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 2000-03-14 monographic deposited born digital 80 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-00-76 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-76 P0b002ee180384110 f:ns00076 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-76 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-76 NSIAD-00-76 Trade agreements International trade Trade policies Federal agencies International trade regulation Interagency relations Foreign trade agreements Internal controls Monitoring Private sector practices General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade WTO Information Technology Agreement Letter Report NSIAD

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed whether federal agencies have the capacity to monitor and enforce trade agreements, focusing on: (1) the federal structure for monitoring and enforcing trade agreements; (2) the increasing complexity of the federal monitoring and enforcement task and key activities that federal agencies must perform; and (3) whether the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have the capacity to handle their monitoring and enforcement workload, that is, whether their human capital resources and support mechanisms enable them to perform needed monitoring and enforcement activities.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) U.S. government efforts to monitor and enforce trade agreements involve at least 17 federal agencies, with USTR having primary statutory responsibility; (2) the other agencies' contributions to federal monitoring and enforcement efforts vary according to their legal requirements, mission, and expertise, but Commerce, USDA, and the Department of State have substantial monitoring and enforcement roles; (3) USTR and Commerce both created offices in 1996 specifically dedicated to trade agreement monitoring and enforcement; (4) at least 13 other federal agencies provide policy input or technical expertise to U.S. monitoring and enforcement efforts; (5) several interagency mechanisms exist to coordinate the contributions and perspectives of the multiple agencies involved in monitoring and enforcement; (6) private sector input is obtained from statutory advisory councils, informal advisory groups, trade associations, and private companies; (7) the task of monitoring and enforcing foreign compliance with trade agreements had become more complex as the number of trade agreements and trade agreement partners has grown and the issues covered by trade agreements have expanded; (8) in the past, trade agreements primarily helped to reduce tariffs charged on merchandise imports; (9) however, current trade agreements address more complicated types of import restrictions, such as product standards and food safety regulations, and cover a broader range of issues, such as trade-related investment measures or intellectual property rights; (10) federal agencies that monitor and enforce trade agreements must be able to perform several key activities that include identifying and prioritizing compliance problems, analyzing information about them, and seeking ways to resolve them; (11) although USTR, Commerce, and USDA have taken steps to improve their monitoring and enforcement efforts, certain capacity weaknesses limit their ability to handle the federal monitoring and enforcement workload; (12) officials at all three agencies told GAO that steadily declining staff levels in recent years have adversely impacted the agencies' monitoring and enforcement activities; (13) agency officials also told GAO that although the technical complexity of trade agreements has been increasing, the expertise needed to analyze compliance problems is not always available; and (14) although private sector information about trade agreement compliance problems is essential to federal monitoring and enforcement efforts, some agency offices that GAO examined had better mechanisms than others for obtaining comprehensive and balanced input from the private sector. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-76/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-76.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-76/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-76.pdf GAO/NSIAD-00-76 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-00-76 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-00-76; International Trade: Strategy Needed to Better Monitor and; Trade agreements International trade Trade policies Federal agencies International trade regulation Interagency relations Foreign trade agreements Internal controls Monitoring Private sector practices General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade WTO Information Technology Agreement Title 7 Section 5606 Title 7 Section 5641 Title 7 Section 5674 7 U.S.C. 5606 7 U.S.C. 5641 7 U.S.C. 5674 Title 19 Section 1332 Title 19 Section 1677 Title 19 Section 1872 Title 19 Section 1997 Title 19 Section 2155 Title 19 Section 2171 Title 19 Section 2241 Title 19 Section 2412 Title 19 Section 2902 Title 19 Section 3381 Title 19 Section 3391 Title 19 Section 3571 19 U.S.C. 1332 19 U.S.C. 1677 19 U.S.C. 1872 19 U.S.C. 1997 19 U.S.C. 2155 19 U.S.C. 2171 19 U.S.C. 2241 19 U.S.C. 2412 19 U.S.C. 2902 19 U.S.C. 3381 19 U.S.C. 3391 19 U.S.C. 3571 Public Law 103-62 Public Law 104-127