Obama Administration Promises "Thorough Review" of USTR Policies

After all of the uproar surrounding some of the Obama administration's recent decisions, trade officials have promised a thorough review of the USTR policies regarding transparency. In an effort to ensure that the review includes all possible angles, the USTR is urging groups to make other proposals as well. "KEI is very impressed with the USTR decision to undertake a review of USTR transparency efforts. They are taking this much further than simply reviewing policies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), or recent controversies over the secrecy surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. The review offers the possibility of more transformative changes, including pro-active measures to enhance transparency, covering all aspects of USTR operations, including multilateral, plurilateral, regional, bilateral and unilateral trade policies and negotiations. We are also grateful that USTR is offering to have a continuing dialogue on this issues. KEI will offer additional suggestions on transparency to USTR, and we encourage others to do so also."

Comments

United States Trade Representative

[Phroggy]

From ustr.gov:

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is an agency of over 200 people, a highly committed group of professionals who have decades of specialized experience in trade issues and regions of the world. They negotiate directly with foreign governments to create trade agreements, resolve disputes and participate in global trade policy organizations. They also meet with governments, business groups, legislators and public interest groups to gather input on trade issues and explain the president's trade policy positions. The agency was founded in 1962 and has offices in Washington, Geneva and Brussels.

Initialisms

[RockMFR]

KEI: Knowledge Ecology International
USTR: Office of the United States Trade Representative

All the uproar?

[Stiletto]

I haven't really heard much "uproar" over anything the Obama administration has done (have they actually done anything yet, really?) In fact he still seems to have a pretty high favorability rating. I admit, however, I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh, so my experiences might be somewhat biased towards reality.

The ABBR tag!

[coryking]

Use it dammit! If you are gonna insist on not spelling out TLA's for us, at least spell them out using the proper HTML!

That said, it is only polite to spell out your damn acronyms. This audience knows WTF "WTF" stands for and I dont have to spell out HTML either, but KEI? Is that like "Key Enterprise Induction", "Keynan Earned Income", or "Krusty's Entertainment Industry"? Who knows!

Easy as hell

[coryking]

Pick something you support.

If you are a liberal, label all arguments against your cause as biased crap from a conservative media. Make sure to point out their greed and lack of being right. Make sure to point out how from this day forward you will boycott them.

If you are a conservative, label all arguments against your idea as biased crap from a liberal media. Be sure to point out their general illogic and lack of being right. Make sure to point out how from this day forward you will boycott them.

If you are a Ron Paul supporter, you also must point out the media is actually scared of you. Point out that they are a monopoly and if ${GOVERNMENT} busted them up, Ron Paul would win*. Make sure to point out how from this day forward you will boycott them. Also, make sure to flood their phones, blackberries and other electronic devices with profanity laced letters. That will teach them.

In other words, all media that is against ${YOUR CAUSE} is ${BIASED}.

* and do this with out any hint of irony, what with asking for the government to intervene with a private entity...

Re:Easy as hell

[Ashriel]

Media is biased in so many ways, not strictly on "liberal" (a term I use loosely) or "conservative" (another meaningless label). For instance, when is the last time you've seen a reporter say:

"Listen you dumb shits, stop buying things you can't afford, get out of debt. No, you don't need that new flatscreen HDTV. Shop less, consume less, and save more."

Of course you never hear that, even with the profanity edited out. Because sponsors would have a fit and the network would lose revenue. There's no way the producers would allow that. Just like you'll never hear:

"We're headed for another Great Depression. Could be worse than the last one."

For the same reasons.

Well, ok, there's at least one guy saying these things on the air, but nobody likes him much; they tend to cut him short.

You'll also never hear anything that's anti-government in a bi-partisan way: about how 85% (or more) of the legislation that gets passed these days is inherently unconstitutional; about the insane 4th amendment violations across the nation; about how the "War on Drugs" is causing more problems than it (supposedly) solves; about what we did to make terrorists hate us in the first place.

And you'll certainly never hear anything about crazy IP laws going into effect or the RIAA cases (unless they win in court), because the media isn't about to serve up anti-media stories.

All commercial media has a pro-establishment, status quo bias, because that's who's in charge. The majority of our politicians, Republican or Democrat (I prefer the term "Republocrat"), are pretty much the same - they're all right-wing fascists when you take into account the full political spectrum that's available. Any "liberal" or "conservative" bias you may attach to it is meaningless compared to the bias that actually exists.