Senate Finance Approves Trade Four Nominations (Other than Bersin)
On October 11, 2011, the Senate Finance Committee approved pending trade nominations for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Commerce Department, and International Trade Commission. These nominees must still be confirmed by the Senate.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The Committee approved the following nominations:
- Michael Punke to be a Deputy U.S. Trade Representative1;
- Islam A. Siddiqui to be Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the USTR1;
- Paul Piquado to be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Import Administration; and
- David Johanson to be a Member of the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Note that the Senate Finance Committee did not consider the pending nomination of Alan Bersin to be Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the October 11, 2011 mark-up. (See ITT’s Online Archives 11093006 for summary of CBP Commissioner having to leave at the year’s end if he is not confirmed by the Senate.)
1Both Punke and Siddiqui were recess-appointed in 2010 and their recess-appointment term would expire at the end of 2011. The Senate Finance Committee held hearings on the Punke and Siddiqui nominations in 2009 and, most recently on September 12, 2011. (See ITT’s Online Archives 11091331, for summary of the September 2011 hearing.)
Senate Finance Committee Chairman’s press release available here