U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)

The Obama administration should ensure duties on all tariff lines are reduced in a Trans-Pacific Partnership, said three prominent dairy producers in a Dec. 4 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, while stopping short of calling for comprehensive elimination (here). The administration and a wide range of industry representatives have called for complete tariff elimination in the pact, but as the talks continue to move forward without any critical breakthrough, some analysts have said partial tariff elimination still can benefit the U.S. (see 14060404).

As negotiators with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative meet this week with Trans-Pacific Partnership counterparts in Washington, the agency continues to refuse to disclose the details of the talks with lawmakers, said Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and several Democratic colleagues on a Dec. 8 conference call. “We don’t know why the U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador [Michael] Froman has not been forthcoming,” said DeLauro.

The U.S. and Myanmar struck a deal on Nov. 14 to boost labor rights protections in the Southeast Asian country, the White House and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced. The U.S. will join Japan, Denmark and the International Labor Organization in helping improve Myanmar’s labor regime through a multi-year legislative reform process and capacity building efforts, the Obama administration said. “The labor reform plan developed under this Initiative is intended to serve as a blueprint to prioritize legal changes, coordinate donor assistance, and strengthen government capacity to implement those reforms in close cooperation with civil society representatives,” said the White House in a statement (here). President Barack Obama is currently in Myanmar for talks with regional leaders, and he is set to arrive in Australia for the G20 meeting on Nov. 15. The labor reform plan will be formally drafted in early 2015, said USTR (here).

U.S. and Indian trade negotiators hammered out an unexpected deal to move the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement forward in Geneva, the Obama administration announced on Nov. 13. India torpedoed implementation of the agreement in late July, but the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the two countries struck a deal on Indian agricultural subsidy concerns that proved enough to regain Indian support for the TFA. The meeting of the minds will pave the way for all WTO members to implement the agreement, as well as the entire Bali package, said USTR.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked for comments on telecommunications sections of the World Trade Organization General Agreement on Trade in Services, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, as well as FTAs with Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Korea, Morocco, Oman, Panama, Peru, and Singapore and all mutual recognition agreements that relate to telecommunications equipment (here). Comments are due by Dec. 5, and USTR will “conduct” a review by 2015. USTR prefers comments are submitted via www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2014-0022. U.S. trade law requires USTR to ask for comments on telecommunications agreements. The comments should focus on access to foreign telecommunications markets for U.S. companies.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will lead a U.S. delegation of trade officials to the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum on Nov. 25 in Delhi, the Office of the USTR said in a Nov. 6 statement (here). The two sides will try to hammer out compromises on a long list of bilateral trade issues. The forum has typically focused on hot-button areas, such as intellectual property, investment in manufacturing, agriculture, and services, said USTR. India's veto of the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement in late July has since strained bilateral relations, and the two sides, along with other WTO members, have been unable to chart a path forward. In recent weeks, U.S. industry representatives have called for progress on TFA implementation, intellectual property protections and other policy areas (see 14100624). Froman and Director-General Roberto Azevêdo recently highlighted WTO plans to consider moving forward on the TFA without all WTO members (see 1410310036).

The Obama administration railed against Guatemalan labor rights violations in the agency’s first brief since re-opening a labor dispute under the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Despite agreeing to a bilateral Labor Action Plan that went into force in 2013, Guatemala is still failing to uphold CAFTA-mandated labor protections, namely freedom of association and worker’s conditions, in the shipping, apparel, steel and agriculture sectors, said the 70-page brief released on Nov. 3. The U.S. resumed litigation in the dispute in September (see 14091902). The apparel industry may be eligible for sanctions as a result, said one industry representative before USTR made the decision to reopen the dispute (see 14082701). The labor violations cited in the brief total more than 400. The Guatemalan government’s failure to uphold its laws and CAFTA commitments allowed local manufacturers in the sectors mentioned to produce and sell goods without having to pay the costs involved with compliance, said the briefing. “With respect to the apparel sector … 97 percent of Guatemala’s apparel exports were destined for CAFTA-DR countries, and 94 percent of these came to the United States,” said the briefing, referring to the Dominican Republic, also a partner in the agreement. “Guatemalan imports from other CAFTA-DR countries also compete with the apparel products made by these companies.”

U.S. trade policy continues to lag behind internet-related developments in global trade and the U.S. should cater its trade approach more for services as that sector grows at a quick pace, said the Computer and Communications Industry Association in recent comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (here). USTR asked for comments in mid-August to compile its annual report on foreign trade barriers (see 14081409). "The Internet has been the single biggest component of the cross border trade in services, with many of those services facilitating the international goods trade as well,” the trade group said. “To protect U.S. economic interests, U.S. trade policy needs to prioritize addressing barriers to the Internet and Internet enabled services, given their key role in the U.S. economy and U.S. export growth.” Digital trade is inhibited by global internet infrastructure mandates for local production, filtering and blocking of internet material, poor intellectual property protections, the CCIA said. Customs procedures and small shipment tariffs are also obstacles, said the association. Several lawmakers recently asked the USTR to work to ease cross-border data flows (see 1410270005).

The U.S.-South Korean free trade agreement (KORUS) is steadily boosting bilateral trade flows, and while South Korean agriculture and industrial exports to the U.S. continue to climb, many companies view the agreement in a negative light, said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker in an Oct. 23 speech before the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea (here). Pritzker led a delegation of businesses to the country to strengthen U.S. commercial ties, particularly in the healthcare and energy sectors. Despite the recent gains, incomplete KORUS implementation is hampering the ability of companies to take advantage of its benefits, said Pritzker. “We know that we have only scratched the surface of the potential benefits of KORUS,” she said. “And while we acknowledge key challenges in the implementation of the agreement, we know that the Korean government has worked hard, and effectively, to address ongoing issues. Moving forward, further challenges are sure to arise, and we need to address KORUS implementation issues more quickly and more efficiently in the future.” Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler earlier in 2014 said U.S. trade officials were reaching out to their South Korean counterparts to troubleshoot lingering customs certification issues (see 14031425). The Office of the USTR did not respond for comment .

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will travel to Beijing on Oct. 27 for talks with Chinese officials ahead of two large trade summits before the end of 2015, the Office of the USTR said in a weekly schedule update (here). The Beijing stopover comes as Froman is making his way back to Washington, D.C., following the Trans-Pacific Partnership ministerial in Sydney, Australia from Oct. 25-27. U.S. officials are preparing to attend Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings from Nov. 5-11 in Beijing (here). The summit will host TPP partners, and President Barack Obama has targeted November to finalize a TPP agreement.