Max Baucus: “William Shakespeare once said, ``Nimble thought can jump both sea and land.'' Today I wish to pay tribute to a U.S.…”

“William Shakespeare once said, ``Nimble thought can jump both sea and land.'' Today I wish to pay tribute to a U.S. Government agency whose thinking is nimble and its actions as well. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. For 50 years, USTR's small but elite staff has been crossing the globe, over sea and land, to break down barriers to American exports, and they have helped develop a world linked by trade, a world governed by rules, to ensure a level playing field for our exporters and their workers. USTR has been remarkably effective at that task. Since the creation of the Special Trade Representative in 1962, annual U.S. trade has grown from $52.1 billion to $4.8 trillion, contributing to economic growth of nearly 350 percent. USTR led the way through 20 FTA negotiations, multiple GATT and WTO Rounds, and countless bilateral trade negotiations in its quest to create opportunities abroad for U.S. businesses, workers, farmers and ranchers, in order to reach the 95 percent of global consumers who live outside the United States. USTR spearheaded the effort to create the fundamental rules and structures that underpin the global trading system. It successfully concluded the Uruguay Round negotiations that created the World Trade Organization. The WTO contributed to an explosion of trade and extended the rules-based trading system to nearly every trading nation of the world.…”