Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service's (FAS) attache activities, focusing on: (1) FAS overseas market development planning activities; and (2) attaches' role in reporting and coordinating FAS activities, overseas posting, and staff qualifications.
GAO found that FAS: (1) generally considers present or potential markets for U.S. agricultural products as a factor in selecting its overseas posts locations; (2) assigned a large percentage of its staff to Europe to maintain U.S. exports to Europe and to concentrate on major trade centers, and increased its staffing in third-world countries to meet a projected growth in agricultural trade; (3) market planning and development did not incorporate benchmarks or measures for determining the program's success; (4) believes that an improved relationship between it and nonprofit commodity groups would enhance U.S. agricultural product marketing overseas; (5) planned to implement various external recommendations regarding its reporting requirements; (6) was responsible for planning and coordinating mission activities and arranging meetings between mission teams, private-sector representatives, and host countries; and (7) emphasized foreign language proficiency in its staff and training policies.
