The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) presented lists of outdoor performance apparel and footwear products that should receive both tariff protections and eliminations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Senior Director for Government Affairs Alex Boian said on Oct. 17. The OIA submitted the list to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Commerce on Sept. 25, and to the Vietnamese government the following day, said Boian. The association also publicized their activities in an Oct. 17 statement to the public (here) .
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.
Most federal employees furloughed by the shutdown returned to work Oct. 17, after President Barack Obama signed a bill in the early morning hours to fund the federal government. The Office of Personnel Management said employees are expected to return to work, although it also told agencies to be flexible. Agency websites and databases were restored throughout the morning of Oct. 17. Some websites were slow to come back up on the morning after work resumed -- the Foreign-Trade Zones Board website still redirects to a message about the shutdown as of press time, for example. But most websites, including the International Trade Commission’s online Harmonized Tariff Schedule, are back online. Many agencies anticipate delays as they work through backlogs that accumulated during the shutdown.
The U.S. Trade Representative's Oct. 8 decision to let the International Trade Commission's import ban stand was not surprising, despite a recent USTR veto of an Apple product import ban (see 13080515), said aid Benjamin Levi, a McKool Smith attorney who has argued patent cases before federal courts and the ITC. The patents at issue in the Samsung import ban were not standard-essential patents (SEPs) -- the main factor in the USTR's decision to veto the Apple import ban in August, he said. There remains "some uncertainty" over the full extent to which USTR's veto of the Apple import ban will become a precedent in other cases involving SEPs, Levi said. "But I would doubt that the USTR would routinely veto exclusion orders based" on SEPs, he said.
The U.S. stance on Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) tobacco market access provisions violates the World Trade Organization (WTO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and threatens the global effort to reduce tobacco use, said Executive Director of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Georges Benjamin in an Oct. 2 letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman. The U.S. should endorse the Malaysian proposal put forth in August for a tobacco carve-out in the TPP framework, said Benjamin.
Those involved in international trade were reporting relatively few impacts of the government shutdown, in its second day, but expressing concerns about the longer term. Most industry officials told us traffic continues moving through ports and airports.
The trade industry was still assessing the short- and long-term effects of the government shutdown Oct. 1. CBP had already said its core functions would not be immediately affected (see 13093028). And the U.S. National Airspace System was operating normally Oct. 1, with no reports of any impact to operations due to the government shutdown, said The International Air Cargo Association.
A bipartisan group of 60 Senators sent a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman Sept. 23 to encourage U.S. implementation of robust currency manipulation disciplines in future free trade agreements (FTAs). The Senators endorsed the U.S. push to conclude Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations but emphasized the impact currency manipulation has on U.S. employment (see 13091014).
The Department of Agriculture (USDA)-issued country of origin labeling (COOL) regime on foreign meat products and livestock is set to face critical legal tests both domestically and internationally in the coming days and weeks. Canada will likely seek to establish a WTO compliance panel over the most recent COOL iteration, issued by the USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service on May 23, when the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) reconvenes Sept. 25, said industry officials and lawyers. On Aug. 30, the U.S. rejected a Canadian request to establish another compliance panel in the dispute (here). Industry officials and lawyers said WTO procedure permits a party to reject on only one occasion.
The U.S. and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will continue to implement the ASEAN-US Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement (TIFA) and Expanded Economic Engagement (E3) programs, according to a statement (here) released on Aug. 21 by United States Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman and ASEAN economic ministers following a summit in Brunei. The statement said total merchandise trade between the U.S. ASEAN registered at $200.2 billion in 2012, noting the U.S. maintains its position as ASEAN’s fourth largest trade partner. Froman also met with Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma to discuss bilateral trade and investment between the U.S. and India, according to a separate press release (here).
As U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman lands in Brunei on Aug. 20 to meet high-level ministers on the sidelines of the 19th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, the Obama Administration continues to wage a battle over “yarn forward” rule of origin for apparel that some industry players argue jeopardize U.S. market access efforts elsewhere in bilateral negotiations with Vietnam. The USTR is targeting the end of 2013 for conclusion of negotiations among all the 12 nations engaged in talks, including the recent entry of Japan.