GAO Finds Trade Staffing, Resources Tough to Track for Agencies

The 11 U.S. agency offices and bureaus responsible for monitoring and enforcing trade agreements don’t have information allowing for a definitive count of staff resources and related funding dedicated for their trade obligations, according to a Government Accountability Office report (here). None of the agencies track staff time at this level of detail because trade actions are performed as part of a broader portfolio of activities, the GAO said. Yet, responding to GAO’s request for information, these agencies conservatively estimated that they devoted more than 700 full-time equivalents at a cost of more than $100 million to monitor and enforce trade agreements in fiscal year 2016, the report says. Further, U.S. agencies in FY 2016 oversaw 80 trade capacity-building projects intended to help U.S. trade partners meet free trade agreement obligations, the GAO said. “These projects, many of which spanned multiple years, amounted to about $256 million in obligated and planned funding,” the report said. “About 80 percent of project funding was related to helping partner countries comply with labor or environmental commitments.”