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EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
December 1, 2000 Linda Ricci
(202) 395-7254
(Address inquiries about release
dates to the issuing agency.)

PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON "OFFSETS" IN
INTERNATIONAL TRADE TO HOLD FIRST MEETING

The Presidential Commission on Offsets in International Trade will hold its first meeting on Monday, December 4, from 9:30 to 12:00 in the White House Conference Center. Jacob Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, will chair the meeting of the Commission, whose members include three Cabinet Secretaries and representatives from labor, industry, and academia.

Establishment of the Commission is required by the Defense Offsets Disclosure Act of 1999, and by Executive Order. The purpose of the Commission is to review and report to Congress and the President on the economic effects of offsets, including their impact on trade, employment, and technological capabilities of U.S. firms and foreign firms in the aerospace industry and its supplier industries, and in other high-tech industries. The Commission will also examine offsets’ impact on U.S. national security.

"Offsets" are conditions that a foreign government often negotiates with a U.S. company seeking to export a major defense or commercial system to its country, under which the country’s firms (a) participate in the production of the system and/or its subsystems, or (b) obtain other technological or economic benefits from the U.S. exporter. Foreign governments frequently negotiate offsets in connection with the import of U.S. aerospace systems (e.g., military or commercial aircraft), and sometimes in connection with the import of U.S. goods and services in other high-tech industries, such as power generation and telecommunications.

Commission members include Jacob J. Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Chair of the Commission); William S. Cohen, Secretary of Defense; Alexis M. Herman, Secretary of Labor; Madeleine K. Albright, Secretary of State; Robert L. Mallett, Deputy Secretary of Commerce; R. Thomas Buffenbarger, International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; Philip M. Condit, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Boeing Company; Vance D. Coffman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation; David C. Mowery, Professor of Business at the University of California at Berkeley; Ann R. Markusen, Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota; and Pierre A. Chao, Managing Director of Equity Research, Global Aerospace Group, Credit Suisse First Boston.

At the meeting, Commission members will hear testimony from labor and industry officials who have participated in and been affected by offset agreements, and from academic scholars who have studied the impact of offsets. The meeting will be held in the Truman room of the White House conference center, 726 Jackson Place, N.W., across from the White House on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue. Members of the public and press are welcome to attend. Further information is posted on the Commission web site (http://www.offsets.brtrc.net).

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