U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)

The U.S. is claiming that China’s antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of U.S. broiler chickens violate World Trade Organization rules, and plans to file an associated challenge through the multilateral body, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said (here). “These duties, which act as high taxes on American poultry exports to China, have remained despite a WTO report that previously found China to be breaching its WTO obligations,” the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement. “Now, the United States is challenging these taxes on behalf of American poultry producers and the hundreds of thousands of people employed in the poultry industry.” This is the 12th WTO case the Obama administration has brought against China, said the statement.

Composed of officials from both countries, the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement Joint Committee met on May 3 to review implementation of the deal, as well as efforts to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (here). Pertaining to the bilateral deal, the two sides discussed functionality related to specific goods, services, and investment issues, and ways to promote expansion of trade and investment between the two countries, USTR said.

While Obama administration officials have acknowledged House Republicans’ concerns with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, some GOP lawmakers are frustrated with the lack of “solid” executive branch proposals to resolve their hang-ups about the deal, Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., said in an interview with International Trade Today on April 18. He and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, are discussing whether to hold a hearing on TPP, in part, as an attempt to underscore members’ concerns and to get more substantive answers to them, Reichert said. “But sometimes…hearings can do just the opposite,” Reichert said. “It’s been a consideration, but there’s been no decision.”

The U.S. and European are “accelerating” negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, as U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom have met several times in the past few weeks to that end, according to a USTR official. Froman and Malmstrom have met regularly outside of formal negotiating rounds to advance “some of the more challenging aspects” of negotiations, namely, regulatory issues, the official said. USTR provided the EU with proposed language meant to “inject … transparency and opportunity” in a way that seeks to resolve regulatory divergences, he said. USTR’s overall TTIP goal for the “next few months” is to fill any holes with regard to regulatory practices and cooperation, as well as technical regulations, “reserving the more sensitive areas for end of the year,” the official said. USTR and EU are still working to conclude negotiations of the deal by the end of 2016, he said.

The U.S.-Tunisia Trade and Investment Council held its sixth session on March 22 in Washington to explore ways to boost trade and investment between the two countries, including greater Tunisian use of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said (here). The Tunisian delegation indicated its intent to ratify the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement by the end of the year and its plans to become an observer to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, USTR said. The two parties plan to meet in Tunis in 2017 to assess progress on their bilateral initiatives. Tunisia is a leading exporter of olive oil and dates to the U.S. under GSP, but some of those dates under subheading 0804.10.60 are set to lose GSP eligibility on July 1 absent a presidential waiver (see 1602290031), as competitive needs limitation (CNL) waivers on that subheading were pending as of Feb. 23. USTR didn't comment.

Senior Obama Administration officials pushed the anticipated national security benefits they expect the Trans-Pacific Partnership will provide during a call with reporters on March 29. During the call, retired Lt. Gen. Dan Christman, who now serves as Potomac Research Group’s senior national security analyst and previously served as an assistant for the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the Administration, said that TPP is crucial in barring China from encroaching on U.S. interests and engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. If TPP is not ratified, “it’d be kicking the teeth for our friends and allies who have extended themselves to sign up to the high-standard goals that TPP represents,” Christman said. Failure to seal the U.S. commitment to ratification could also pose strategic and diplomatic setbacks, as fellow TPP members are expecting the U.S. to follow through, he said.

The U.S. and Peru agreed to remove trade barriers for U.S. beef exports to the country that have been in place for the last 13 years, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced (here). While U.S. beef and beef product exports to Peru have spiked since the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) entered into force in 2009, they have at the same time been “hampered” after Peru installed “burdensome certification requirements” in 2003, USTR said. Vilsack and his team secured the agreement, termed the “export verification program,” on his trade and investment mission to the country. Through a bilateral exchange of letters, the U.S. and Peru agreed to changes in certification statements that will allow beef and beef products from all federally inspected U.S. establishments to be eligible for export to Peru. Under the previous requirements, eligibility applied to beef and beef products only from facilities that participated in the Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Marketing Service Export Verification programs.

The U.S. and EU made "significant advances in the regulatory area" last week during the latest round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty in Brussels, as both parties hope to reach "an advanced stage of text consolidation across the board" by July, narrowing negotiations to the most sensitive issues in hopes of concluding negotiations by the end of 2016, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement released Feb. 29 (here). The U.S. and EU progressed in hashing out common objectives they want to achieve in the automobile, pharmaceutical, and medical device sections of the deal, and the U.S. put forth "substantive proposals" on customs and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and rules of origin, USTR said. The office reiterated that it seeks an elimination on all tariffs between the U.S. and EU, despite the two parties agreeing to an elimination of only 97 percent of tariffs during the last TTIP negotiating round in October. "We want to finish this year, but we do not favor an 'early harvest' or a 'T-TIP light,'" USTR said. "We want an ambitious, comprehensive and high standard agreement."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked Peru to verify that a 2015 timber shipment from that country to the U.S. complied with Peruvian laws and regulations, USTR said (here). “Today’s announcement is an important step forward in our shared commitment to combat illegal logging, which threatens our environment and the legitimate businesses that are abiding by the rules,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with Peru as it conducts this verification.” The move drew praise from Congressional Democrats, including Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden, Ore., and House Ways and Means Ranking Member Sandy Levin, Mich.

President Barack Obama intends to sign the comprehensive customs reauthorization legislation passed by the Senate on Feb. 11 (see 1602110018), White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement (here). Despite some concerns with the legislation's mention of Israel, the bill's "passage is an important milestone in our overall trade agenda," Earnest said of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. Among other things, the legislation (here) increases the de minimis level, directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to draft new importer of record regulations, fixes tariffs for recreational performance outerwear, and updates reliquidation procedures.