Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

International Trade
Administration

The International Trade Administration (ITA) is responsible for most non-agricultural trade operations of the government and works with the Office of the Trade Representative in coordinating U.S. trade policy. The Under Secretary for International Trade is the principal advisor to the Secretary on international trade and commercial policy and represents the Secretary on the Trade Policy Committee and other interagency committees considering international economic issues.

Trade Development

Trade Development assists and advises on international trade and investment issues focusing on specific sectors while promoting U.S. exports, especially of major projects, services, high technology products, and textiles and apparel. Special emphasis was given to trade analysis, trade adjustment assistance, and textiles import control programs. In addition to representing the United States at the Bureau of International Expositions in Paris, Trade Development successfully closed the Knoxville Fair.

An Aerospace Sector Program was established to provide more focused and coordinated international development activities and policy advice for the aerospace industries. The President's Export Council developed 22 recommendations for the President. Other activities included: a PEC-sponsored trade mission to Southeast Asia and six hearings around the U.S. to solicit private sector views on the Export Administration Act. In addition, conferences were held to discuss trade problems with state legislators, business, and labor union representatives.

An Office of Export Trading Company Affairs was established. A public awareness campaign included 49 conferences attended by more than 12,000 business executives, a conference for 100 executives from the top bankholding companies, and development of a Guidebook to ETC's. A Contract Facilitation Service was formed to facilitate exchange of information between producers of exportable goods and firms offering export services. The first ETC antitrust certificates will be issued early in FY 1984.

The program of high-technology initiatives was expanded by publishing studies of the international trade problems of several industries. Conferences with the Secretary and leaders of these industries solicited specific information on their international competitiveness and the effects of foreign industrial targeting practices.

Trade fairs, missions, and catalog shows in 71 countries had more than 7,500 participating U.S. firms. More than 70 private sector organized and funded domestic and overseas trade fairs were

certified by the Department. Since the program's inception, more than 7,000 U.S. firms have participated in certified trade shows.

The U.S. Pavilion at the 1983 Paris Air Show contained exhibits of more than 140 U.S. aerospace companies, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Air & Space Bicentennial Committee.

Grants totaling $1 million were awarded to 10 organizations under the Small Business Export Development Assistance Program.

A trade mission to Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan in November 1982 resulted in a contract with Korea Electric Power Company for 800,000 tons per year of Alaskan coal and formation of the U.S.-Japan Energy Working Group by President Reagan and Prime Minister Nakasone.

The ISAC 6 Committee on Energy was reestablished. Several coal subgroup meetings produced recommendations on the coal slurry pipeline, coal mining tax, and cargo preference legislation.

The U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), was renewed with USTR, especially the development of a revised safeguard mechanism to avoid adverse effects of GSP duty-free imports on U.S. industry. A lead role was played in formulating the administration's DISC alternative.

Trade Adjustment Assistance

More than 560 Trade Adjustment Assistance certification petitions for import-injured U.S. firms were processed, 55 percent over FY 1982. Adjustment proposals from certified U.S. firms numbered 134, of which 108 were accepted for technical and/or financial assistance. Almost $2.5 million in technical assistance went to benefit firms and workers in 14 import-impacted industries. Another $13 million was awarded to ITA-funded Trade Adjustment Assistance Centers (TAACs) which assisted more than 900 firms during the year. Eighteen firms received $7.8 million in direct loans and $11.8 million in loan guarantees, to implement strategies to combat foreign competition.

Textiles and Apparel

This office continued to promote a competitive U.S. textile and apparel industry by monitoring and, as necessary, restraining the import of foreign textiles and apparel. A White House Interagency Working Group on Textiles and Apparel which provided economic analyses and recommendations to the Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade was chaired by the office. Background material was prepared for seven successful textile agreement negotiations with China, India, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Indonesia, Thailand and the Dominican Republic. A textile visa verification program developed with

Taiwan denied entry to 200,000 dozen pieces of apparel in shipments with counterfeit visas. This helped to expand the program to other agreement countries.

