112 STAT. 2681-549 PUBLIC LAW 105-277 —OCT. 21, 1998 (1) IN GENERAL.— The Commission shall be responsible for examining the nature, causes, and consequences of, and the accuracy of available data on, the United States merchandise trade and current account deficits. (2) ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED.— The Commission shall examine and report to the President, the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Finance of the Senate, and other appropriate committees of Congress on the following: (A) The relationship of the merchandise trade and current account balances to the overall well-being of the United States economy, and to wages and employment in various sectors of the United States economy. (B) The impact that United States monetary and fiscal policies may have on United States merchandise trade and current account deficits. (C) The extent to which the coordination, allocation, and accountability of trade responsibilities among FedereJ agencies may contribute to the trade and current account deficits. (D) The causes and consequences of the merchandise trade and current account deficits and specific bilateral trade deficits, including— (i) identification and quantification of— (I) the macroeconomic factors and bilateral trade barriers that may contribute to the United States merchandise trade and current account deficits; (II) any impact of the merchandise trade and current account deficits on the domestic economy, industrial base, manufacturing capacity, technology, number and quality of jobs, productivity, wages, and the United States standard of living; (III) any impact of the merchandise trade and current account deficits on the defense production and innovation capabilities of the United States; and (IV) trade deficits within individual industrial, manufacturing, and production sectors, and any relationship between such deficits and the increasing volume of intra-industry and intra-company transactions; (ii) a review of the adequacy and accuracy of the current collection and reporting of import and export data, and the identification and development of additional data bases and economic measurements that may be needed to properly quantify the merchandise trade and current account balances, and any impact the merchandise trade and current account balances may have on the United States economy; and (iii) the extent to which there is reciprocal market access substantially equivalent to that afforded by the United States in each country with which the United States has a persistent and substantial bilateral trade deficit, and the extent to which such deficits have become structural.
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