Lynn M. Bragg, Chairman of the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), has announced that Dr. Robert B. Koopman has been appointed Director of the ITC's Office of Economics. Koopman will direct the agency's professional economists, who provide economic analysis for ITC investigations and reports, and support the Commission in its role as adviser to Congress and the President on international trade matters.

Koopman comes to the ITC after 15 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He most recently served as Deputy Administrator for Economic and Community Systems in the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. Prior to that position, he was Deputy Director of the Commercial Agriculture Division of the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). He began his professional career at the ERS as an economist and later served as Leader of the ERS Central and Eastern Europe Section and Chief of the ERS Europe, Africa, and Middle East Branch. During his career at USDA, Koopman earned seven ERS Administrator's Merit Awards, and he received the USDA Secretary's Honor Award in 1993.

Koopman holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Boston College and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern Maine. He lives in Alexandria, VA, with his wife and two children.

The U.S. International Trade Commission is an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency that provides trade expertise to both the legislative and executive branches of government, determines the impact of imports on U.S. industries, and directs actions against certain unfair trade practices, such as patent, trademark, and copyright infringement.