Chinese officials committed to adopt an action plan on trade secrets and enforcement that includes greater transparency and more stringent compliance with trade secret measures during the 24th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) in Beijing, China on Dec 19-20 , said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on Dec. 20. The Chinese National Leading Group on Combating IPR Infringement and the Manufacture and Sales of Counterfeit and Substandard Goods pledged the commitment as part of a 2014 Action Plan, said USTR in a statement. Moreover, “the United States and China reaffirm their commitment to foster a better IP protection environment by combating IPR infringement and counterfeit goods, with the result of facilitating the sales of legitimate IP-intensive goods and services,” said USTR. “The United States and China recognize the importance of this issue and will conduct further discussions in 2014, including exchanges of relevant information, on detailed approaches towards this goal.” The two sides also agreed to strive to resume U.S. beef exports to China by July 2014, said USTR.

Janis Lazda, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman, will step down and depart USTR on Dec. 20, said a USTR spokeswoman. The spokeswoman declined to comment further on potential successors. Matt Vogel currently serves as Froman's chief of staff. Lazda is reportedly leaving for a job at Target. Target did not respond for comment.

The U.S. and Libya signed on Dec. 18 a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement that will provide a forum to address trade issues and eliminate barriers to trade, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in a press release. The agreement will address market access and intellectual property rights, among other issues, said USTR. USTR did not respond for comment on the specifics of the deal.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a notice of determination for procurement thresholds in U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and trade promotion agreements (TPAs). The thresholds are as follows for calendar years 2014 and 2015, effective Jan. 1, 2014:

The 2013 U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) will focus on intellectual property right enforcement, market access for goods and services and bilateral trade barrier elimination, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman in a press release. Froman will travel to Beijing, China on Dec. 19-20 to participate in the summit, the release said, along with Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. “America’s farmers and ranchers are extremely productive and they are ready to build on five years of record U.S. agricultural exports,” said Vilsack. “The JCCT provides a meaningful and important venue to work with our Chinese counterparts on critical trade matters that will help open even more markets for U.S. exports, in line with President Obama’s commitment to increase U.S. exports under the National Export Initiative.” U.S. goods exports to China topped $110 billion in 2012, said the release.

The U.S. and European Union launched on Dec. 16 the third round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, the USTR said in a press release. USTR is hosting the negotiating round in Washington D.C. The negotiating round will come to a close on Dec. 20, said USTR.

The U.S. is making progress in expanding the Japanese auto market for U.S. exporters, but negotiators have yet to achieve the access the U.S. requires in a final Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact, said U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman in a Dec. 10 conference call with reporters. “And on other market access issues, there is also further work to be done,” said Froman. Froman previously called for conclusion of TPP negotiations by the end of 2013 (see 13111516). However, TPP ministers and heads of delegation in a Dec. 10 statement conceded that target would not be met (see 13121017).

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will build on existing U.S. trade relations with TPP participant nations that received 45 percent of U.S. goods exports in 2012, said the Business Roundtable in a Dec. 10 statement that praised U.S. Trade Representative efforts to close the deal. U.S. lawmakers must also expeditiously pass Trade Promotion Authority in order to enable the U.S. to continue to pursue pending trade pacts, said the Business Roundtable. “Trade Promotion Authority is an essential partnership between Congress and the Administration to complete trade agreements such as the TPP, TTIP and TISA that benefit the U.S. economy and support American jobs,” said John Engler, President of the Business Roundtable. “We urge Congress and the Administration to work together to act on updated Trade Promotion Authority legislation as soon as possible.”

The ministers and heads of delegation for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) participant nations pledged to reconvene next month after a four day summit in Singapore, said USTR in a Dec. 10 statement (here) that suggests the pact may not be sealed before the end of the year. The Obama Administration has continued to push to close the pact in the coming weeks, but TPP documents leaked on Dec. 8 allegedly depict deep remaining divisions (see 13120924). “We will continue to work with flexibility to finalize these text issues as well as market access issues,” said the statement. The leaked documents, released by WikiLeaks, claim to show the U.S. is applying “great pressure” to convince other nations to agree to its positions, according to WikiLeaks. The documents also describe specific outstanding issues, also known as brackets. The U.S. stance on pharmaceutical patent extensions and data exclusivity are particularly contentious, said Public Citizen Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach on Dec. 9 (see 13120927). Nonetheless, a final TPP agreement will generate an additional $123.5 billion in U.S. exports by 2025, said USTR in a separate release (here). USTR did not respond for comment.

WikiLeaks released more documents that it says come from the ongoing negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, marking the second time the group has released documents related to the negotiations (see 13111323). The "secret TPP documents" show "the state of negotiations as the twelve TPP countries began supposedly final negotiations at a trade ministers’ meeting in Singapore this week," it said. According to WikiLeaks, one of the documents describes work by the U.S. to get other countries to adopt U.S. stances, while the other document lists, "country-by-country, the many areas of disagreement remaining." The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately return a request for comment on the authenticity of the released documents.