June 11, 2012
News Release 12-067
Contact: Peg O'Laughlin, 202-205-1819
Koopman Named USITC's Director of Operations

Deanna Tanner Okun, Chairman of the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), has announced that Dr. Robert B. Koopman has been appointed the USITC's Director of Operations.

Koopman will oversee the investigative and research activities of the agency's Offices of Investigations, Unfair Import Investigations, Industries, Economics, Tariff Affairs and Trade Agreements, and Analysis and Research Services.

Prior to his appointment, Koopman served as the Director of the USITC's Office of Economics, where he functioned as the agency's Chief Economist. He was appointed to that position in July 1999. Previously, Koopman worked for 15 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He was the Deputy Administrator for Economic and Community Systems in the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service at the time of his USITC appointment. Earlier, he was the Deputy Director of the Commercial Agriculture Division of the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). He began his professional career at the ERS as an economist and later served as Leader of the ERS Central and Eastern Europe Section and Chief of the ERS Europe, Africa, and Middle East Branch.

Koopman holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston College and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern Maine. He lives in Alexandria, VA, with his wife and three children.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) is an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency that makes determinations concerning the impact of imports and their potential injury on domestic companies. The USITC staff includes experts who analyze virtually every commodity imported into the United States. The USITC provides data on international trade to the President, Congress, other federal agencies, and the public.

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