March 15, 2002

U.S. Assistant Secretary Of Commerce Visits Romania

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance William H. Lash, III will visit Bucharest, Romania, on March 18-19, to hold bilateral commercial discussions with the Romanian Ministers of Foreign Affairs; Communications and Information Technology; Finance; and Public Works, Transportation, and Housing. Lash will also meet with State Secretaries from the Ministries of Justice and Interior and he will address the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania. Additionally, Lash will speak before students of the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest.

Lash plans to recognize the Romanian Government's success in moving forward with privatization and economic reforms. He will emphasize the importance of fighting corruption, reducing red-tape, and enforcing intellectual property rights.

Lash hopes to highlight the important steps that must be taken to further improve Romania's business climate.

Lash's visit is a concrete example of the continual cooperation between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Romanian Government. Recent successes include: (1) the February 2002 Seminar on Intellectual Property Rights held in Washington, DC; (2) the Commerce Department's Good Governance Program supporting the development of a Code of Business Conduct in Romania; and (3) the Western Romania Initiative that works to promote greater U.S. commercial involvement in 11 counties of Western Romania.

William H. Lash, III was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance, July 25, 2001. Prior to entering government service, he was Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law, Arlington, Virginia. His areas of teaching and research included international business transactions, international environmental law, regulation of foreign trade, corporate acquisitions and mergers, and corporate finance.

He has served as Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of American Business at Washington University, on the Board of Advisors for the CATO Institute for Trade Policy Studies, and as an Adjunct Fellow at Citizens for a Sound Economy. In addition, he has served on the board of directors of publicly traded and privately held corporations. Lash has been the director of several nonprofit corporations and has served as a Legal Analyst for several television networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX NEWS, FOX, CNN, CNN/FN, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, and ESPN.

NOTE FOR THE PRESS: You are invited to attend Mr. Lash's press conference on Tuesday, March 19, at the American Cultural Center, at 3:30 pm.