White House Helped Boost Trie Onto Asia Trade Panel Donations: Clinton friend won new spot with a padded resume.
Subject of fund-raising inquiry now in China.
By GLENN F. BUNTING, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — A glimpse at the background of Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie reveals that the Taiwanese immigrant worked at his Chinese restaurant in Little Rock, Ark., before opening a small consulting office in Beijing in late 1992 when his friend of 13 years, Bill Clinton, was elected president. But his resume became much grander after a major make-over by the Clinton administration's Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. In papers prepared by the agency, Trie became an authority on international trade relations and a key player in building economic bridges between the United States and Asia. Trie possesses "special expertise" and "substantial knowledge and/or experience" on U.S. barriers to Asia markets, one USTR document declared. His participation on a White House advisory panel on trade with Pacific nations was proclaimed "essential to the United States."