Obama Administration to Strengthen Ag Intellectual Property Through Trade Pacts, Says USTR Nominee
The Obama administration aims to incorporate strong intellectual property rights for agriculture products in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, including increased trademark enforcement for U.S. brands, geographical indicator limitations and biotechnology and nanotechnology patent protection, said Darci Vetter during May 8 testimony before the Senate Finance Committee. Vetter is nominated to be chief agriculture negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The committee also reviewed the nomination of Stefan Selig for undersecretary of Commerce for international trade during the hearing.
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The U.S. agriculture industry is benefiting from increased market access globally through free trade agreements, but certain non-tariff barriers, such as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers, are increasingly common, said Vetter. “We’re looking at strengthened SPS in the TPP … stronger than what we’ve included in past agreements,” said Vetter, currently deputy undersecretary at the Department of Agriculture. “We’ve very clear at the outset of the TTIP negotiations with Europe that we would be seeking a strong SPS chapter and a real negotiation on their regulatory system. Islam Siddiqui previously held the chief agriculture negotiator title.
Several committee lawmakers pressed Vetter to insist on additional Japanese agricultural market access concessions in a TPP agreement. The U.S. and Japan are continuing to negotiate rice, beef and pork, wheat, dairy and sugar, despite Obama administration claims of a recent breakthrough in bilateral talks (see 14042428). The administration is pushing to eliminate both Japanese tariffs and Canadian tariffs on dairy and poultry through TPP. “Our negotiations with Japan are, I think, picking up the pace. We’ve made good progress with them and Japan has committed that it will not exclude any product from the negotiations,” said Vetter. “In our negotiations on market access with all of our TPP partners, and there are a few where we don’t yet have market access or free trade agreements, we are seeking as our goal tariff elimination on all goods, including those in agriculture. Our goal at the moment is to go line by line with those countries.”
If confirmed, Vetter will face “daunting” challenges looming over the U.S. agriculture trade agenda, said Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “The United States is party to 17 free trade agreements and only 33 tariff lines have ever been excluded from tariff reduction. That’s 33 lines total across all 17 free trade agreements. Japan is seeking more than 500 in a single agreement,” said Hatch. “If Japan is allowed to exclude products from liberalization, other TPP countries will soon follow, resulting in an even weaker agreement.” Nearly 100 agriculture organizations expressed support for Vetter's nomination in January (see 14011315).
As undersecretary at Commerce, Selig vowed to press strong enforcement of trade remedy laws to clamp down on unfair trade practice. Both nominees also expressed staunch support for Trade Promotion Authority as a means to secure pending trade agreements. “The U.S. would be at a significant disadvantage without TPA,” said Selig. The undersecretary of Commerce for international trade heads the International Trade Administration. -- Brian Dabbs