As part of ITA's export promotion program, Textiles participated in eight overseas trade shows, arranged five trade missions, sponsored five foreign buyers events, held four seminars, and had eight overseas market research studies prepared.

Trade Information and Analysis

Short-term trade credits amounting to $2 billion were granted to Brazil and Mexico. The first .comprehensive research in recent years on the employment impact of U.S. exports resulted in a widely-disseminated report, Domestic Employment Generated by U.S. Exports. Other publications include analyses of the investment climate in 141 foreign countries.

Substantial progress in implementing the Automated Information Transfer System (AITS) program was made.

A new line of publications developed permits new-to-export and new-to-market firms to identify potential overseas markets. Also, Direct Investment in the United States by Foreign Government-Owned Companies, 1974-81, provides the first systematic analysis of the extent, characteristics, and trends of such investment and Japanese Industrial Policies and Development of High-Technology Industries: Computers and Aircraft which highlights the policies pursued by Japan to develop

technologically-advanced industry sectors.

U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service

The U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service (US/FCS) encourages, services, and supports U.S. exports and directly assists business in international trade activities. Employees are located in 48 district offices in major U.S. cities and in 124 posts in 68 foreign countries. Domestically, trade specialists alert U.S. business to the potential of exporting and to ITA programs and services. Abroad, commercial officers represent U.S. commercial interests, identify trade opportunities, locate representatives or agents for U.S. firms, assist U.S. business executives, and assist in implementing export controls and other trade regulation activities.

The Business/Government Relations program was launched to help state governments develop international trade programs.

Twenty-three Foreign Service nationals were brought to the United States for orientation on American industry.

Continued emphasis on new-to-export and new-to-market sales abroad was maintained. Trade specialists assisted 975 new-to-export firms with

sales of nearly $200 million and 2,065 new-to-market firms with shipments or more than $742 million.

Approximately 1,400 export seminars were held, reaching more than 61,000 interested business people. More than 165,000 business representatives participated in 3,000 additional Commerce seminars on export-related topics.

To publicize the enactment of the landmark Export Trading Company legislation, US/FCS conducted 45 conferences for approximately 12,000 attendees.

Major reprogramming of US/FCS positions was done in countries where US/FCS was previously not operating or under represented.

International Economic Policy

International Economic Policy (IEP) develops regional and multilateral economic policies, provides marketing services to U.S. exporters, identifies long range trade and investment problems, and develops remedial strategies on a geographic and multilateral basis.

The Office of Multilateral Affairs represented the Department in interagency policy development for major international meetings. Major policy statements were prepared on international investment and countertrade, General Specialized Preferences renewal legislation, the Bilateral Investment Treaty program, and analysis of the Less Developed Countries debt problem.

IEP monitored foreign implementation of the major codes of conduct from the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations to ensure adequate opportunities for U.S. business in the areas of standards, government procurement, customs valuation, and licensing. It coordinated Department work on Section 301 cases and worked closely with the U.S. Trade Representative in drafting and presenting the government position on a variety of GATT dispute settlement cases. IEP also spearheaded interagency work on the U.S.-initiated Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development program on high technology trade. It also contributed to a variety of other OECD work programs.

The first Secretarial Trade and Investment Mission to Algeria and Saudi Arabia to increase private sector involvement in developing countries was staged. IEP also participated in preliminary negotiations on Bilateral Investment Treaties with nine countries and established or participated in meetings with bilateral committees from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. IEP also participated in export seminars, workshops, and conferences, provided information on commercial opportunities, and responded to more than 30,000 business inquiries. IEP also researched markets, recruited potential participants, and provided general information for OPIC investment missions to India, Egypt, Morocco, and Pakistan.

