Budget Request Aims to Advance Export Reform, Strengthen AD/CVD Regime
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2017 budget proposal released Feb. 9 asks for a $24 million increase in funding for the International Trade Administration, and a$14.4 million bump for the Bureau of Industry and Security (here). The Commerce Department’s $521 million request for ITA includes $10.4 million for hiring 36 full-time employees to expand its “capacity and footprint” and place personnel in high-demand markets, as well as $2 million for 12 new full-time employees in FY 2017 to better enforce antidumping and countervailing duty laws.
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Commerce requested $127 million for BIS, in part, to support export control reform, the department’s budget says. Anticipating a “surge” in the volume of export licenses, BIS asked for $6.7 million to help support 13 new full-time employees in its Export Administration division. The 2013 implementation of export control reform has driven 80,000 additional annual exports involving items transferred from the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List, and BIS expects that number will increase to 120,000 by fiscal 2017, Commerce said. Overall, the funding will empower BIS activities including outreach to industry regarding export control reform, evaluation of industry compliance with the Export Administration Regulations, and the enhancement of the bureau’s licensing system with the Automated Commercial Environment, BIS said.
Meanwhile, Obama requested $59.4 million for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for FY 2017, reflecting an anticipated eight new full-time hires and totaling $4.9 million more than current levels, according to the budget submitted by the Executive Office of the President (here). The additional funding "supports the President’s most ambitious trade agenda in a generation, anchored by proposed landmark agreements with partners in the Asia-Pacific and the European Union," it said.