On April 17, 2017, the Department of Commerce published in the Federal Register a notice of a public hearing request for comments to assist in the analysis for the assessment called for in Executive Order (E.O.) 13786. Pursuant to E.O. 13786 of March 31 2017, the Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative (USTR), in consultation with the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, Defense, Agriculture, and Homeland Security and the heads of any other executive departments or agencies with relevant expertise, as determined by the Secretary of Commerce and the USTR, are required to prepare and submit to the President an Omnibus Report on Significant Trade Deficits. The trading partners with which the United States had a significant trade deficit in goods in 2016 (in alphabetical order) were Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The schedule and deadlines are as follows: Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. (EDT): Deadline for interested persons to submit written comments. Also, this is the deadline for requests to appear at the hearing, which must include a summary of the testimony to be given. Thursday, May 18, 2017: A public hearing at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC, beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