The office coordinated Secretary Baldrige's Presidential Mission to China, helped implement the President's decision to liberalize technology transfer policy for China, implemented science and technology management and hydropower protocols with China, and negotiated an agreement with Japan on positive import promotion measures on semiconductors. An understanding also was negotiated governing U.S.-Japan high technology trade, including an agreement that U.S. companies would be admitted to Japanese R&D projects.

In Europe, IEP helped to resolve a Romanian crisis which preserved $200 million in U.S. exports and opened the door for improved trade through the Ninth Session of the Joint American-Romanian Economic Commission and a successful Trade Exhibition in Bucharest.

It drafted an interagency protest note to the French Government regarding French language requirements on U.S. imports, and organized the first Spanish-U.S. working group to improve trade relations. U.S. suppliers were assisted in collecting payments of $60 million during financial crises of Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

U.S. companies' experience with Canada's Foreign Investment Review Agency was surveyed and the first comprehensive trade promotion program for Canada developed.

Negotiations were held with Mexico on a bilateral subsidies agreement, on automotive and electronics sector policies and on access for U.S. trucks in the border area.

IEP helped to draft and implement the Caribbean Basin Initiative legislation, and participated in Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations with Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Haiti.

It also organized the Deputy Secretary's visit to Brazil which resulted in the signing of five memoranda of understanding that give U.S. suppliers more than $1 billion of potential exports, and provided country input for LDC debt study and strategy papers presented to the President.

Trade Administration

Trade Administration (TA) administers U.S. import and export laws through its Import Administration (IA), Export Administration (EA), and Export Enforcement (EE), units.

IA investigates cases where imports are possibly subsidized or sold at less than fair value. IA received 61 petitions alleging unfair foreign trade practices and initiated 49 investigations ranging from textiles from the People's Republic of China to tool steel from the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Steel Arrangement with the European Communities (EC) grew out of these types of investigations and limits most EC steel exports to the U.S. through December 31, 1985. One arrangement restricts EC exports in ten major carbon and alloy

steel product categories; the second limits EC exports of steel pipes, and tubes to 5.9 percent of the U.S. market-the EC's 1979-1981 average U.S. import penetration level in this category. In return, U.S. steel companies withdrew petitions in 44 pending antidumping and countervailing duty cases. Computer-assisted monitoring systems track steel trade patterns and monitor compliance with both arrangements, and seminars have been conducted to improve customs enforcement. The workload of the antidumping and countervailing duty programs keeps expanding because antidumping and countervailing duty orders are usually in effect for a number of years. Both initial investigations and annual reviews require detailed cost of production and/or cost information. Ninety-five percent of the statutory deadlines in these annual reviews were met and the pre-1983 backlog was reduced by 23 percent.

IA also administers import laws including the Foreign Trade Zones Program, the Watch Quota Program, the Educational, Scientific and Cultural Materials Importation Act (Florence Agreement), and the Foreign Excess Property Program.

The Foreign Trade Zones Board authorized seven new zone projects, 13 special purpose subzones, and expansions in four existing zones. Seven of the 13 special purpose zones were for auto assembly plants. Zones were used by more than 2,000 firms that received more than $7.3 billion in merchandise. The Board also clarified and simplified FTZ procedures.

Export Administration licenses exports of most non-military, non-agricultural commodities and technical data from the United States. Exports are controlled for national security, foreign policy, and short supply reasons. EA received 95,364 applications for export licenses, 18.7 percent above the previous year. This workload was absorbed while average processing time fell from 28 to 19 days.

Following the decision to raise the level of high technology goods licensed for export to China, guidelines were intensively reviewed in consultations with U.S. allies. New guidelines will allow sales to China on a basis similar to most other friendly non-aligned countries while still addressing U.S. national security concerns.

Following a presidential decision on U.S. trade with the Soviet Union, on Sept. 16, 1983, pipelaying tractors were removed from foreign policy controls; other oil and gas pipeline equipment remains subject to such controls.

