§4906 Establishment of Data Bank

Summary

The Secretary of Commerce must create and run a Data Bank within 2 years after August 23, 1988. The Data Bank will have two parts called the International Economic Data System and the Export Promotion Data System. The International Economic Data System will collect current and historical anonymous economic and trade facts from federal agencies that help policymakers and analysts. It will include import and export numbers (overall, by industry, by product or service, market share, and where exports go), service trade, capital market data (like interest rates and average exchange rates), foreign investment into the United States, international labor facts (wages, unemployment, productivity), foreign trade policies (barriers and export finance rules), State-by-State U.S. trade data by product (with ports and destinations where possible), and other federal economic or trade data the Secretary finds useful. The Export Promotion Data System will gather and share federal information most useful to U.S. exporters and export promoters, keep business secrets private, and distribute data electronically. It will cover specific business opportunities, high-potential foreign industry details (market size, distribution, competition, laws and standards, government contacts, trade groups), country-level business conditions (economy, customs, tariffs, import and licensing rules, intellectual property rules), export financing, barter and countertrade transactions, and other similar useful information.