Archive - Abr 18, 2006

The departure by U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman to become director of the Office of Management and Budget and the nomination of Deputy USTR Susan Schwab as the next USTR signals that trade has become a diminishing priority for the Bush Administration, according to several sources.

Aid and campaign groups from around the world on Tuesday called on WTO chief Pascal Lamy to cancel a major trade meeting scheduled for the end of this month, saying many poor countries are being excluded from talks.

President George W. Bush on Tuesday will announce U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman as his choice to become White House budget director, a senior administration official said.

Shortly before Arthur Dunkel, the world's top trade official for more than a decade, died last June, soon-to-be World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy went to visit him. Mr. Lamy wanted to ask about the nuclear option of world-trade diplomacy, known as a 'Dunkel draft.'