Commerce continued its major role in multilateral meetings of the Paris-based Coordinating Committee on Export Controls (COCOM). Every three or four years, COCOM reviews its lists of controlled items. In September review began of the list of technologies and commodities which western nations agree must be controlled to the Soviet bloc. Agreement was reached on electronic grade silicon, printed circuit board manufactures and space craft/launch vehicles.

Telephone information service to the business community was improved to handle the 4,000 calls received each week. EA also implemented an automated system to permit timely response to inquiries about the status of license applications. A data base system has been designed to manage the more than 650 active distribution licenses for export of commodities to about 20,000 consignees in free world countries.

EA seeks to reduce the record keeping and regulatory burden on small businesses. The first major result of this effort was the simplification of the Commodity Control List and the addition of an index published Dec. 29, 1982.

Because of the need for training programs covering the Export Administration Regulations, export control seminars have been presented to exporters in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

To ensure the availability of industrial resources to meet national security requirements, EA investigated imports of industrial fasteners and began investigation of imports of machine tools. Industrial emergency planning was upgraded under the President's Emergency Mobilization Planning Board and coordinated with NATO's Industrial Planning Committee. EA reviewed (1) the consequences of coproduction and offset agreements on the defense industrial base, (2) the adequacy of resource management concepts, (3) the priorities and allocations regulations, and (4) the collection of defense-related industrial data.

In response to increased Warsaw Pact attempts to obtain illegally western-origin high technology, EE has taken a lead role to increase COCOM's export control multilateral enforcement efforts.

Continued emphasis was placed on U.S. unilateral enforcement of the Export Administration Act. EE referred 37 cases to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution, 131 percent more than the total criminal referrals for the prior three fiscal years. Seven defendants were convicted compared with eight convictions over the past three years. Twenty-four cases were referred to the General Counsel for administrative sanctions and 158 warning letters were issued for lesser violations.

EE conducted a campaign to make business and the public aware of enforcement provisions of the EAA.

Antiboycott enforcement activity rose substantially. EE completed 290 investigations, highlighted by the first charge and settlement for evasion, the first use of export denials, the first court-enforced subpoena, and the two largest fines in the history of the program. Penalties recovered totaled $1,378,750 compared to $549,000 in FY 1982.

Changes in the regulations decreased the number of boycott requests required to be reported, reducing the paperwork burden to the public. Presentations to interested groups and telephone assistance to more

than 3,000 individuals and companies helped them understand and comply with the regulations.

Office of Economic
Affairs

Economic Affairs analyzes economic developments
and issues, and develops economic policy options.
The Under Secretary for Economic Affairs supervises
the collection and analysis of both demographic and
economic data, promotes efforts to increase
productivity, disseminates technical information,
analyzes and forecasts the performance of
industries, assesses the competitiveness of U.S.
industries in international markets, analyzes the
supply and demand for strategic materials, and
conducts studies of the automobile industry.

A number of special studies included: problems of the southwest border areas, industrial policy, business capital investment, state and city finances, regional impact of the recession, the effect of European labor regulations on U.S. multinational corporations, corporate liquidity, inventory investment, the motor vehicle industry, and the petrochemical industry.

The Office of Metric Programs, which assists firms and organizations in converting to metric measurement, was integrated into Economic Affairs during the year.

Other major agencies under the supervision of Economic Affairs are the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Industrial Economics, the Office of Economic Conditions, which is headed by the Chief Economist, and the Office of Economic Policy.

Office of Automotive Industry
Affairs

This office coordinates and represents the administration's policies for the auto industry. It published, as a report to the Congress required by the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979, The United States Automobile Industry, 1982, an analysis of the competitive position of the U.S. auto industry. This office coordinated analysis and policy development related to the U.S. automobile industry and advanced federal implementation of the President's program for the industry.

The administration's legislative policies on the industry, which involved eight federal agencies, were coordinated by Auto Industry Affairs. Several reports on the industry were prepared for Congressional testimony.

