Obama creates trade enforcement unit

Obama

   President Obama, as promised in his State of the Union address last month, signed an executive order Tuesday creating a unit within the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative focused on coordinating the efforts of multiple agencies to pursue unfair trade practices by other governments.
   The Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC) is a fusion center designed to leverage existing federal capabilities for monitoring and enforcing U.S. rights under international trade agreements, as well as domestic trade laws. Represented at the Center will be the departments of State, Treasury, Justice, Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Other agencies may be designated at a later date.
   Obama proposed the trade enforcement unit as part of his blueprint to restore the health of the U.S. manufacturing sector, saying that eliminating foreign trade barriers and unfair foreign trade practices is necessary for American businesses to compete overseas and increase exports.
   “I will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American products. And I will not stand by when our competitors don’t play by the rules,” Obama said in the State of the Union. “It’s not right when another country lets our movies, music and software be pirated. It’s not fair when foreign manufacturers have a leg up on ours only because they’re heavily subsidized.”
   The ITEC “will bring the full resources of the federal government to bear on investigations, and we’re going to counter any unfair trade practices around the world, including by countries like China,” Obama said in a speech yesterday to the United Auto Workers’ annual conference in Washington.
   The U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce, respectively, will pick the ITEC director and deputy director from their staffs. Among interagency unit’s duties is to coordinate the exchange of data to help the federal government identify violations of international trade agreements. The order instructs the Center to reach out to U.S. workers, businesses and others for leads about unfair trade practices that are hurting them.
   President Obama made trade enforcement a theme of his campaign in 2008 and his administration has brought cases against China in the World Trade Organization at nearly twice the rate of the Bush administration.  
   “President Obama and I have been very clear from day one that we will not hesitate to fight for every American job, every dollar worth of U.S. exports, and every chance for American producers to compete that depends on having a level playing field in global markets,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement. “As with every enforcement action, our goal here is to get real results for American exporters and support American jobs that depend on trade. The ITEC will help us do that in unprecedented ways.”
   The extent of the ITEC’s capabilities will heavily depend on the availability of appropriations from Congress. The President’s fiscal year 2013 budget asks Congress to invest $26 million to support the ITEC’s creation. 
   The ITEC is the latest example of Obama administration attempts to make government more effective and efficient by forcing agencies to work together in coordination fashion, share data and pool resources rather than working independently on different aspects of the same issue, and often at cross purposes. That “whole-of-government” approach is visible in the new multi-agency Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center for import safety operated by Customs and Border Protection, the new Border Interagency Executive Council that serves as a regular forum for agency heads to hash out different enforcement approaches and take any disagreements to the White House, and the National Export Initiative.
   The goal of the NEI, shepherded by the Commerce Department, is to provide a suite of easy-to-find export services — helping companies find overseas markets and buyers, facilitating access to credit, fighting trade barriers — rather than isolated programs buried in the bureaucratic labyrinth of the federal government.
   Another example of inter-agency coordination is the International Property Rights Coordination Center, operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  The executive order instructs the ITEC to consult with the IPR task force on matters related intellectual property rights. 
   Earlier this year, the White House proposed to merge the USTR with five other agencies responsible for business and trade. Most business groups have panned the idea.  — Eric Kulisch