U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)

U.S. and Taiwanese officials will continue to ramp up efforts to lift bilateral data localization requirements and revise multi-pack labeling requirements, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in a press release. The officials concluded on April 4 a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council meeting. The U.S. parties to the talks included State, Agriculture, Commerce, and Treasury Departments, as well as the Copyright Office and the Food and Drug Administration. The officials also pledged cooperation at multilateral forums, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). “The two sides updated each other on regional and multilateral initiatives,” said the release. “They highlighted their close cooperation on various initiatives in APEC, their work towards the prompt conclusion of a balanced and commercially significant expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) at the WTO, achieving entry into force and full implementation of the WTO trade facilitation agreement, and efforts to advance the Trade in Services Agreement negotiations.”

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) outlined on April 4 the non-tariff barriers U.S. telecommunications service and equipment suppliers companies face when exporting goods and services. According to a release, USTR will target its efforts to address the following trade barriers:

The U.S. export of fresh potatoes to Mexico should resume by May, following a recent Mexican government decision to formally permit the trade, said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. A rule published in the Mexican government Diario Oficial on March 19 (here) enables U.S. potato exports to continue, in accordance with a U.S.-Mexican Market Access Agreement struck in 2003, said Simpson. The Mexican final rule runs “parallel” with a recent Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) rule to authorize U.S. import of Mexican potatoes, said potato industry advocates. The APHIS rule will take effect on April 25 (see 14032513).

A World Trade Organization (WTO) settlement panel found Chinese export restraints on two rare earth metals, tungsten and molybdenum, violate WTO agreements, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman announced on March 26. The panel ruled in favor of the U.S. in the dispute, the Office of the USTR said in a press release. The WTO website has not yet published the ruling. U.S. companies import the rare earth metals to use as inputs for hybrid car batteries, wind turbines, energy-efficient lighting, steel, advanced electronics, automobiles, petroleum and chemicals, USTR said.

The U.S. would likely have sealed a final Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact by now if Japan and Canada were willing to make sufficient concessions on agriculture market access, said U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman at the Atlantic Annual Economy Summit on March 18. Japan continues to refuse tariff elimination on rice, meat, wheat, dairy and sugar, while Canada is reluctant to concede dairy and poultry, according to USTR and independent observers (see 14022504). Japanese intransigence has emerged as a contentious issue in recent weeks (see 14021902).

The U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement (FTA) is boosting U.S. agriculture exports, such as dairy, wine, beer, soybean oil, fruits and nuts, while improving South Korean intellectual property rights protections, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in a statement released days shy of the two year anniversary of the trade pact. Despite slow poor economic growth in South Korea, the U.S. is also exporting an increasing number of manufacturing products to South Korea, such as autos, said USTR.

President Barack Obama urged World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo to ensure the WTO remains a forum to address enforcement of trade rights and the dismantling of unfair tariff and non-tariff barriers during a bilateral meeting in Washington D.C. on March 10, according to a senior administration official. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman later in the day pressed Azevedo to implement by 2015 the WTO trade facilitation deal brokered in Bali in December, according to a USTR spokesman.

U.S. negotiators continue to prioritize the elimination of tariffs on textiles and apparel and wide-ranging agricultural products in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) as the U.S. delegation convenes with European Union (EU) counterparts for the fourth round of TTIP negotiations currently underway in Brussels, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a March 11 release. But the summit will largely focus on rules of origin, intellectual property, labor, regulatory sectors and services, said USTR in a previous statement (here).

The Obama administration continues to negotiate Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agricultural access for Japanese and Canadian markets, but administration trade officials have made “great progress” in eliminating Vietnamese and Malaysia agricultural tariffs that range from 20-50 percent, said U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a joint radio broadcast disseminated to rural stations throughout the country on March 7. The TPP agreement can help build on Fiscal Year 2013 record exports for U.S. agriculture (here), said Vilsack, according to a USTR release.

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman is scheduled to meet with World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Roberto Azevedo, and later Vietnamese Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung, in closed sessions on March 10, the Office of the USTR said in a weekly schedule release. US Ambassador to the WTO Michael Punke will meet with European Commission Director General for Trade Jean-Luc Demarty in a closed session in Brussels on March 10, as well. Acting Deputy USTR Wendy Cutler will also participate in two days of confidential meetings with Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Hiroshi Oe regarding TPP market access issues, along with other USTR events planned for this week.