America's Frontline Trade Officials

Synopsis

Since 1974, 4 percent of all former senior White House trade officials have registered, or their firms have registered, with the Justice Department as foreign agents representing foreign governments. This study provides a brief background and history of how the office of U.S. Trade Representatives evolved, and discusses the contemporary issues surrounding USTR as well as profiling American's frontline trade officials who have served at the highest level of USTR since 1974. This study has prompted a General Accounting Office investigation, a Justice Department ruling, and four presidential candidates in 1992--Clinton, Brown, Buchanan, and Perot--relied on these findings in speeches. Distributed for the Center for Public Integrity.