The Obama administration should consider taking a “two-by-four” to Congress in order to power through Trade Promotion Authority, said former U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) William Brock at a National Foreign Trade Council event on May 28. The Office of the USTR likely will not float sensitive concessions to trade partners if any “nickel and dime” amendment could alter the agreement and derail implementation. “Our trade negotiators are going to be better at getting a good deal if they have a full deck,” said Brock. “You don’t have a full deck if you don’t have the authority to bring an agreement to Congress [that can be voted on] up or down without amendment.”

The U.S. is concerned that the Ghanaian adoption of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) tariff model will ramp up tariffs on seven World Trade Organization (WTO) tariff categories, said WTO Attaché Neil Beck on May 26 at the WTO Trade Policy Review of Ghana. The country’s accession into the ECOWAS model should instead enable Ghana to lower tariffs, according to Beck.

Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Wendy Cutler will launch two days of talks on May 29 in Washington D.C. with chief Japanese negotiator Hiroshi Oe on Trans-Pacific Partnership agriculture market access, the Office of the USTR said in its weekly schedule. Among other events, Assistant USTR for the Western Hemisphere John Melle and Deputy Assistant USTR for Central America and the Dominican Republic Leslie O’Connor will also travel to Panama on May 28 to attend the first meeting of the U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement Free Trade Commission, USTR said.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled on May 23 the Chinese Ministry of Commerce erred in its assessment of antidumping and countervailing duty rates for U.S. car and sport-utility vehicle imports. The rates violate multiple international agreements, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body decided. According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the rates reached 21.5 percent in 2013 and impacted roughly $5.1 billion worth of U.S. auto exports. “This is the third time that the United States has prevailed in a WTO dispute challenging China’s unjustified use of trade remedies. Each time, a WTO panel of experts has made clear that China had no basis whatsoever for imposing duties on American goods,” said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman in a May 23 press release. “USTR will keep pressing for China to change its trade remedies practices that unfairly restrict U.S. exports.”

The recent cancellation of a partially open to the public Industry Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC) on Small and Minority Business sheds light on the infrequency of ITAC meetings over the past decade, according to infojustice.org, citing the Congressional Research Service (CRS). According to infojustice.org, a blog run the American University Law School, an unspecified congressional office recently requested a compilation of the partially open meetings over that time period. The CRS compilation shows the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has permitted only 13 partially open ITAC meetings since 2004, and the Small and Minority Business ITAC hosted all but one of those meetings, the blog said.

The U.S. and other Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) participant nations failed to close gaps during multilateral negotiations at the two-day ministerial in Singapore, Malaysia, according to a joint statement. The summit concluded on May 20. The ministers are instructing chief negotiators to meet at some point in July, indicating the participant nations do not aim to conclude negotiations prior to that summit.

U.S. and European Union trade officials convened in Arlington, Va. on May 19 for the first of five days of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. The officials are targeting progress on regulatory coherence, intellectual property rights and labor gaps, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Negotiators are set to begin work on May 20 on services and investment, technical barriers to trade, agricultural market access and rules of origin chapters, as well, said USTR.

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman will stay in Singapore until the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ministerial ends on May 20, the Office of the USTR said in a weekly schedule release. Froman and other USTR officials will then host the 5th round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiators from May 19-23 in Arlington, Va.

Asia-Pacific Economic Partnership (APEC) trade ministers directed their respective trade officials to make progress on "single window" systems, Authorized Economic Operator programs and manifest data exchange initiatives, said a May 18 statement . The statement followed the end of an APEC plenary session in Qingdao, China. The ministers also instructed officials to continue work on time release analysis. The U.S. is targeting completion of its single window program by 2016 (see 14051324).

U.S. textile and fabric exports to Colombia have increased by 28 percent to $98 million in the two years since the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Promotion Agreement took effect, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in a May 15 release. U.S. companies also increased processed goods exports by 93 percent to $834 million through the agreement, it said.