New Zealand plans to host all 11 other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for the signing of the agreement on Feb. 4 in Auckland, New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay confirmed in a Jan. 21 statement (here). After signature, the nations will have up to two years to ratify the pact. A spokeswoman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, offered a cautious response. “It’s the administration’s decision to move forward with a signing ceremony, however a lot of outstanding issues remain,” she said in an email. “Chairman Hatch will continue with his oversight efforts to ensure the TPP trade agreement meets the high standards set by Congress and, if approved, will be fully and faithfully implemented by our trading partners.” Hatch has criticized the agreement’s data protections for biologics as weak (see 1511060028).
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)
The U.S. cabinet level position that oversees trade negotiations with other countries. USTR is part of the Executive Office of the President. It also administers Section 301 tariffs.
As the Trans Pacific Partnership appears to be nearing signature, Hill democrats scrutinized the agreement's auto provisions and how it will affect the U.S. auto industry during a Jan. 11 forum on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers and their panelist guests highlighted that the agreement's rules of origin would require 45 percent regional value content, in contrast with NAFTA, which has a 62.5 percent threshold.
U.S. and South African veterinarians resolved issues over salmonella levels allowed in U.S. poultry exports to the country during a Jan. 6 meeting. The resolution reduces the potential for the end to certain duty-free benefits provided to South African agricultural goods by the U.S. under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). “The risks of being kicked out of AGOA have been resolved,” Sandile Tyini, economic minister in the South African Embassy’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Foreign Economic Office said in an interview on Jan. 7. “The negotiations took place yesterday and then all the remaining issues as proclaimed by the US as issues were resolved mutually between the two sides, and…we verified that we met all the conditions to remain in AGOA.” But no one from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative or the White House has yet officially confirmed to Pretoria that it will remain in good AGOA standing, the official said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is apparently holding off on terminating duty-free benefits provided to South African agricultural goods under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), after a months-long meat trade dispute dragged past President Barack Obama’s Dec. 31 deadline for resolution. South Africa Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said during a Jan. 5 press conference (here) that negotiations between the U.S. and South Africa are still ongoing. U.S. and South African veterinarians are scheduled to meet Jan. 6 over salmonella tolerance for American poultry exports to the country and Davies said he is optimistic the two sides could reach an agreement by Jan. 8.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s mention of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba in its 2015 Notorious Markets Report sent a strong warning to the company to stop and prevent the peddling of counterfeit goods on its websites (see 1512170016), the American Apparel & Footwear Association said on Dec. 17 (here). “The U.S. government sent a strong warning to Alibaba today ─ what it said was, clean up your sites, show us the results, and do it soon,” AAFA CEO Juanita Duggan said in a statement. “USTR told Alibaba to make serious reforms and get rid of the rampant counterfeit problem on its sites ─ AAFA agrees.” AAFA said USTR shares its concerns about Alibaba’s enforcement system, highlighting that the agency said in its report that the mechanism is “too slow, difficult to use, and lacks transparency.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative posted advisory committee reports on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (here). The advisory committees represent a number of different industries and interests, including one focused on customs matters and facilitation (here). While a majority of the committees endorsed the TPP, which still needs Congressional approval, the advisory committee for labor issues said it opposes the trade deal (here).
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is poised to require vast payment mechanisms to account for billions of dollars in slashed U.S. import duties, and Congress, alongside the administration, will soon have to explore their options for finding replacing those funds, said a number of lobbyists close to the debate over recent days. Those lobbyists offered conflicting views on whether funding poses a real challenge to passage of implementation legislation, with some saying customs user fees, which have been used to offset some trade deals in the past, may be difficult to increase further.
A group of House Democrats criticized a recent U.S. Trade Representative report outlining its transparency measures at an Oct. 29 event on Capitol Hill, urging the Office of USTR to immediately release the legal text for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The lawmakers, led by trade critics Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said Congress and the public must be able to verify the Obama administration’s pitch on TPP. USTR Michael Froman pledged to disclose the text by mid-November (see 1510130021).
U.S. and European Union negotiations proposed new offers on customs and trade facilitation provisions for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership over recent days during high-level talks in Miami, said the two officials tasked with leading those negotiations on an Oct. 23 conference call. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Dan Mullaney and EU Trade Directorate General Ignacio Garcia Bercero didn’t elaborate on the terms of the offers, and USTR staffers didn’t respond for further comment.
The South African government allowed an Oct. 15 poultry reform deadline to lapse without implementing agreed-upon measures to allow U.S. exports to the South African market, said Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Chris Coons, D-Del., in an Oct. 19 statement (here). Those two lawmakers have led the charge over recent months to slash antidumping duties on U.S. exports and remove sanitation barriers (see 1509140023).