THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

               PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES RICHARD W. FISHER 
            AS DEPUTY U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE (WASHINGTON) 
                     WITH THE RANK OF AMBASSADOR 
             AT THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

The President today announced the recess appointment of Richard W. Fisher to be Deputy United States Trade Representative (Washington) with the rank of Ambassador. Mr. Fisher was nominated on October 9, 1997. Currently, his nomination is pending before the Senate.

Richard W. Fisher, of Dallas, Texas, is a managing partner with Fisher Capital Management and Fisher Ewing Partners. He is Principal Investor and Chairman of FS3 and is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School. He held several positions during the Carter Administration, including Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Treasury, assistant to President Carter at the Tokyo Economic Summit in 1979, advisor to the Bonn Economic Summit in 1978, and a member of the team that negotiated the historic Claims and Asset Settlement between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China. Currently, Mr. Fisher is Chairman of the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, Director of the United States Russia Investment Fund and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1994, Mr. Fisher was the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate from his home state of Texas. He graduated with honors from Harvard University in Economics in 1971, and received an M.B.A. from Stanford University in 1975.

The Deputy United States Trade Representative (Washington) is responsible for conducting trade negotiations and assisting the United States Trade Representative in developing and implementing international trade policy. In his new post, Mr. Fisher will negotiate with the nine industry sectors for market opening and tariff reductions which were identified by ministers and leaders in Vancouver at the APEC meeting. This must be completed by June 1998.

-30-30-30-