United States International Trade Commission

United States International Trade Commission independent agency of the U.S. government established in 1916 as the Tariff Commission; renamed International Trade Commission in 1975. It is charged with serving the president and Congress as an advisory, fact-finding agency on tariff, commercial-policy, and foreign-trade problems. Earlier tariff agencies had a definite policy of protection ; the 1916 commission was considered the first truly unbiased agency. Recent legislation, such as the Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, empowers the commission not only to investigate the effects of imports on competing domestic industry, but to direct imports to be excluded if it finds producers engaging in unfair trade or in violation of patent or copyright law. The president may terminate commission orders for policy reasons. On request, the commission's findings are made available to the president or the congressional committees concerned with trade. The commission advises on the possible effects of pending trade agreements or tariff legislation as well. The U.S. Trade Commission consists of six members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for nine-year terms, not more than three to be of the same political party and the chairman and vice chairman to be of different parties.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In June 1991, the administration of President George Bush opened talks designed to achieve a trilateral trade agreement among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.The largely secret negotiations came to fruition in December 1992 with the signing of a two‐thousand‐page agreement by President Bush, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada, and President Carlos Salinas of Mexico. President Bill Clinton in 1993, after initiating and signing side agreements addressing concerns raised by labor and environmental groups, lobbied vigorously for ratification of NAFTA. Congress approved the agreement in 1993, and it went into effect in 1994.

Under the terms of NAFTA, tariffs among the three countries were to be gradually phased out. The detailed agreements also reduced nontariff barriers to trade and investment by outlawing preferential treatment of government monopolies and by exempting businesses from many forms of local, state, and national regulation. Disputes arising under NAFTA are referred to a supranational panel of trade officials and lawyers whose hearings are secret.

Some of the largest corporations in Canada, Mexico, and the United States lobbied intensively on behalf of NAFTA, arguing that the treaty would bring widespread prosperity by creating the world's largest free trade bloc. Opposition surfaced in all three countries, however, among those who feared that the agreement would cost jobs and undermine labor organizations, environmental protections, small‐scale agriculture, and public‐sector service and transportation programs.
See also Agriculture: Since 1920; Environmentalism; Foreign Relations: U.S. Relations with Canada; Foreign Relations: U.S. Relations with Latin America; Foreign Trade, U.S.; Global Economy, America and the.

Bibliography

Noam Chomsky , World Orders Old and New, 1994.
Esmail Hossein–Zadeh , NAFTA and Sovereignty, Science and Society 61 (Summer 1997): 243–254.
United States International Trade Commission , The Impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the U.S. Economy and Industries: A Three‐Year Review, 1997.

Elizabeth McKillen

Trilateral Commission, an internationalist policy‐planning and advocacy organization comprising several hundred leaders from the private sector, government, academia, and the media. Promoting cooperation among the ruling elements of western Europe, the United States, Canada, and Japan, the commission was founded in 1973 in New York City by Chase Manhattan Bank chairman David Rockefeller, future National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and other prominent figures.

The commission first focused on providing solutions to destabilizing political and economic problems. These included instabilities in the international monetary system, protectionism and trade issues, barriers to investment, the commercial challenges posed by Japanese efforts, poverty in the developing world, and nuclear arms control. For the long‐term, the commission set an ambitious agenda including such diverse topics as demographic growth, exploitation of the sea, educational reform, rules for multinational enterprises, and U.S. democracy.

Based in New York City, Paris, and Tokyo, the commission is run by an extensive bureaucracy. The leadership represents the apex of global power, including merchants; future and former political leaders; corporate and agribusiness executives; investors and bankers; and, in some European cases, trade unions and leftist politicians.

American membership traditionally has been drawn from an inner core of elites in frequent contact with U.S. officials. The commission thus became a target of criticism in some U.S. circles for underrepresenting Congress, women, labor unions, and the populist left and right. Ronald Reagan criticized George Bush's links to the commission in the 1980 Republican presidential primary campaign. Others accused the group of promoting corporate hegemony, one‐world government, or elitism. Nevertheless, the commission remained influential. President Jimmy Carter drew on fellow members to fill administration posts and even Reagan appointed Trilateralists as secretaries of state, treasury, and defense, and as White House advisers.
See also Capitalism; Cold War; Foreign Relations; Global Economy, America and the; Internationalism; Isolationism; Nuclear Arms Control Treaties; Post–Cold War Era.

Bibliography

Holly Sklar, ed., Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management, 1980.
Stephen Gill , American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission, 1990.

Thomas W. Zeiler