International Trade, Finance, and Competitiveness Issue Area Plan--Fiscal
Years 1995-96 (Letter Report, 07/01/95, GAO/IAP-95-13).

GAO presented its International Trade, Finance, and Competitiveness
issue area plan for fiscal years 1995 through 1996.

GAO plans to: (1) assess the impact of international accords and
organizations on international trade, market access, and trading
partners' financial conditions; (2) evaluate U.S. agencies'
effectiveness in promoting emerging markets and international trade
programs, implementing import laws, and improving agricultural export
finance programs; and (3) review competitiveness indicators, key
employment regulations, institutional investor strategies,
infrastructure projects and productivity, quality workforce efforts, and
cooperative research arrangements.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  IAP-95-13
     TITLE:  International Trade, Finance, and Competitiveness Issue 
             Area Plan--Fiscal Years 1995-96
      DATE:  07/01/95
   SUBJECT:  International trade
             International agreements
             International relations
             Agricultural programs
             Exporting
             Import regulation
             International organizations
             International cooperation
             Economic analysis
             Strategic planning
IDENTIFIER:  North American Free Trade Agreement
             NAFTA
             Asia
             Mexico
             Japan
             Russia
             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


General Government Division

July 1995

INTERNATIONAL TRADE, FINANCE, AND
COMPETITIVENESS ISSUE AREA PLAN

FISCAL YEARS 1995-96

GAO/IAP-95-13



Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV


FOREWORD
============================================================ Chapter 0

As the investigative arm of Congress and the nation's auditor, the
General Accounting Office is charged with following the federal
dollar wherever it goes.  Reflecting stringent standards of
objectivity and independence, GAO's audits, evaluations, and
investigations promote a more efficient and cost-effective
government; expose fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in federal
programs; help Congress target budget reductions; assess financial
information management; and alert Congress to developing trends that
may have significant fiscal or budgetary consequences.  In fulfilling
its responsibilities, GAO performs original research and uses
hundreds of databases, or creates its own when information is
unavailable elsewhere. 

To ensure that GAO's resources are directed toward the most important
issues facing Congress, each of GAO's 35 issue areas develops a
strategic plan that describes the significance of the issues it
addresses, its objectives, and the focus of its work.  Each issue
area relies heavily on input from congressional committees, agency
officials, and subject-matter experts in developing its strategic
plan. 

The International Trade, Finance, and Competitiveness issue area
covers the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Office of the
U.S.  Trade Representative, the U.S.  International Trade Commission,
the U.S.  Trade and Development Agency, the Foreign Agricultural
Service of the Department of Agriculture, and the International Trade
Administration in the Department of Commerce. 

The principal issues in the international trade, finance, and
competitiveness area are

  -- assuring that U.S.  economic interests are well-served through
     international accords and organizations;

  -- promoting the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of
     government organizations and programs related to international
     trade and finance;

  -- evaluating whether and how government programs and policies
     affect business productivity and the standard of living for
     Americans. 

In the pages that follow, we describe our key planned work on these
critical issues. 

In recognition that events may significantly affect our plan, our
planning process allows for updating the plan and responding quickly
to emerging issues.  If you have any questions or suggestions about
this plan, please call me at (202) 512-4812. 

Allan Mendelowitz
Managing Director
International Trade, Finance, and Competitiveness
 Issues


CONTENTS
============================================================ Chapter 1


   FOREWORD
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

1


   TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:2

4


   TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:3

6


   TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:4

7


TABLE I:  KEY ISSUES
============================================================ Chapter 2

Issue                          Significance
-----------------------------  -------------------------------------------------
International accords: How     Congress has recently passed two controversial
can U.S. interests be          multilateral trade agreements, NAFTA and GATT,
enhanced through               which involved vigorous congressional debate over
participation in bilateral     potential trade, economic, and employment effects
and multilateral trade         as well as concern about U.S. sovereignty.
agreements and other economic  Experience has shown that monitoring trade
institutions?                  agreements is essential if the United States is
                               to realize the benefits it attempted to achieve.
                               Furthermore, these trade agreements are expected
                               to be expanded over the next few years, leading
                               to extensive congressional debate about renewing
                               fast-track negotiating authority for the
                               President. In addition, the administration will
                               continue to conduct bilateral negotiations to
                               enhance U.S. economic interests with such
                               countries as Japan and Russia.

Government organizations and   Thirteen U.S. government agencies collectively
programs: Are U.S. government  spend about $3.5 billion annually on export
international trade and        promotion programs. Numerous budget, operational,
finance organizations and      organizational, and coordination issues need to
programs efficiently managed   be addressed to ensure that federal expenditures
and effective in promoting     are efficient and effective.
U.S. economic interests?











