President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe failed to reach a compromise in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during an April 24 summit in Tokyo, according to transcripts of a joint press conference. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and lead Japanese negotiator Akira Amari will continue talks through April 25, said Abe.

The Obama administration will make a preliminary determination in June on the reinstatement of Bangladesh into the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said on April 22. Although the Bangladeshi government is making gradual improvement to labor conditions in the country, progress is still insufficient, according to administration officials in February (see 14021125). Bangladesh provides almost $5 billion worth of goods to the U.S. on an annual basis, largely in the apparel sector. Those goods are not eligible in GSP for any beneficiary. Roughly 99 percent of U.S. imports from Bangladesh do not reap GSP benefits (see 13071613). A series of labor disasters in Bangladesh that claimed upwards of 1,000 lives prompted USTR to rescind Bangladesh’s GSP eligibility in July 2013. The GSP program has been expired since July 31, 2013 (see 14032429).

President Barack Obama should focus on finally bridging the U.S.-Japanese market access gaps during his upcoming summit in Tokyo in order to tout success on the Malaysia leg of his Asia tour and press Trade Promotion Authority upon his return to the U.S., said Catherine Mellor, senior Asia director at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in an April 17 post. The U.S. has the opportunity to overcome Japanese agricultural industry resistance to market access concessions for the first time in Japanese trade history, said Mellor. The U.S. and Japan continue to dispute Japanese concessions on rice, beef and pork, wheat, dairy and sugar. The U.S. is reportedly expected to permit Japan to retain tariffs on rice, wheat and likely sugar cane in the TPP, however (see 14041709).

President Barack Obama on April 7 sent to the Senate the nomination of Jane Toshiko Nishida to be an assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of International and Tribal Affairs, where she currently serves as acting assistant administrator. Obama also sent to the Senate the nomination of Sunil Sabharwal to be alternate executive director of the International Monetary Fund for a term of two years.

President Barack Obama signed into law on April 3 H.R. 4152, a bill that provides aid and broadens the scope of sanctions against individuals that are contributing to the destabilization of Ukraine. “This aid package, coupled with sanctions against individuals responsible for violence and human rights violations, sends a clear message about our resolve and assistance for Ukraine,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., in a statement (here).

President Barack Obama authorized on April 3 Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew to sanction people responsible for the destabilization of South Sudan. The order directs authorization for the blocking of property and interests.

President Barack Obama sent to the Senate the nomination of Elliot Kaye as commissioner and chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the White House said in a March 31 statement. Kaye currently serves as Consumer Product Safety Commission executive director, a position he has held since 2013. Obama announced his intent to nominate Kaye on March 27 (see 14032804).

Vice President Joe Biden may be able to play a useful role in advancing an uncertain administration trade agenda, said Daniel Pearson, a Cato Institute trade analyst and former International Trade Commission official, in a March 27 article. Biden launched three decades of pro-trade votes while a member of the Senate, beginning with his support for the Trade Act of 1974, said Pearson. Biden then voted against the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, along with opposing the Peru and Oman agreements, said Pearson. “This background may position Biden to provide helpful outreach to members of Congress who have doubts about the administration’s trade agenda,” said Pearson. “Since he has found himself voting both for and against market-opening initiatives, perhaps he would have credibility in explaining why liberalization is the right choice now.”

President Barack Obama intends to nominate Elliot Kaye as commissioner and chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the White House said in a March 27 statement. Kaye currently serves as Consumer Product Safety Commission executive director, a position he has held since 2013.

The U.S., along with 12 other nations, called for strengthened surveillance over nuclear and radiological material and weapons trafficking through the maritime shipping system during the Nuclear Security Summit at The Hague on March 26. The partner nations will try to maintain effective radiation detection systems and response procedures at their large container seaports, and assist other states that need help to develop such systems and procedures, said the White House. “Installed radiation detection systems have been responsible for the detection of various nuclear and radiological materials out of regulatory control, such as Georgia and Moldova. In several instances, these systems have been involved in the detection of the smuggling of nuclear materials that could be used for a weapon,” said the release. “These cases help to underscore the importance of radiation detection systems at key international checkpoints.”