THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, September 22, 1994           TAG: 9409220412
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

U.S. TRADE OFFICIAL WILL EXAMINE CHANGING ROLE OF ECONOMIC POLICY THE UNITED STATES ONCE CONTROLLED HALF THE WORLD'S POST-WORLD WAR II TRADE. NOW, IT DOES LESS THAN 15 PERCENT OF $3.6 TRILLION IN TRADE.

Jeffrey E. Garten, the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, will address the World Affairs Council of Greater Hampton Roads today at the Armed Forces Staff College. His remarks will come on the heels of a Commerce Department report showing an $11 billion merchandise trade imbalance, the second largest in the nation's history.

Garten leads the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, which is responsible for promoting trade, helping U.S. firms abroad, enforcing laws against unfair foreign-trade practices and developing trade policy.

As a prolific writer, a former businessman and a senior staff member in the White House and the State Department in the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations, Garten has handled numerous international economic issues. He will address the changing role of the United States' economic policy in the country's overall global agenda in tonight's program.

Some of the facts and figures in the speech he prepared for tonight's talk are startling. The United States once controlled half of the world's post-World War II trade, totaling $25 billion. Now, it does less than 15 percent of the world's $3.6 trillion trade.

Garten asserts that the country's foreign policy and national security will revolve around its economic policy. He cites the importance of emerging markets like Latin America and southeast Asia; economies in transition like the former Soviet Union.

For the United States to have any leverage in these markets, it must achieve its strategic goals through trade, he argues. Instead of using military force as an incentive for other countries' participation, it will need to use commerce and economic diplomacy, he says.

Tremendous effort and coordination is necessary in the new global environment because economic policy is much more complicated than traditional defense policy, Garten says. He supports President Clinton's administration for its promotion of the North American Free Trade Agreement, trade and diplomatic relations with Asia and Pacific Rim countries, and the use of economic incentives like trade embargoes in Bosnia.

Tonight's speech is open to the public. by CNB