The U.S. Trade Representative is seeking proposals on accelerating tariff eliminations and modifications to the rules of origin under the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, said a Federal Register notice to be published March 12. The U.S. and Colombia have not decided whether to actually accelerate tariff elimination or change origin rules, the notice said. Any change will consider the effect on transaction and manufacturing costs; the feasibility of devising, implementing and monitoring new rules of origin; and the interest of stakeholders in the U.S. and Colombia for making such changes, the notice said. The U.S.-Colombia TPA requires each government to provide preferential tariff treatment to goods that meet the agreement’s rules of origin -- which can be amended by the countries -- the notice said. Proposals are due May 13 and should indicate whether it has been discussed with industry representatives in Colombia, and those opinions of those representatives. Comments can be submitted to www.regulations.gov.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk liberalized the designation of existing Qualifiying Industrial Zones in Egypt March 3, making all production facilities in the zones potentially eligible to export goods duty-free to the U.S. The six QIZs are Greater Cairo, Alexandria, the Suez Canal, the Central Delta, the Beni Suief and the Al Minya zones, a USTR press release said. The move will "increase opportunities for trade, investment and production" in those areas, the USTR said. Congress authorized the President to designate QIZs in 1996. The zones allow Egypt or Jordan to export products to the U.S. duty-free, as long as these products contain inputs from Israel, it said.

An “unprecedented” emphasis on enforcement and building private sector relationships has allowed the USTR to expand its reach, USTR General Counsel Timothy Reif said in a Feb. 28 talk at Georgetown Law Center. Reif, the keynote speaker at Georgetown’s 2013 International Trade Update, also discussed the looming threat of sequestration, which he said could force USTR to reduce both its staff and its capability to engage with trade partners -- including less funding to resolve legal disputes. Sequestration would add a “significant hurdle” as the agency prepares for major trade negotiations, Reif said. “It’s a big issue for us.”

A major software and digital content trade association is urging the USTR to lower trade barriers in digital services and maintain strong IP protections. The Software and Information Industry Association filed comments on USTR negotiations for an International Services Agreement with an initial group of 20 trading partners on Feb. 26, according to a SIIA press release. It said the association wants the USTR to establish two principals in the service agreement: governments should not prevent cross-border information flows, and governments should not require ICT service suppliers to use local infrastructure, or establish a local presence, as a condition of supplying services. Read the original Federal Register notice about the proposed agreement here. For a copy of SIIA's comments, email ittnews@warren-news.com.

Governments need to move away from blunt mechanisms like the “Great Firewall of China” as they consider how to regulate the international flow of data and other aspects of e-commerce, said Jonathan McHale, deputy assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)-Telecom and Electronic Commerce Policy, during a Brookings Institution event Feb. 26. The Internet’s reputation for being “notoriously resistant” to borders has made it difficult for governments to impose anything other than such blunt mechanisms, but they are “a very inefficient way of being able to participate in what’s obviously an enormously innovative and economically important sector,” he said. “We have to rethink what are reasonable rules that will allow governments to have an impact on what happens to data, despite the fact that they don’t have jurisdiction over necessarily where the data is located or where the servers are.” The worst thing that could happen is a repeat of the “Balkanized” telecommunications network that resulted from governments nationalizing their portions of the global telegraph network for strategic reasons, McHale said.

The Office of U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments on Argentina's creation of a WTO dispute settlement panel over U.S. restrictions on importing fresh beef from Argentina, a Feb. 22 Federal Register notice said. Argentina launched a WTO dispute over U.S. import restrictions in August 2012 (see ITT's Online Archives 12083117). The WTO formed a panel to decide the dispute in January (see ITT's Online Archives 13013032).

Correction: The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) asked the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to elevate Costa Rica to the Priority Watch List in the Special 301 process; IIPA also asked the USTR to keep Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, and Russia on the Priority Watch List (see ITT's Online Archives 13022126).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative scheduled a March 28 hearing on Generalized System of Preferences country practice reviews of labor practices and intellectual property rights in six countries, including Bangladesh, Georgia, Niger, the Philippines, Russia, and Uzbekistan. USTR also said it decided to close its country practice review on intellectual property rights in Lebanon based on the country’s progress on the issue, and deferred a deferred a decision on accepting a GSP country practice petition on Russia on expropriation.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments by March 14 on the Jan. 10 U.S. request for World Trade Organization consultations with the government of Indonesia about measures Indonesia imposed on the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, it said in a Federal Register notice scheduled for Feb. 19. The request is at www.wto.org, document WT/DS455/1. (See ITT's Online Archives 13011114).

The U.S. is “very disappointed” with Russia's decision to suspend, as of Feb. 11, all imports of U.S. meat, which is produced to the highest safety standards in the world, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday. They accused Russia of disregarding the “extensive and expert scientific studies” conducted by the international food safety standards body Codex Alimentarius Commission, which they said has consistently shown that animal feed containing the additive ractopamine is completely safe for livestock and the humans that consume their meat. Despite repeated U.S. requests to discuss the safety of ractopamine, Russia has “refused to engage in any constructive dialogue” and instead has simply barred the meats from import, they said. They urged Russia to reopen market access immediately and to abide by its WTO obligations.