India’s recent trend towards trade and investment barriers -- disregarding intellectual property rights, barring market access, closing investment sectors -- represent a troubling trend President Obama should address at next week’s U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, 35 members of the House Ways and Means Committee said in a June 20 letter to Obama and other trade-related agency heads. The meeting provides a “timely opportunity to encourage India to pursue market-based policies and reforms instead of erecting barriers that hurt U.S. exporters, investors, and workers, as well as its own citizens,” the letter said (read it here). The Obama administration should focus on reducing tariffs -- India’s are some of the highest in the world -- as well as reducing opaque, discriminatory procedures, the letter said. Such regulations include local content requirements on electronic good procurement, compulsory licenses or revoking of pharmaceutical patents, and “paltry” market access for U.S. agricultural goods, the letter said.
More than 230 companies and business groups from across the U.S. urged lawmakers to renew the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program before its July 31 expiration, saying a lag in the program would mean $2 million a day in new import taxes, in a June 17 letter to Congress. “As you consider the upcoming legislative agenda, we urge you to make the renewal of the GSP program a priority before Congress adjourns for the August work period,” said the letter, spearheaded by the Coalition for GSP and sent to leaders on the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees. (Read the letter here.) If Congress does not renew GSP before the July 31 deadline, tariffs will take effect August 1. On August 2, Congress adjourns for a month-long recess.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., plans to introduce a bill later this year to create an overarching strategic economic dialogue between the U.S. and Brazil, to increase visibility and oversight of the bilateral trade relationship, Nunes said June 12. He spoke at a Subcommittee hearing on trade and investment opportunities in Brazil, where witnesses and lawmakers said the U.S. should work to ease trade flows between the countries to tap into Brazil’s vital, ever-growing market. The country has raised its global profile in recent years, they said, securing the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics; the new World Trade Organization Director General is Brazilian, and the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, will make a state visit this October.
U.S. Trade Representative nominee Mike Froman pledged to secure Trade Promotion Authority, fight unfair trade practices in China and India and focus on intellectual property protection through trade agreements at his June 6 nomination hearing.
The U.S. Trade Representative will send a recommendation on whether to limit or suspend Bangladesh’s Generalized System of Preferences standing by the end of June, a USTR official told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee June 6. The news came during a Committee hearing on labor issues in Bangladesh, during which GSP suspension for the country was portrayed as both necessary -- a chance to seize a watershed moment in Bangladesh’s labor history -- and a serious last resort step that could spark unemployment.
A majority of stakeholders urged caution in possibly extending Generalized System of Preferences benefits to Myanmar (Burma) in comments filed us the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). They said the country’s progress towards good governance, while admirable, is tenuous and remains fraught with concerns over worker’s rights and military power. The USTR posted comments on its review to extend GSP to Myanmar (Burma) and Laos May 22. USTR is holding a public hearing in connection with its review June 4 (see 13041521).
Two House Republicans introduced a Generalized System of Preferences update act May 22, which broadens the trade preference program to include imports of travel goods. The GSP Update for Production Diversification and Trade Enhancement Act was introduced by Reps. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., and Adrian Smith, R-Neb. The bill would remove current prohibitions that prevent most travel goods from being eligible for duty benefits under GSP, according to a statement from the American Apparel and Footwear Association supporting the bill (here). The bill still excludes from GSP eligibility certain types of travel goods still made in the U.S., and requires a complete government review and public comment before the U.S. Trade Representative approves any GSP benefits for travel goods, AAFA said. The bill also prohibits China and Vietnam from participating in GSP.
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International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 13-17 in case they were missed.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 6-10 in case they were missed.