Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 14 • Number 1 • 13th January 2010
US Senate Makes Progress in Filling Key Trade Posts
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The US Senate confirmed one key trade official and took steps toward filling two other critical trade posts over the winter holidays.
Miriam Sapiro was confirmed to the post of Deputy US Trade Representative, in which she will be responsible for trade negotiations with Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. Sapiro will also supervise the USTR’s Office of WTO and Multilateral Affairs and oversee its work on intellectual property, services, and investment. Nominated by President Obama in April, Sapiro was confirmed by the Senate in a vote on Christmas Eve and sworn in on 11 January.
“Miriam Sapiro brings years of valuable expertise and experience and will be a stellar addition to the USTR leadership team,” said USTR Ron Kirk in a statement.
Two other appointees are still awaiting their final confirmation. Michael Punke, who has been nominated to serve as US ambassador to the WTO, and Islam Siddiqui, who is to become Washington’s top agriculture negotiator, both won the unanimous approval of the Senate Finance Committee in a vote on 23 December. The two men must still be confirmed by the full Senate before they can take up their posts. A date for such a vote has not yet been set.
Kirk said last month that his office is “look[ing] forward to the timely confirmation” of the two appointees.
If confirmed, Punke would replace Peter Allgeier, who served as the US ambassador to the WTO from 2001 until late last summer. David Shark, Deputy Chief of the US Mission in Geneva, has served as the acting ambassador since Allgeier stepped down.
The recent Senate votes have been a long time coming. Nearly 12 months after President Barack Obama took office, two out of five of the top political posts in the office of the US Trade Representative remain empty; a third slot, Sapiro’s, was only filled this week.
The slow pace of the confirmations has left many WTO officials grumbling about a lack of US presence in the negotiations at the global trade body’s headquarters in Geneva. It is a sign, some say, that Obama has been giving his trade agenda short shrift amid vigorous domestic debates on healthcare reform, climate change, and economic recovery.
ICTSD reporting.
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