US Trade Representative Ron Kirk To Depart In February

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.”