USTR-Nominee Responds to Numerous Questions from Senate Finance Committee
As part of his confirmation process, U.S. Trade Representative-nominee Ron Kirk submitted responses to numerous Senate Finance Committee questions for the record.
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Some of the issues addressed in 129 pages of Committee questions and Kirk answers include (partial list):
North American Free Trade Agreement
Enforcement of trade agreements
Senate trade enforcement bill (to be introduced)
Beef hormone ban retaliation list
Misclassification of imports
Consumer product safety
Pending free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea
U.S.-Mexico cross-border trucking pilot
Buy America provisions
USTR's relationship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Treasury Department
Footwear tariffs
China issues including copyright piracy, accession to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, use of national standards, currency valuation, labor practices, and the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade
Trade preference programs such as Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act (HOPE I and II), Andean Trade Preferences Act/Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPA/ATPDEA), and Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI)
World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round negotiations
Role of the USTR Special Textile Negotiator
Climate change
U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement
Special 301, intellectual property rights protection
Anticounterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement negotiations
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Bilateral Investment Treaties
Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) trade barriers
Foreign barriers to U.S. agricultural exports (beef, pork, rice, potatoes, avocados)
U.S. trade policy with Cuba
Development of dairy import regulations
European Union issues such as biotechnology policy, banana import regime
Trade Promotion Authority
Zeroing in antidumping investigations
Differential export taxes
Entry barriers to the Indian market
Increasing benefits provided to least developed countries
World Customs Organization and WTO Committee on Customs Valuation
WTO dispute on the Byrd Amendment
Labor and environmental standards in future trade agreements
Adequacy of resources for USTR General Counsel
WTO dispute on China's "Famous Brands" programs
WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Reconstruction Opportunity Zones bill for Afghanistan and Pakistan
U.S.-Israel FTA and Qualifying Industrial Zone program
Enforcement of the WTO Accession Agreement with China
WTO Information Technology Agreement
Trade Adjustment Assistance
National Trade Estimate Report for Foreign Trade Barriers
For many of the above issues, USTR-nominee Kirk provided few details on how he would address the issues, and instead generally acknowledged the issue, and pledged to work with the Committee on the issue.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 03/11/09 news, 09031105, for BP summary of USTR-nominee Kirk's confirmation hearing by the Senate Finance Committee. See ITT's Online Archives or 03/13/09 news, 09031399 1, for BP summary on the Senate Finance Committee's order of Kirk's nomination favorably reported.)
Kirk's responses to Senate Finance Committee questions (129 pp) available at http://www.finance.senate.gov/hearings/testimony/2009test/031109QFRs%20for%20SubmissionRK.pdf