A Study Of The USTR Office And Its Role In U.S. Trade Policymaking

In the 1950s and 1960s, the United States of America encountered severe setbacks in its trade and had a great trade deficit with the European Community due to their protectionism and high tariffs. In order to combat the situation, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) was set up. In effect, the establishment of the USTR Office was attributed to the political, economic and social development of America and it has played an important role in the U.S. trade policymaking. Therefore, based on role theory and within the framework of bureaucratic politics and interbranch politics models, the thesis tries to examine the role of the USTR Office in the process of U.S. trade policymaking. The study is worthy of being conducted in that trade policy in the United States has been central to the course of the world economy and thus it is meaningful to make a study of how the U.S. trade policymaking system works.Role theory states that the bureaucratic positions and the perspectives influence policymakers'behavior and policy choices. Therefore, before making a policy, these bureaucratic agencies vie with one another, in the hope of shaping policies consistent with their bureaucratic interests. Following the theory, it seems inevitable and necessary to have a coordinator who is able to obtain consensus within these bureaucratic agencies with conflicting views on the same issue. Obviously, role theory and the bureaucratic politics model are closely connected which enable us to examine the process of trade policymaking within this theoretical framework. On the other hand, due to the unique American political system, even though the executive branch is the most powerful branch of government in the formulation of U.S. trade policy, Congress and various interests groups are able to exert great impact on trade policy through bringing pressure to bear on the concerned bureaucratic agencies. Thus, there needs a coordinator between the legislative and the executive branches in order to achieve consensus among them. It can be seen that the establishment of the USTR Office corresponds with the complex of trade policymaking and it is workable to examine its role within the two models.Through examining the USTR Office's role in solving U.S.-Japan semiconductor tradeconflict in 1980s and the making of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in early 1990s, the thesis aims to demonstrate the application of role theory, the bureaucratic politics and the interbranch politics models in examining a bureaucratic agency's role in the process of trade policymaking.The thesis concludes that the USTR Office is able to build a winning coalition with other bureaucratic agencies, members of Congress and major interest groups against others to formulate a trade policy consistent with its bureaucratic position and thus fulfill its role as a coordinator and trade warrior. Therefore, it once again demonstrates the application of role theory, the bureaucratic politics and the interbranch politics models in examining a bureaucratic agency's role in the process of trade policymaking.