The Trump administration has fired a number of employees at the International Trade Agency (ITA), a branch of the Department of Commerce, which is supposed to play a key role in enacting President Trump's trade agenda.
The ITA, which aims to promote US industry and overseas exports, cut probation workers later last month as part of a broader push to reduce the federal workforce led by Elon Musk's Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Cut appears to have Trump focused on his second term trade. He has repeatedly complained about the country's trade deficit, just as Trump collects large tariffs on America's closest allies.
“If President Trump really cares about improving the balance of trade, boosting US exports and limiting imports when appropriate, the ITA will play a key role in that,” said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations.
“The strong ITA seems to fit very well into the way Trump has traditionally described his trade agenda goals,” he continued.
ITA probation employees began receiving cancellation notices in late February. Probation employees are federal workers who were employed or promoted last year or two years.
The Trump administration is aiming to be a group of employees that are slightly more likely to attack than other employees as it seeks to cut federal workers and cut government spending.
The Office of the Office of the agency leader in mid-February told them that they would still begin firing staff during their probation period.
ITA employees say they were caught off guard considering the president's trade priorities. Some were working on executive orders and memorandums signed by Trump.
The first American trade policy memo, which he signed on his first day in office, directs some of his Cabinet secretaries, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to “examine the causes of our country's large and sustained annual trade deficit.”
It also seeks reviews of unfair trade practices and policies relating to the Anti-Dumping and Settlement Obligations Act, namely the areas in which ITAs play a role.
“One of the administration's top priorities is to ensure that US companies have US leadership in certain sectors,” a former ITA employee told The Hill.
“These are important things that the administration wants to do,” they continued. “They want to establish leadership in certain industries, and have let go of those people who implement those policies directly, work in those sectors and advocate for the US industry.”
“We weren't implementing things from previous administrations like Day, for example,” they added, pointing to diversity, equity and inclusion programs rather than key targets of the Trump administration.
They received a firing letter while in the office and were given an hour to pack things up before being escorted from the building by security. Another ITA employee, along with colleagues from other agencies and industry members, received a notice of fire for work in Japan.
“Morale hit the bottom of the full rock,” a current ITA employee told the hill. “The way people were fired, that's exactly such a terrible act, and at zero [regard] How long did the person have worked there or how they contributed. ”
They pointed out that staff had not received any communication from Rutnick since he was confirmed in mid-February.
“[It] I wonder how valuable we are. “Our goal is to promote our products and services internationally in the US business, and we are a bit confused considering we think it will perfectly match up with the Trump administration,” they said.
“Reducing all these people actually seems to undermine the administration's goals,” they added.
Trump has long voiced concerns about the US trade deficit and lamented the US importing exports in many countries. The US trade deficit reached a record high of $1.2 trillion in 2024.
“They have to balance their trade, number one,” Trump said of Mexico and Canada in early February. “We have deficits in almost every country. We change almost everything, not every country.”
The US maintains a trade deficit with Mexico, Canada and China. Trump slapped all three countries at tariffs last week.
China was hit by 10% tariffs, in addition to the 10% tariffs announced last month. Canada and Mexico initially faced a total of 25% tariffs before announcing limited exemptions for goods covered by the 2020 North American trade agreement.
The exemption ends in early April, and Trump plans to enact mutual tariffs on other countries with the US import commission.
Despite Trump's concerns, many economists do not view the trade deficit as inherently bad. It notes that it often reflects the strong economy supported by consumer spending and foreign investment.
The trade deficit with top US partners, particularly China, is often seen by economists as a sign of America's purchasing power and strength of demand.
“As long as we are concerned about the trade balance and want more opportunities for US exports, ITA Place plays a very important role there,” Alden said.
However, during the cuts in probation employees and the Trump administration's postponed resignation program, ITA's capabilities are limited, current and former employees said.
The postponed resignation program provided federal workers with eight months of pay and benefits to those who wanted to leave the government amid Trump's return mandate. Approximately 75,000 federal workers received the offer.
“I know there's a huge shortage of teams,” said one former ITA employee. “They will have a hard time making sure they can work as effectively as before because the people who were fired were doing important jobs.
Cuts have resulted in a significant loss of skills, noted Gary Huhhbauer, a non-resident of the Institute of International Economics.
“The problem is that these people and these specific jobs have gained a lot of very specific knowledge about US regulations and laws dealing with trade issues and they can't be easily replaced,” Hufbauer said.
