United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk has announced his departure from office in late February.
Kirk spent four years in office, in the first Obama administration. According to a USTR press release, Kirk oversaw “the completion, passage through Congress, and implementation of long-pending trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama; the launching and significant advancement of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations; the revitalization of American trade enforcement and the standing up of the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC); the U.S.-led ‘turning of the page’ at the World Trade Organization to revitalize Members’ work in Geneva, including the exploration of a new International Services Agreement and negotiations toward expansion of the Information Technology Agreement and an agreement on trade facilitation; the renewal and strengthening of Trade Adjustment Assistance; the termination of the Jackson-Vanik amendment’s application to Russia and the full application of the WTO agreement between Russia and the United States; and the renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences and the Andean Trade Preferences Act.”