Competitiveness: How do        Fundamental obstacles remain to improving U.S.
government programs and        competitiveness in the global economy. Recent
policies affect U.S.           productivity increases have not been translated
competitiveness?               into higher real wages and an overall improvement
                               in the standard of living. Many fear that, as a
                               nation, the United States still provides
                               inadequate training and education for the U.S.
                               workforce, insufficient investment in
                               infrastructure and inadequate long-term
                               investment in research and development and
                               capital assets.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objectives                               Focus of work
---------------------------------------  ---------------------------------------
ï¿½Evaluate whether U.S. negotiations      ï¿½Implementation of NAFTA and Uruguay
achieve the stated objectives in         Round agreements and their effects on
international agreements.                U.S. interests.
                                         ï¿½U.S. and foreign participation in
ï¿½Monitor implementation of agreements    regional trade agreements.
to ensure they are promoting U.S.        ï¿½Bilateral trade agreements.
interests.                               ï¿½Efforts to address nontariff trade
                                         barriers.
ï¿½Evaluate efforts to establish new
agreements and proposals to strengthen
existing agreements and institutions.


ï¿½Identify management improvements,       ï¿½Implementation of the governmentwide
legislative changes, and regulatory      strategic plan for export promotion,
reforms that would improve market        including coordination of program goals
development, improve export promotion    and operations through the Trade
and financing programs, and produce      Promotion Coordinating Committee.
budgetary savings.                       ï¿½Review of Eximbank reinvention efforts
                                         that are designed to improve trade
ï¿½Identify ways to improve                finance programs to better meet
governmentwide strategic planning,       customer financing needs and to improve
budgeting, and program coordination.     administrative efficiencies.
                                         ï¿½Review of major competitor nations'
ï¿½Promote the design of trade programs    export credit agencies' export
that respond to other nations' trade     financing systems.
and investment practices.                ï¿½Given the impending 1995 Farm Bill,
                                         monitor and evaluate Agriculture Export
ï¿½Identify ways to reduce waste, fraud,   Title programs and issues, including
or abuse in agency program management.   the revised long-term strategy,
                                         structure, organization, and operation
                                         of revisions to agriculture export
                                         programs, in light of changes resulting
                                         from GATT and NAFTA implementation
                                         legislation.

ï¿½Work across GAO issue areas to provide  ï¿½Studies of macro-and microeconomic
Congress with information and analysis   conditions driving business
for assessing the impact of government   activities.
activities on competitiveness issues.    ï¿½Promotion of U.S. economic interests
                                         through trade, development, and other
ï¿½Identify competitiveness trade-offs     international policies.
and conflicts within/among programs and  ï¿½Effect of government policies and
policies.                                programs on saving rate, investment,
                                         and productivity growth.
ï¿½Assess the availability and quality of  ï¿½Efforts to achieve a higher quality
data and evaluation methodologies for    workforce.
determining competitiveness impacts.     ï¿½Efforts to foster a strong technology
                                         base that leads to productivity
                                         growth.
                                         ï¿½Contribution of infrastructure
                                         investment to economic development and
                                         business productivity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE II:  PLANNED MAJOR WORK
============================================================ Chapter 3

Issue                      Planned major job starts
-------------------------  -----------------------------------------------------
International accords      --Examine Mexican financial crisis and U.S.
                           response.
                           --Assess ability of international financial
                           institutions to respond to liquidity crises.
                           --Monitor establishment of the World Trade
                           Organization.
                           --Evaluate operations of NAFTA commissions.
                           --Examine NAFTA accession issues.
                           --Assess impact of environmental rules and standards
                           on trade.
                           --Review status of U.S. trade initiatives in Asia.
                           --Monitor progress in negotiating trade agreements to
                           achieve market access for U.S. service sectors.

Government organizations   --Evaluate effectiveness of U.S. government project
and programs               finance programs in transitional and emerging
                           markets.
                           --Examine organizational structure, operations, and
                           budgetary implications of the Department of
                           Commerce's management of international trade programs
                           and activities.
                           --Monitor the executive branch's implementation of
                           import laws, including unfair trade practice laws,
                           import relief laws, and tariff preference programs.
                           --Examine alternative agricultural export finance
                           programs and related budgetary implications.
                           --Review competitor countries' agricultural export
                           finance programs.
                           --Review integration of all agricultural export
                           promotion programs and activities and related
                           budgetary implications.

Competitiveness            --Review competitiveness indicators.
                           --Review key employment regulations.
                           --Examine institutional investor strategies.
                           --Evaluate infrastructure projects and productivity.
                           --Evaluate quality workforce efforts.
                           --Analyze cooperative research arrangements.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE III:  GAO CONTACTS
============================================================ Chapter 4


      MANAGING DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.1

Allan Mendelowitz (202) 512-4812


      DIRECTOR
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.2

JayEtta Hecker (202) 512-8984


      ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4:0.3

Patrick Gormley
Kenneth Hoeth
John Hutton
Randy Schultz
Elizabeth Sirois
Phillip Thomas
Curtis Turnbow
Susan Westin

*** End of document. ***