Recommendation: The U.S. Trade Representative, in consultation with EOP as appropriate, should align the component's contingency plan with OMB guidance. This could be accomplished through (1) revisions to the EOP contingency plan; or (2) by creating a separate USTR plan. (Recommendation 4)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of the United States Trade Representative
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendation. USTR stated that it has already begun addressing our recommendations on aligning its contingency plan with OMB guidance. When we confirm what actions USTR has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The U.S. Trade Representative should document the component's shutdown processes, including roles and responsibilities, planning processes for potential shutdowns, and recall processes for furloughed employees during a shutdown. (Recommendation 6)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of the United States Trade Representative
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendation. USTR stated that it has already begun addressing our recommendations on documenting its shutdown processes. When we confirm what actions USTR has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Recommendation: The U.S. Trade Representative should develop internal controls to limit access to physical workspaces to appropriate employees during a government shutdown. (Recommendation 10)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of the United States Trade Representative
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendation. USTR stated that it has made the Executive Office of the President (EOP) aware of the recommendations on developing controls for physical workspace access during a shutdown. We will continue to monitor USTR's efforts to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: The U.S. Trade Representative should, in consultation with EOP, develop internal controls to limit access to virtual workspaces to appropriate employees during a government shutdown. (Recommendation 14)

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of the United States Trade Representative
Status: Open

Comments: The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) neither agreed nor disagreed with the recommendation. USTR stated that it has made the Executive Office of the President (EOP) aware of the recommendations on developing controls for virtual workspace access during a shutdown. We will continue to monitor USTR's efforts to address this recommendation.

Recommendation: The U.S. Trade Representative should, with appropriate experts in Commerce, OMB, and GSA, improve the U.S. methodology for providing federal government procurement statistics to the WTO to ensure both accurate and more timely reporting, consistent with GPA requirements--for example, by providing preliminary estimates and updated values of covered federal procurement or by using an alternative methodology that bases measures of covered government procurement on actual annual obligations, if USTR determines that such an approach is consistent with WTO obligations.

Agency: Executive Office of the President: Office of the United States Trade Representative
Status: Open

Comments: In February 2017 we reported that the United States had revised its approach to statistical reporting to the World Trade Organization (WTO) about covered federal government procurement from an "award values" methodology to an actual "cumulative obligations" approach in October 2015. The "cumulative obligations" methodology resulted in a more accurate measure of covered federal procurement, but it introduced a 6-year delay in reporting. We found this reporting delay inconsistent with the 2014 WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) requirement of reporting within 2 years of the end of the reporting period. We recommended that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) should, with appropriate experts in Commerce, Office of Management and Budget, and General Services Administration, improve the U.S. methodology for providing covered federal government procurement statistics to the WTO to ensure both accurate and more timely reporting, consistent with GPA requirements--for example, by providing preliminary estimates and updated values of covered federal procurement or by using an alternative methodology that bases measures of covered government procurement on actual annual obligations, if USTR determines that such an approach is consistent with WTO obligations. Following the issuance of our report, in December 2017 USTR reported that they had worked with other agencies to improve their methods. While they decided to continue to report statistics using the "cumulative obligations" methodology they decided to also report "partially reported" (preliminary) statistics to improve the timeliness of U.S. reporting. This preliminary data was to be based on the same data used in the "cumulative obligations" methodology but can be submitted within two years of the end of the reporting period and therefore comply with GPA statistical reporting obligations. USTR submitted preliminary statistics for FY 2015 on November 15, 2017; for FY 2016 on October 31, 2018; and for FY 2017 on October 29, 2019. USTR will later update these statistics to reflect the "final" total value in 2021. GAO will continue to monitor this recommendation until that time.