Office of Trade Negotiations and Analysis
It was my first full opportunity of working for the U.S. government where I experienced inner workings of U.S. trade policymaking. Although, I was only an intern but everybody at the office and at various virtual events at the Commerce Department treated interns with respect and kindness. During my time at the OTNA, I worked in a team with another intern that further improved my teamwork skills. The major project that we both successfully completed was the Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP) and its potential impacts on U.S. businesses. I analyzed New Zealand and Philippines tariff reductions at different stages. This is where I also improved my Excel skills. On the right, you can see the PPT presentation of our final results on RCEP.
Other significant project we worked on was the Digital Services Tax 301 Public Comments monitoring where I had the greatest impact on U.S. policymaking since the comments from private businesses and unions that we included in our Excel spreadsheet would go directly to senior economist for a check and then finally to the USTR's office which will consider whether to implement retaliatory measures on a particular country.