President George H.W. Bush announced his intent to nominate Carla Hills as United States Trade Representative.
On August 11, 1989, President George H.W. Bush announced his intent to nominate Carla Anderson Hills to serve as the United States Trade Representative (USTR), a Cabinet-rank position responsible for developing and leading American international trade policy and negotiations.
By this point in her career, Hills had already made history as the first woman to lead HUD and had built a formidable reputation as a corporate attorney specializing in antitrust and international law at the firm Latham & Watkins. Her nomination reflected the Bush administration's recognition of her deep legal expertise and negotiating skill, qualities that would prove essential in the demanding trade landscape of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
This announcement set in motion the confirmation process that would culminate in her swearing-in later that year, positioning her to lead the United States through some of the most consequential trade negotiations in modern history, including the early stages of what would become the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
The announcement is documented in presidential records and oral history archives, marking a key step in Hills's unprecedented path toward becoming the first woman to hold two different U.S. Cabinet and Cabinet-rank positions.