Financial analyses of the implications of Japanese auto export restraint were prepared and a definitive assessment of the President's regulatory program for the automobile industry was completed.

Also, the office conducted a marketing analysis of the implications for future Corporate Fuel Economy Standards (CAFE) and produced a joint analysis with the Department of Transportation.

Bureau of the Census

The Census Bureau is the federal government's principal fact-finding agency. It collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates data on many important aspects of the nation's social and economic life-population and housing, manufacturing and the distributive trades, transportation, minerals, agriculture, construction, service industries, governments, foreign trade, and statistics on other countries.

The Bureau also conducts surveys and special studies other government agencies sponsor that provide many of the government's key social and economic indicators on topics such as employment, health, housing, crime, and consumer expenditures. It performs similar work for educational institutions and qualified private organizations.

This year's 1980 census activities focused on release of detailed data in printed reports and on computer tapes and microfiche. Most of the detailed population and housing characteristics from the census now are available for states, metropolitan areas, cities and towns, counties, the new Congressional districts, and census tracts. The Bureau also issued several more census supplementary reports and released data on local neighborhoods under a program worked out with government jurisdictions. It provided special tabulations for state and federal agencies for use in allocating funds including the Department of Education and the Farmers Home Administration.

Looking ahead: 1990

Extensive planning for the 1990 census is under way. The Bureau set up several committees consisting of staff who are developing recommendations on publicity, field operations, geography, undercount issues, use of administrative records, and data for redistricting. A Commerce Committee on the 1990 Census meets quarterly to review overall census planning. The agency has organized conferences that focus on particular subjects, has contracted with the National Academy of Sciences Committee on National Statistics to establish a panel on 1990 census methodology, and has been working with its Congressional oversight committees in addressing 1990 census topics.

The Bureau plans to reach data users, and set up formal and informal meetings to examine data needs through representatives of all levels of government, racial and ethnic groups, academic and professional organizations, and among private data users. Meanwhile, results of the 1980 census coverage and

procedure studies have been evaluated for application to 1990 census objectives.

1982 censuses

Data collection and processing in the economic and agriculture censuses covering 1982 went smoothly and, by fall, the emphasis had shifted to review, analysis, and tabulation. The first 31 of some 4,400 preliminary and final reports to be issued throughout the next two years have gone to the printer, a schedule that is two to three months ahead of the 1977 results-thanks primarily to state-of-the-art processing equipment and computer systems. The Bureau issued two major reports from the 1982 Census of Governments covering governmental organization and employee retirement systems of state and local governments. The remaining census of government reports will be issued throughout 1984.

Economic activities

The Bureau produced monthly, quarterly, and annual statistics that provide current information on a wide variety of economic activities-data essential to measuring the economic health of the nation. Among the more closely followed economic indicators published were the series on housing starts, foreign trade, retail trade sales and inventories, and manufacturers' shipments, orders, and inventories. These data are used in developing gross national product numbers.

Collection of monthly statistics on production of selected apparel resumed this year after having been eliminated from the Bureau's statistical program earlier. The new survey data will be used along with other information in the government's determination of the extent to which imports may be causing market disruption in the apparel industry. New in 1983 was the publication of data on the characteristics of new mobile homes placed, as well as on nonresidential building permits covering all permit-issuing places.

The Bureau assumed responsibility for two important economic reports. It published the Quarterly Financial Report, a program that gathers up-to-date aggregate statistics on the profit and loss and balance sheets of U.S. corporations, and the Consolidated Federal Funds Report, a comprehensive annual report on federal outlays and obligations by geographic areas. The first report covered fiscal years 1981 and 1982.

The Center for Economic Studies developed procedures for outside researchers who work through the Center's personnel to study the behavior of individual establishments over time. The Bureau also expanded efforts to increase company participation and reduce respondent burden in its direct export data submission program by permitting exporters to submit monthly data on computer tapes.

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »