1. Introduction: The overseas American community looks forward to the occasion to sit down and meet with senior representatives of the U.S. Government to discuss a full range of issues that make life difficult abroad. These issues are not the result of laws and regulations of foreign countries, but arise because of current laws and regulations of the United States.
 

2. How Is This Done by Other Countries? Some of the most important trading nations of the world have set up formal procedures for regular meetings with representatives of their overseas citizen communities. Some of these countries arrange annual seminars back home and bring representatives of their overseas communities back home at government expense to meet with members of their national legislatures and executives. Some countries have gone farther and allowed their overseas citizens to elect their own members of their national legislatures to represent them on a permanent basis.
 

3. How Is This Done by the United States Today? There is no formal mechanism for regular consultations between overseas Americans and senior government officials in the United States. Even recent efforts, suggested by the Congress, to arrange regular discussions of policy issues at American embassies overseas have not been implemented. Complicating this possibility is the fact that no single individual in any executive department or agency is tasked with the responsibility for overseeing all of the issues that concern the 4 million U.S. citizens living abroad. This lacuna is matched by a similar lack of single focus in any committee of the U.S. Congress.
 

4. What Issues Would be Tabled at Such Meetings? If overseas Americans were invited to participate in a regular program of top level policy meetings, the agenda they would like to address would include the items listed in Table 1 at the end of this paper.
 

5. How Many Such Issues Are There? As the table indicates, there are at least seventeen generic categories of issues that should be addressed. This enumeration is far from complete. While some of these issues are of greater moment than others, redressing these grievances would be a great way to start building a stronger American presence overseas and reducing the trade deficit. All Americans at home and abroad would be the beneficiaries of such a positive new partnership.
 

6. What Should be Done? The Secretary of State should designate a very senior level official from the State Department to serve as the permanent liaison to the overseas American community. The first take of such an official would be to work with the overseas American community to seek an appropriate manner in which to initiate such policy discussions. Many overseas American community organizations would respond positively to such an invitation and would be willing to travel at their own expense to Washington to participate in such a policy dialogue process.
 

ACA
Geneva, Switzerland
30 January 2001