Teams of American and European negotiators are working to examine a wide range of possibilities to boost U.S.-EU trade, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a speech May 22 to the London School of Economics. He said they include: eliminating conventional barriers to trade in goods, such as tariffs and tariff-rate quotas; reducing barriers to trade in services, and to transatlantic investment; promoting regulatory approaches that facilitate trade; reducing, eliminating, or preventing in the first place behind-the-border barriers to trade in all categories; and developing rules and principles on other global issues that are of common concern. "We have agreed to be both ambitious and realistic as we establish our negotiating parameters and goals," Kirk said.

There was better-than-expected progress on the latest round of talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The 12th-round meeting of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam concluded May 16 in Dallas. Negotiators said the round further narrowed differences in the text and the teams can now see a clear path forward toward conclusion of most of the more than 20 chapters of the agreement, the USTR office said, as a handful of TPP negotiating groups continue to meet in Texas for the remainder of the week.

Bradford Ward has been appointed Director of the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC) by the U.S. Trade Representative. ITEC is expected to be fully operational, with 50 to 60 staff, by the end of next year, said Commerce Secretary Bryson in remarks to the Steel Manufacturers Association Conference on May 15. Additionally, Bryson appointed Constance Hadley as Deputy Director of ITEC.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments on India's April 24 request for consultations with the U.S. under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization on countervailing measures for hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India, it said in a Federal Register notice scheduled for publication May 4.

The office of U.S. Trade Representative released its annual 2012 Special 301 review process based on compliance with intellectual property rights, and IPR enforcement in 77 trading partners. The Special 301 Report provides a means for the United States to promote the protection and enforcement of IPR. For companies on the list, the U.S. Government could initiate dispute settlement proceedings at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or other trade bodies, or eliminate tariff preferences.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative provided notice of the country-by-country allocations of the additional Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for imported raw cane sugar and of the country-by-country reallocations of the FY 2012 in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quota for imported raw cane sugar; both are effective April 26, 2012.