The four U.S. trade preference programs that are intended to foster economic development by offering eligible developing countries duty-free access to the U.S. market (for select products) do not contain legal provisions specifically protecting or promoting women's rights and economic interests in the trade arena, such as equal access to credit. However, they do include provisions protecting some

GAO's analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data and interviews with industry stakeholders shows that the repeal of the U.S. crude oil export ban is associated with increased crude oil exports—from less than half a million barrels per day in 2015 to almost 3 million barrels per day in 2019. The repeal of the ban expanded the market for U.S. crude oil to overseas buyers and, a

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) has a four-phase process to review companies' requests to be excluded from having to pay Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. Commerce ensures an exclusion request is complete, accepts public input, evaluates materials submitted, and issues a final decision. Between March 2018 and November 2019, Commerce received over 106,000 requests; it rejected over 19,

Different types of criminal and terrorist organizations use trade-based money laundering (TBML) to disguise the origins of their illicit proceeds and fund their operations. TBML schemes can rely on misrepresenting the price, quantity, or type of goods in trade transactions, but other methods are also used. For example, some drug trafficking organizations from Latin America have used a type of TBM

The customs value of e-cigarette devices, parts, and liquid imported into the United States in 2016 through 2018 was $2.4 billion, resulting in $120 million in tariff revenue. E-cigarette devices and parts each accounted for about $1.2 billion (48 percent for each, or 96 percent for both), and e-cigarette liquid accounted for $101.5 million (4 percent) of the total customs value over that period.

The U.S. government awarded contracts valued at about $12 billion to foreign-located firms, of which about $5 billion went to firms with reported locations in the other six main parties to the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Conversely, government procurement databases indicated the central governments of thes

The Small Business Administration's (SBA) management of the State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) does not provide reasonable assurance of compliance with some legal requirements. Specifically, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA) requirements for STEP include: (1) Proportional distribution requirement. SBA's Office of International Trade (OIT) must distribute grant fun

The U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board (the Board) has procedures that generally align with its regulations for evaluating production notifications and followed these procedures for all 59 notifications GAO reviewed. Notifications are filed by companies proposing to bring foreign components into a foreign-trade zone (FTZ) for use in manufacturing finished products, among other purposes. GAO found, fo

Since renewing efforts to implement the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) in 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has deployed a number of key ACE activities, processes, and functions that it terms core capabilities. After several delays, CBP reported that it had finished implementing these capabilities--other than a capability for revenue collections--in February 2018. CBP expects

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has updated its policies and procedures to incorporate a restriction on its procurement of certain textiles as specified in the "Kissell Amendment." In August 2009, DHS amended its procurement policies to reflect the Kissell Amendment restriction and describe the limitations on DHS's procurement of specified textiles from sources outside the United S