U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer formally notified Congress on May 18 that the Trump administration intends to start renegotiating NAFTA as early as Aug. 16. In letters (here) to congressional leaders, Lighthizer said the renegotiation will aim to modernize NAFTA provisions on customs procedures, intellectual property rights and other issues. The letters state that “aggressive enforcement” is “vital” to the U.S.’s ability to hold Canada and Mexico accountable for their commitments under the deal, and that the U.S. will work to improve NAFTA enforcement provisions. Lighthizer wrote that the administration intends to conclude negotiations in a “timely and substantive” manner “consistent with U.S. priorities and the negotiating objectives established by the Congress in statute.”

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., reacted favorably to the Department of the Treasury’s progress report on initial actions taken under the bilateral U.S.-China 100-day plan on economic cooperation reached in April (see 1704100008). Among other things, a Treasury fact sheet described pathways that the U.S. would take to open its market to Chinese cooked poultry imports and that China would take to open its market to U.S. beef imports (see 1705120003). Roberts in a statement (here) said ongoing discussions between the two nations could have “tremendous benefits for agriculture.” “Negotiating market access for U.S. beef products into China has been a prolonged effort, and I will remain cautiously optimistic until I see the first shipment of American beef land in China,” Roberts said. “USDA and USTR, along with the Departments of Commerce and Treasury, have made great strides thus far. Having U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer and the newly created Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs on board will bolster those activities. I’m hopeful they’ll get to work on other export markets as well.”

U.S. and Thai trade officials met April 3 in Bangkok under the U.S.-Thailand Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to discuss outstanding issues and trade expansion, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement (here). U.S. officials underscored the Trump administration’s priority on strengthening ties with the Asia-Pacific region, including bilateral initiatives “aimed at promoting economic growth, job creation, and competitiveness,” as well as addressing unfair trade practices. Officials discussed customs, agricultural, intellectual property, labor, financial services and other barriers facing U.S. exports to Thailand, USTR said. The nation is the U.S.’s 21st-largest trading partner, as two-way goods trade totaled $40 billion in 2016.

Guatemala will accelerate tariff elimination on exports of fresh, frozen and chilled chicken leg quarters, after officials from the nations negotiated since February on the matter, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said (here). U.S. poultry exports would have faced a 12.5 percent tariff in Guatemala without the agreement, USTR said. From now through Dec. 31, 2021, Guatemala will allow imports of 1,000 metric tons of processed chicken leg quarters to enter duty-free annually under a tariff-rate quota. The TRQ and all tariffs will be eliminated on Jan. 1, 2022. Chicken leg quarters composed $82 million, or approximately 8 percent, of the U.S.’s more than $1.1 billion in agricultural exports to Guatemala last year, and U.S. poultry exporters had a 98 percent market share of all imports of chicken leg quarters into Guatemala in 2016, USTR said.

U.S. trade officials underscored the Trump administration’s commitment to expanding ties with the Asia-Pacific region during a meeting with Vietnamese officials March 27 and 28 in Hanoi, according to a press release from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (here). Officials from the nations met under the U.S.-Vietnam Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to discuss strengthening trade ties and outstanding trade issues, USTR said. The U.S. urged Vietnam to “promptly address” issues related to customs, agriculture, food safety, industrial goods, illegal wildlife trafficking, intellectual property, digital trade, transparency, and “good governance,” USTR said. Officials from both nations agreed to launch working groups focused on resolving bilateral issues, starting with groups on agricultural, food safety, industrial goods, IP, and digital trade issues, USTR said. Vietnam also updated the U.S. on plans to implement labor reforms.

U.S. trade officials met with Afghan counterparts on March 27 and 28 in Kabul to discuss customs, trade facilitation, government procurement procedures, intellectual property, U.S. assistance for Afghanistan's accession to the World Trade Organization, and other bilateral trade and investment issues, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement (here). The U.S. and Afghanistan also talked about opportunities for Afghanistan's expanded use of the Generalized System of Preferences, the need for full implementation of the 2010 Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement, and the role of women in growing trade. In 2016, the U.S. exported $913 million in goods to Afghanistan and imported $34 million in goods from the country, USTR said.

U.S. and Lao officials on March 22 held the first meeting of their bilateral Joint Trade and Investment Committee under the U.S.-Laos Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in Vientiane, Laos, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement (here). Officials from the countries discussed the importance of quickly addressing key areas including digital trade, illegal logging, agriculture, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, intellectual property, automobiles, wildlife trafficking and labor, USTR said. Officials also reviewed Laos’ implementation of the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement, of the WTO Information Technology Agreement, and of Laos’ WTO accession commitments, the agency said. The two nations also discussed opportunities to advance U.S.-Association of Southeast Asian Nations ties at the U.S.-ASEAN TIFA meeting on March 30. Bilateral trade grew more than fivefold over the past decade to $86 million, with U.S. exports increasing by more than 25 percent in the last year, USTR said.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in a March 22 letter (here) to swiftly report U.S. trade representative nominee Robert Lighthizer out of committee for a Senate floor vote. “Mr. Lighthizer has led a distinguished career as a trade policy practitioner and has a reputation as a staunch advocate for American industry,” Chamber Executive Vice President and Head of International Affairs Myron Brilliant wrote in the letter. “The Chamber believes he will represent the nation’s interests well as he works with international partners and addresses trade challenges at the negotiating table and before the World Trade Organization.” A committee spokesman said the committee hasn’t scheduled a vote on whether to clear Lighthizer, but said the panel would announce it 48 hours in advance.

Global steel overcapacity, agricultural market access and Canadian softwood lumber imports would be top priorities for Robert Lighthizer if the Senate confirms him to serve as U.S. trade representative, a position he expects will continue to lead the executive branch’s execution of trade policy, he said during his Senate confirmation hearing March 14. “I fully expect to have the full statutory authority that the Congress provides,” Lighthizer told the Senate Finance Committee. President Donald Trump named Lighthizer the nominee for the position in January (see 1701030018).

The U.S. awards more procurement to foreign firms than other top-awarding governments party to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) do, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report (here) released March 13. The U.S. opened $837 billion in GPA-covered procurement to foreign firms, while the next five largest GPA parties combined to offer $381 billion in 2010, the most recent year for which data were available, the GAO said. NAFTA parties haven’t engaged in a government procurement data exchange requirement since 2005, the report said. The GAO analyzed WTO and U.S. documents and data related to the GPA and U.S. FTAs, and interviewed Washington and Geneva officials, it said. Among other things, the GAO recommended that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative submit a proposal aiming to improve the procurement reporting by WTO parties to the WTO GPA working group on statistical reporting established by the WTO Committee on Government Procurement, and that USTR restart yearly NAFTA statistical exchanges. USTR didn’t comment.