAN Business Council--U.S.-Thailand Committee

Times staff writers Douglas Jehl in Sydney and Dwight Morris in Washington contributed to this story.