United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-12-14 monographic deposited born digital 44 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-00-24 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-24 P0b002ee180391915 f:ns00024 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-24 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-24 NSIAD-00-24 International agreements Foreign trade agreements Treaties Government information dissemination Archives Reporting requirements Management information systems Congressional/executive relations North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA Letter Report NSIAD

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on improvements needed to track and archive trade agreements, focusing on: (1) the number of trade agreements the United States is party to; (2) the way in which the executive branch notifies Congress when trade agreements are entered into; and (3) the extent to which the public has ready access to information from government sources about trade agreements.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the number of trade agreements to which the United States is a party is uncertain; (2) officials at key agencies were unable to provide a definitive count of all U.S. trade agreements that are in force, despite the fact that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Department of State, and the Department of Commerce have created separate archives containing many agreements; (3) GAO identified 441 different trade agreements that entered into force from 1984 through 1998 among the three archives, but were not able to determine the total number of U.S. trade agreements in force; (4) this is because: (a) agency archives serve different purposes; (b) a governmentwide definition of what constitutes a trade agreement does not exist; and (c) there are recordkeeping weaknesses and inconsistencies in the archives; (5) the most comprehensive of these archives, was intended to include all agreements but contains only about two thirds of the total number of agreements that GAO identified by examining all three sources; (6) Commerce's archive is incomplete because federal agencies have not worked together to establish criteria for identifying agreements to be included, and no interagency procedure has been instituted for forwarding such trade agreements to Commerce; (7) Congress is notified when trade agreements are entered into through two formal mechanisms; (8) USTR's annual report, distributed to each member of Congress, includes a list of substantive trade agreements that it has negotiated since 1984 and that afford increased foreign market access to the United States; (9) other agreements negotiated by USTR, such as those that only regulate imports into the United States, are not included; (10) as required by law, State sends Congress a copy of any agreement that State determines is an international agreement based on certain criteria that State defines and applies; (11) other federal agencies are required to forward to State those agreements they negotiate, including trade agreements, that might fall within the criteria that State has established; (12) USTR recently established new procedures to improve its transmittal of new agreements to State for review; and (13) although federal agencies have provided the public with greater access to information about trade agreements in recent years, government sources available to the public are not always complete and accurate. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-24/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-24.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-24/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-24.pdf GAO/NSIAD-00-24 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-24 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-00-24; International Trade: Improvements Needed to Track and; International agreements Foreign trade agreements Treaties Government information dissemination Archives Reporting requirements Management information systems Congressional/executive relations North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA Title 1 Section 112b 1 U.S.C. 112b Title 19 Section 1872(c) 19 U.S.C. 1872(c)