U.S. TRADE DEFICIT REVIEW
COMMISSION

PRESS RELEASE 1

BACKGROUNDER ON THE TRADE DEFICIT

(WASHINGTON, DC) -- The US Commission to Review the Trade Deficit, established by Congress earlier this year, is gearing up to its assigned task of analyzing the causes and consequences of the trade deficit.

The Commission's first public activity is scheduled for August 19, 1999, in the form of an extended briefing session by experts from think tanks and universities. The session will cover the "Causes of the Trade Deficit" and will be held in Washington, DC in Room 192 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The statute establishing the Commission also requires four field hearings to be held in different parts of the United States.

The members of the Commission, appointed by the majority and minority leaders of the US Senate and the House of Representatives, are as follows:

Murray Weidenbaum, Washington University, Chairman, St. Louis, MO

Dimitri Papadimitriou, Bard College, Vice Chairman, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

Wayne Angell, Bear Stearns and Company, New York, NY

George Becker, United Steel Workers, Pittsburgh, PA

C. Richard D'Amato, Maryland House of Delegates, Annapolis, MD

Carla Hills, Hills and Company, Washington, DC

Kenneth Lewis, Portland, OR

Anne Krueger, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Donald Rumsfeld, Chicago, IL

Lester Thurow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Michael Wessel, Downey McGrath, Inc., Washington, DC

Robert Zoellick, Washington, DC