Department of Commerce Designation of Abraham Katz as Assistant Secretary for International Economic Policy.

The President today announced that he has designated Abraham Katz, of Hollywood, Fla., as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Economic Policy, a new position. Under Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1979, the President may designate someone to fill this position for up to 60 days, pending nomination. and confirmation by the Senate of a permanent appointee. The President intends to nominate Katz for this position.

Katz has been Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Economic Policy and Research and Director of the Bureau of International Economic Policy since 1978.

He was born December 4, 1926, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He received a B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1948, an M.I.A. from Columbia University in 1950, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1968.

Katz joined the Foreign Service in 1950 and was posted at the State Department and in Mexico. He took Russian language training at the Foreign Service Institute and graduate studies in Soviet affairs at Harvard University. From 1957 to 1959, he was Chief of the Foreign Economic Section, Soviet Union and Eastern Europe Division, at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence Research.

From 1959 to 1964, Katz was First Secretary of the U.S. Mission to NATO and European Regional Organizations. From 1964 to 1966, he was Counselor for Economic Affairs at the American Embassy in Moscow. In 1966-67 he was a fellow at Harvard's Center for International Affairs.

From 1967 to 1974, Katz was Director of the Office of OECD, European Communities and Atlantic Political-Economic Affairs at the State Department. From 1974 to 1978, he was Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.