The commission is responsible for monitoring and investigating the bilateral trade relationship between the United States and China. Its research is divided into eight main areas: weapons proliferation, economic transfers, energy, American capital markets, regional economic and security impacts, US-China bilateral programs, World Trade Organization compliance, and the implications of restrictions on speech and access to information in China.

 

Reinsch received a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts from the university’s School of Advanced International Studies.

 

He began his career as a teacher in Maryland, before switching to congressional politics in 1973. He was a legislative assistant to Representatives Richard Ottinger (D-New York) and Gilbert Gude (R-Maryland) and acting staff director of the House Environmental Study Conference.

 

For more than a decade, he served on the staff of Senator John Heinz (R-Pennsylvania) as chief legislative assistant, focusing on foreign trade and competitiveness policy issues. During that period, Reinsch provided support for Heinz while he served as chairman or the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on International Finance and as a member of the International Trade Subcommittee of the Finance Committee. This work included five revisions of the Export Administration Act and work on four major trade bills. 

 

Later, Reinsch was a senior legislative assistant to Senator John Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), responsible for the senator’s work on trade, international economic policy, foreign affairs and defense. He also provided staff support for Rockefeller’s efforts on the finance committee as well as the commerce, science, and transportation committees.

 

In 1993, Reinsch served as Under Secretary for Export Administration in the Department of Commerce. As head of the Bureau of Export Administration, later named the Bureau of Industry and Security, he was charged with administering and enforcing the export control policies of the federal government, including its anti-boycott laws. 

 

Today, Reinsch is president of the National Foreign Trade Council, an organization that lobbyies for more than 300 companies on trade policy, export finance, international tax, and human resources issues.

 

In addition to his legislative and private sector work, Reinsch served as an adjunct associate professor at the University of Maryland’s Graduate School of Management and Technology, teaching a course in international trade and trade policy. He has been a member of the boards of the Middle East Institute, the Executive Council on Diplomacy, and KHI Services, Inc., which provides substance abuse programs for young people.

 

Reinsch’s publications include: “Building a New Economic Relationship with Japan,” published with others in Beyond the Beltway: Engaging the Public in U.S. Foreign Policy (1994). “Should Uncle Sam Control U.S. Technology Exports,” published in Insight Magazine (1997); “Encryption Policy Strikes a Balance,” published in the Journal of Commerce (1997); “Export Controls in the Age of Globalization” (1999) and “The Role and Effectiveness of U.S. Export Control Policy in the Age of Globalization” (2000), both published in The Monitor; and

 “Why China Matters to the Health of the U.S. Economy,” published in Economics and National Security (2002).

 

Official Biography (U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission)