U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will host an Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee/Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee meeting on Dec. 8, alongside Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the Office of the USTR said in a weekly schedule update. Later in the day, Froman will discuss Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations with Cecilia Malmstrom in Washington, D.C. Froman will also partake in an administration Export Council meeting on Dec. 11, USTR said. During the week, U.S. negotiators will be meeting informally with Japanese agriculture negotiators, as well, to continue talks on Trans-Pacific Partnership market access, said House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sandy Levin, D-Mich., on Dec. 5.

Trade officials from the United States and India pledged to work toward harmonization of regulations on animal and plant health and food safety issues, according to a joint statement from the Eighth India-U.S. Trade Policy Forum in New Delhi, India on Nov. 25 (here). Co-chaired by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Indian Minister of Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman, talks centered on agricultural issues, harmonization of standards, and intellectual property rights.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman is traveling to India this week for meetings with Indian government and industry officials, according to the Office of the USTR’s weekly schedule update (here). Froman is giving a speech at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Nov. 24. Then, on Nov. 25, Froman will co-chair the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum alongside India's Minister of Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman. No public events are scheduled for the rest of the week.

President Barack Obama has the “most ambitious trade agenda in history,” said Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Robert Holleyman at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global IP Center Summit Nov. 18. The present negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are the centerpieces of that agenda and highlight the central role of IP in trade, he said. Such IP issues include the theft of trade secrets, he said. Current TPP proposals will “ensure” that copyright holders will have “wider and deeper” distribution of their products in partnering countries, Holleyman said. TTIP is in an “earlier stage” of negotiations, he said. That agreement will “build on the common strengths” of European partners to address global IP issues, he said. There’s a “very active dialogue” between the Administration and Congress on how to “expedite” both negotiations, Holleyman said.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will speak at a Foreign Policy Group session on Nov. 17, and later in the day he’ll meet with Daniel Yohannes, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said the Office of the USTR in a weekly schedule update (here). Froman will stay in Washington, D.C. for the first part of the week to meet separately on Nov. 18 with German Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection Heiko Maas and Director General of the International Labor Organization Guy Ryder. The USTR chief will deliver a set of speeches at the Wilson Center and the U.S. Council for International Business on Nov. 19, and then depart for Brussels on the following day. There he will convene with newly appointed commissioners, which could include European Union trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom. The new European Commission, led by Jean-Claude Juncker, took its seat at the beginning of January.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking for applications for Spanish-speaking industry stakeholders to participate on North American Free Trade Agreement panels designed to review antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings and changes to AD/CVD laws (here). The applications are due by Dec. 10, and selectees will serve from April 1, 2015 through March 31, 2016. The binational panels determine whether AD/CVD proceedings comply with the laws of the importing NAFTA country. A panel is able to approve the AD/CVD determination or send the determination back to the domestic authority. NAFTA allows a roster of 75 individuals on such binational panels, and each NAFTA party is allocated 25 seats. USTR prefers applications are submitted via www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2014-0021.

President Barack Obama nominated Marisa Lago to be a deputy U.S. Trade Representative on Nov. 12 (here). Lago is the assistant secretary for international markets and development at the Treasury Department and has worked in several public and private capacities. Miriam Sapiro stepped down from the deputy USTR role in February.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked for comments on telecommunications sections of the World Trade Organization General Agreement on Trade in Services, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, as well as FTAs with Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Morocco, Oman, Panama, Peru, and Singapore and all mutual recognition agreements that relate to telecommunications equipment (here). Comments are due by Dec. 5, and USTR will “conduct” a review by 2015. USTR prefers comments are submitted via www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2014-0022. U.S. trade law requires USTR to ask for comments on telecommunications agreements. The comments should focus on access to foreign telecommunications markets for U.S. companies.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will lead a U.S. delegation of trade officials to the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum on Nov. 25 in Delhi, the Office of the USTR said in a Nov. 6 statement (here). The two sides will try to hammer out compromises on a long list of bilateral trade issues. The forum has typically focused on hot-button areas, such as intellectual property, investment in manufacturing, agriculture, and services, said USTR. India's veto of the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement in late July has since strained bilateral relations, and the two sides, along with other WTO members, have been unable to chart a path forward. In recent weeks, U.S. industry representatives have called for progress on TFA implementation, intellectual property protections and other policy areas (see 14100624). Froman and Director-General Roberto Azevêdo recently highlighted WTO plans to consider moving forward on the TFA without all WTO members (see 1410310036).

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Nov. 7 prodded the Chinese government to put more concessions on the table in Information Technology Agreement expansion negotiations, saying such progress would be a “concrete contribution to strengthening the WTO system at a time when such a boost is needed.” The World Trade Organization is still dealing with the late July collapse of the Trade Facilitation Agreement. While ITA expansion talks have not yielded any real breakthrough over months and years of negotiations, supporters of the agreement are eyeing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which began Nov. 7, as a window for progress (see 1411050010). Speaking at the APEC summit in Beijing, Froman also praised slashed tariffs among APEC members (here).