Global Trade Exchange

Described as a ready-to-buy, commercially available database,[4] the GTX was rush-funded by Congress as part of and championed relentlessly by then-United States Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in evident disregard of objections of confused and frustrated U.S. private sector trade groups.

[5][6] After a year-long spate of official support, media hype, and after award of Congressional funding of $13 million, the GTX was put "on hold for further study by the [U.S.] Navy" on April 2, 2008.,[7] for reasons still yet to-be explained.

Congress noted the GTX description as a COTS tool and placed it into the July 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations budget bill; this done above the vociferous objections of the U.S. private sector.

GTX was championed by former State Department official Jon D. Glassman[10] most famous for having drafted the White Paper on El Salvador and for serving as Chargé des Affairs in the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan during CIA operations to support the Mujahadeen.

[29] The topic was presented by Mr. Sam Banks, Executive Vice President of Sandler and Travis Trade Advisory Services, the firm which won the no-bid award for the GTX in January 2008.

[30] Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg is a customs law and international trade consultancy firm known for management of the IBERC database used under the GATT textiles agreement, the Multifibre arrangement (MFA).

Clues to the premise of the project can be found in the GTX statement of work,[34] provided in the 2008 request for quote,[23] released to a small select group of companies, in December 2008.