The U.S. faces a critical opportunity in the coming days to determine how best to boost trade with Africa as the Obama administration prepares to host 50 African heads of state for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit from Aug. 4-6, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman in remarks before the Brookings Institution on July 29. The House and Senate will also host hearings on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) on July 29 and July 30 (see 14072537). Froman said the administration is collaborating with Congress to renew AGOA and the expired Generalized System of Preferences. AGOA, which entered into force in 2000, is due to expire at the end of fiscal year 2015 and many beneficiaries of the program are pushing for early renewal in order to preserve existing supply chains. “Since 2000, U.S. goods exports to sub-Saharan Africa increased fourfold, from $6 billion to $24 billion,” said Froman. “Last year, U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa supported nearly 120,000 jobs here in the United States. Given that Africa is home to the world’s fastest-growing middle class and six out of the top 10 fastest-growing economies in 2014, it’s easy to see why global companies like GE, Caterpillar, and Procter & Gamble increasingly view engaging with Africa not as a choice, but as a necessity.”

The U.S. is poised to build on record food and agricultural exports in fiscal year (FY) 2013 through Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, along with non-tariff barrier fights at the World Trade Organization, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman in a July 24 speech at the White House Rural Opportunity Investment Conference. Agricultural exports reached $148.4 billion in FY13 (see 14040318). The U.S. is registering more export growth to developing markets than developed markets, said Froman. “They want more protein; they want a more diverse diet,” he said. “They want to make sure their food is safe and nutritious. All of that points to greater demand for U.S. agricultural products -- not just commodities, but also specialty foods, organic foods and processed products.”

Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Wendy Cutler will deliver remarks on July 23 to the Atlantic Council on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region, the Office of the USTR said in its weekly schedule. USTR chief Michael Froman will then meet on July 24 with the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee at the Department of Agriculture, alongside Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Froman will wrap up the week with a meeting in Washington, D.C. with ambassadors from Southeast Asian nations, said the release.

Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Wendy Cutler concluded on July 18 three days of Trans-Pacific Partnership auto trade negotiations without announcing any significant breakthroughs in the talks. The two sides made “steady progress” in the talks but gaps remain, said USTR. Through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Obama administration is aiming to liberalize the historically closed Japanese auto market by dismantling a number of non-tariff barriers, but the U.S. and Japan don't see eye to eye on a number of areas (see 14050123). USTR did not announce any date for auto talks to resume.

The U.S. and Japan will continue to negotiate in the coming weeks on agricultural market access in the Trans-Pacific Partnership following two days of talks between Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Wendy Cutler and senior Japanese trade negotiator Hiroshi Oe in Washington, D.C. The next summit is scheduled for Aug. 4-5 in Washington, D.C., said the Office of the USTR in a statement. The statement said the two officials made progress in narrowing negotiating gaps, but did not announce any significant breakthrough. The Obama administration has publicly called for comprehensive elimination of agriculture tariffs in the agreement, but many analysts and lawmakers argue that's unlikely (see 14060404). Japanese officials are still protesting tariff elimination on more than 500 tariff lines, according to the most recent public updates.

U.S. negotiators will participate in the sixth round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations from July 14-18 in Brussels, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in its weekly schedule. Meanwhile, USTR Michael Froman will participate in a July 14 roundtable on the African Growth and Opportunity Act hosted by the Global Leadership Coalition.

Dozens of U.S. and European health and environmental advocacy organizations railed against Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) provisions on chemicals regulation, while rejecting any agreement that includes such language, in a July 10 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and European Commissioner on Trade Karel De Gucht. Claiming the pact would allow the U.S. to undermine current regulations in favor of chemical industry interests, the organizations vowed to oppose agreement chapters on regulatory cooperation, investment, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and all sectoral annexes that relate to chemical regulation.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) should continue to insist on comprehensive tariff elimination in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the immediate elimination of tariffs on as many industrial products as possible, said nearly 20 U.S. industry associations, including the National Association of Manufacturers, in a letter July 11 to USTR chief Michael Froman. The U.S. should not permit “product exclusions or carve outs,” said the letter, while emphasizing Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam are the most critical partners in the agreement for the U.S. because the U.S. does not currently hold trade agreements with those countries. “We urge the immediate elimination of tariffs in TPP partner countries on U.S. manufactured exports, including in particular, automobiles and motor vehicle parts; chemicals; agricultural, construction, electrical, and mining equipment and machinery; leather products; plastics and polymers; remanufactured goods; steel, copper and aluminum products; paper and wood products and distilled spirits,” said the letter. All TPP countries should also join the World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement as part of their TPP commitments, said the letter. The U.S. is currently pressing China to concede more tariff lines as part of an Information Technology Agreement expansion (see 14070911). Among the TPP participants, Brunei, Chile and Mexico are not party to the agreement (here).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and its Our Fair Deal coalition (here) partners released two letters to Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators highlighting how the TPP could strengthen the position of copyright holders, said Jeremy Malcolm, senior global policy analyst, and Maira Sutton, global policy analyst, in an EFF blog post (here) July 9. The letters address TPP's "copyright term extension proposals" (here) and its "intermediary liability proposals" (here), they said. On liability proposals, "countries around the Pacific rim are being pressured to agree to proposed text for the TPP that would require them to adopt a facsimile" of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, said the blog post. "Industry lobbyists are pushing for an even stricter regime, dubbed 'notice and staydown,' that would make it harder than ever before for users and innovators to safely publish creative, transformational content online," it said. Concerning copyright term extensions, the TPP would extend the "rash 20 year extension of the term of copyright protection" to "all other TPP negotiating countries," it said. "This would be a senseless assault on the public domain and on those libraries, authors, educators, users and others who depend upon it," it said.

Obama administration officials have in recent days coerced African countries into withdrawing opposition to implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement by leveraging the pending renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), said Peterson Institute of International Economics Senior Fellow Gary Hufbauer in an interview July 9 at an event sponsored by Peterson and the World Economic Forum. Many African countries over recent weeks have expressed concerns over the availability of financial assistance necessary for implementation of the pact, set to enter into force later this month (see 14070322).