The Secretary of Commerce shall establish, within the International Trade Administration, the United States and Foreign Commercial Service. The Secretary shall, to the greatest extent practicable, transfer to the Commercial Service the functions and personnel of the United States and Foreign Commercial Services.
The head of the Commercial Service shall be the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the Commercial Service, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director General of the Commercial Service may appoint Commercial Service Officers and such other personnel as may be necessary to carry out the activities of the Commercial Service.
The Secretary shall take the necessary steps to ensure that the activities of the Commercial Service are carried out in a manner consistent with United States foreign policy objectives, and the Secretary shall consult regularly with the Secretary of State in order to comply with this paragraph.
All activities of the Commercial Service shall be subject to section 207 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3927).
The Commercial Service shall conduct its activities at a headquarters office, district offices located in major United States cities, and foreign offices located in major foreign cities.
The headquarters of the Commercial Service shall provide such managerial, administrative, research, and other services as the Secretary considers necessary to carry out the purposes of the Commercial Service.
The Secretary shall establish district offices of the Commercial Service in any United States city in a region in which the Secretary determines that there is a need for Federal Government export assistance.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary is authorized to designate up to 16 United States missions abroad at which the senior Commercial Service Officer will be able to use the diplomatic title of Minister-Counselor. The Secretary of State shall accord the diplomatic title of Minister-Counselor to the senior Commercial Service Officer assigned to a United States mission so designated.
In any United States consulate in which a vacancy occurs in the position of Consul General, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary, shall consider filling that vacancy with a Commercial Service Officer if the primary functions of the consulate are of a commercial nature and if there are significant business opportunities for United States exporters in the region in which the consulate is located.
In order to carry out subsection (b)(7), to lessen the cost of distribution of information produced by the Commercial Service, and to make that information more readily available, the Secretary should establish a system for distributing that information in those areas where no district offices of the Commercial Service are located. Distributors of the information should be State export promotion agencies or private export and trade promotion associations. The distribution system should be consistent with cost recovery objectives of the Department of Commerce.
Not later than 1 year after August 23, 1988, the Secretary shall submit a report to the Congress on the feasibility and desirability, the progress to date, the present status, and the 5-year outlook, of the comprehensive integration of the functions and personnel of the foreign and domestic export promotion operations within the International Trade Administration of the Department of Commerce.