President Barack Obama expressed confidence that Congress will ultimately dismantle the Cuban trade embargo in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 28. The embargo “should not be in place anymore,” said Obama. “Change won’t come overnight to Cuba, but I’m confident that openness, not coercion, will support the reforms and better the life the Cuban people deserve, just as I believe that Cuba will find its success,” he said. The Obama administration recently unveiled new measures to ease trade and financial ties with Cuba.
The U.S. should take advantage of a series of meetings with Indian officials to pressure the country to break down its barriers to foreign investment, said the Alliance for Fair Trade with India in a Sept. 22 letter (here) to President Barack Obama. The letter urged Obama to tackle Indian investment barriers during his tentatively-planned Sept. 28 meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “India must begin to put in place policies that provide legal and regulatory certainty for U.S. companies seeking to invest in the market,” said the letter. “Imposing barriers like forced localization measures, excessively high tariffs, and unnecessary regulations discourage globally competitive U.S. industries from participating fully in India's economy, which would enable these sectors to spur domestic growth.” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman met with the Indian Commerce Minister in recent days (see 1509210011). Lawmakers spelled out a range of problematic Indian trade barriers to Obama administration officials in the lead-up to U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue on Sept. 22 in Washington (see 1509240029).
The top trade officials from Trans-Pacific Partnership countries will likely meet "sometime in the next several weeks" to hammer out the final outstanding issues in the pact, President Barack Obama told an audience at the Business Roundtable on Sept. 16. A conclusion to the talks could come by the end of the year, Obama said. "They have the opportunity to close the deal. Most chapters have been completed at this point," he said. The 12 negotiating partners failed to lock down a deal in Maui at the end of July, but advocates touted significant progress (see 1508100011).
President Barack Obama reiterated his commitment to close Trans-Pacific Partnership talks on a Sept. 16 call with newly-minted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turbull, the White House said. Members of the Australian Liberal Party elected parliamentarian Turnbull on Sept. 14 to take over as the Australian prime minister, in a move that puts Tony Abbott, a staunch TPP proponent, out of office. The election could pave the way for a sweeping cabinet reshuffle, said Australian media (here). Trade Minister Andrew Robb has been a central figure in the drive to close TPP negotiations (see 1503180062). Turnbull recently touted the merits of free trade agreements and called for China's inclusion in TPP (here).
The White House directed the Treasury Department on Sept. 11 to extend the Cuban Assets Control Regulations for another year (here). Those regulations (here), which fall within the controls outlined in the Trading with the Enemy Act, cover nearly all dealings with Cuba. The Obama administration has taken a number of steps to normalize ties with the country over the past several months, but administration officials emphasize the vast majority of bilateral trade is still prohibited (see 1509100020). The authority to administer sanctions on Cuba expired on Sept. 14, the White House said.
The White House is asking for industry comments to help craft the next iteration of its Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement (here). The plan, which is administered by the Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, aims to put in place the mechanisms to combat fraudulent goods and other intellectual property infringement, while also assisting other countries in cracking down on illegal operations, the White House said in a Sept. 1 Federal Register notice. Through the plan, the U.S. aims to prioritize U.S. resources for "countries where programs can be carried out most effectively with the greatest impact on reducing the number of infringing products imported into the United States, while also protecting the intellectual property rights of U.S. rights holders and the interests of U.S. persons otherwise harmed by infringements in other countries," said the notice. Following two previous three-year versions, this plan will last from 2016-19. The notice requests “input and recommendations” on the broad effort to crack down on IP infringement, including through legislation, presidential action and regulatory changes, “as well as ideas for improving any of the existing voluntary private-sector initiatives and for establishing new voluntary private-sector initiatives.”
The U.S. and Japan are committed to concluding Trans-Pacific Partnership talks "as soon as possible," the White House said in a statement following an Aug. 25 call between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Obama and Abe covered a wide range of bilateral issues, the statement said. The top Japanese TPP negotiator recently criticized U.S. efforts to close the pact after the Maui ministerial in late July (see 1508120021).
Foreign export credit agencies, such as those in China, the UK and Canada, are ramping up activities after the U.S. Congress allowed the Export-Import Bank to expire in late June, said John Murphy, senior vice president for international policy at the Chamber of Commerce, in an Aug. 24 blog (here). “We live in a world where official export credit agencies are major players in international commerce,” he said. “And that isn't changing: Governments are doubling down on their ECAs.” The White House also urged action on Ex-Im. Congress needs to “take the long-overdue step of reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank…in a timely fashion,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Aug. 24. U.S. business associations, the White House and many Capitol Hill lawmakes have railed against the lapse in Ex-Im authorization (see 1507280017). Lawmakers return to Washington the second week of September.
The Chinese government has “increasingly pursued policies” to obstruct U.S. industry access to the Chinese information and communications technology (ICT) sector over the past nine months, said 19 of the highest profile U.S. business and trade groups in a recent letter to President Barack Obama (here). Those groups, which include the Consumer Electronics Association, the Semiconductor Industry Association and others, urged Obama to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping to ease those barriers during a bilateral September summit in Washington. Chinese national security policy, as well as other motivations, have led to “a new program to acquire or indigenize U.S. semiconductor technology,” “new restrictions on cross-border data flows” and several other restrictive measures, said the Aug. 11 letter. “The United States and China should reaffirm their commitment to open markets, particularly in the ICT sector, recognizing the significant benefits that both countries enjoy from integration into global ICT industry value chains,” the groups said, while calling for other ways to strengthen cooperation among the two countries. The letter said China adopted the restrictive measures since Jinping's last visit to Washington in November 2014.
President Barack Obama signed into law on July 31 the three-month stopgap measure for the Department of Transportation’s surface infrastructure funding. The legislation, HR-3236 (here), extends funding through Oct. 29 and transfers $8.1 billion from the Treasury General Fund to the Highway Trust Fund. Obama praised congressional passage of the stopgap before signing the bill, but urged lawmakers to rally behind a long-term solution to highway funding. “We operate as if we’re hand-to-mouth three months at a time, which freezes a lot of construction, which makes people uncertain, which leads to businesses not being willing to hire because they don’t have any long-term certainty,” said Obama (here). “It’s a bad way for the U.S. government to do business.”