International trade is not a difficult concept to understand, especially when it comes to the fact that this helps the prosperity of the nation. That is a key area for the Department of Commerce, which is done through the International Trade Administration. The ITA, it seems, does not do the job it was created for, the exact opposite in fact. Even worse, the backlog is at ten years. On top of all of that, the agency has been proven to be playing favorites with whom they help. Audit Findings Here, via the Commerce OIG report , is the scale of how bad the ITA has become. “Although past and current administrations have prioritized opening foreign markets and reducing trade barriers, our review of ITA’s management of trade barrier cases found that ITA is not adequately addressing the needs of U.S. companies. Specifically, ITA does not strategically manage cases to achieve the Administration’s and the Department’s strategic goals. We found that case contributors manage their cas...