FOCUS
A Return to State?
Might FAS and FCS be better
positioned if they were returned to
the State Department, where both
once resided? In most cases, officers say they are content where
they are. Officers in both services
glory in a can-do, practical culture
that they say differs from the more
cerebral one at State.
“If they have a successful tour,
nothing happens,” says one Commercial Service officer in Latin
America of his State Department
colleagues, with a laugh. “It’s a tremendous cultural difference. I enjoy Commerce because it’s a little more
freewheeling. We have a specific mission to deliver an
advantage to U.S. companies.”
Being part of the Commerce Department, commercial officers say, provides them with an entrée and credibility with U.S. companies that a State Department
affiliation would not provide. Foreign Agricultural Service officers feel similarly about their working relationship
with U.S. farm groups and argue that their single-minded
focus on agriculture would not be possible in the more
generalist culture of State.
“We work closely with the State Department here in
Washington and overseas,” says Hale. But “by being part
of the [Agriculture] Department, if we’ve got technical
problems, we’re very well tied in to work with the technical agencies.”
The flip side of the coin, bluntly expressed by one
Commercial Service officer in the Middle East, is the
constant battle for resources and respect that Foreign
Service officers must wage in a department dominated
by civil servants. “We are a Foreign Service agency stuck
in a hodgepodge department where the Foreign Service
culture doesn’t mesh with the Civil Service,” he says.
But old veterans of both agencies say the agricultural
and commercial officers of yesteryear faced a similar
problem inside State because of the different nature of
their missions. Moving back to Foggy Bottom would
amount to trading one cultural misfit for another, they
say.
One commercial officer in Europe says the best solution would be to move the Commercial Service out of
Commerce and combine it with other trade-related gov-
The benefits of investing in
ernment agencies to create a new
Cabinet department. “If the U.S.
government is really serious about
being a stronger player in trade
and investment, it really should
put its experts in those areas together in one building and give
them the budget to match,” she
said.
Charles A. Ford, a former ambassador to Honduras and Commercial Service veteran, thinks it
may be time to start exploring entirely new management structures.
The first step, he says, would be a re-evaluation of the
Commercial Service’s mission. With that in place, he
says, the agency might consider new management structures by examining innovations in private-sector corporate governance.
export promotion are clear.
But by some estimates,
the United States is
now spending far less
on that than many
other countries.
Hope for the Future
All the challenges and budget pressures aside, officers
at both agencies remain hopeful. They say that the
choice of former Washington state Governor Gary Locke
as Commerce Secretary and former Iowa Governor Tom
Vilsack for Agriculture bodes well, since both have firsthand knowledge of the ways in which exports boost a
state’s economy.
And despite Pres. Obama’s skepticism about free
trade, no one can doubt the enthusiasm he’s created for
the United States abroad. “The best part of the job is
that we market America,” says Anderson. “Having
Obama as our president is a marketer’s dream.”
The benefits of investing in export promotion are
clear, officers say, something they hope the politicians
who control the purse strings will eventually acknowledge. “As people understand how much agriculture is
dependent on trade, they will spend more attention on
it,” says Schmick.
More foreboding is what would be lost if they fail to do
so: U.S. competitiveness. By some estimates, the United
States is now spending far less on the job of promoting
exports than many other countries. “The very positive
message is that we can bring home jobs,” says Curtis.
“But you also have to remember that this is a global economy. If you don’t compete internationally, then you will
lose the domestic market, too.” ■
