The Obama administration changed its mind about its concerns with several proposed miscellaneous tariff bills that would suspend duties on footwear, said a spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The USTR now says it only has issues with new duty suspensions and not the 15 bills that would extend previous suspensions. A large number of duty suspensions are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
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.
CBP would face nearly $1 billion in budget cuts if budget sequestration occurs Jan. 2, as currently scheduled, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement $478 million. Virtually all government agencies involved, even just peripherally, with trade would face budget cuts of about 8.2 percent, if sequestration occurs, according to government figures. Officials of individual government agencies generally have been unwilling to discuss specifics of how they would be affected by the budget cuts.
The recently leaked Trans-Pacific Partnership provisions do "disappointingly little to protect users' rights," wrote Public Knowledge Director-Global Knowledge Rashmi Rangnath in a blog post. Rangnath criticized the leaked provisions, which provide a glimpse into the ways the U.S. Trade Representative has attempted to negotiate the free trade agreement with eight other countries. Specifically, Rangnath took issue with the provisions' "three-step test," which would determine which unlicensed uses of copyrighted material would be legal. According to the post, "one of the standard iterations of the test" designates exceptions to copyrights as "[1] certain special cases that [2] do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work, performance, or phonogram and [3] do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rights holder." This test on its own leaves too much room for interpretation, Rangnath said: "The controversy over how to interpret the three-step test means that many countries may hesitate to protect users' rights in their copyright laws, out of a fear that the provisions they adopt will be assailed as violating their international obligations. ... Given this environment, provisions in international agreements like the TPP need to spell out in more detail what copyright limitations and exceptions should look like." While Rangnath commended the provisions for "enumerating purposes such as criticism, commentary, news reporting, research, and scholarship," she encouraged USTR to include provisions that would "promote uses of works by people with disabilities," such as translating reading material into Braille, and "promote educational uses of works including by transmission over wired or wireless networks." Concepts like these, Rangnath said, can be found in the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement of 2005, which, she said, "is technically the predecessor to the TPP. ... However, it is unclear whether those provisions will still be valid and applicable if the TPP comes to force." A USTR spokeswoman declined to comment on the leaked provisions. Regarding the release of the official draft, the spokeswoman told us the "full draft of the negotiated TPP text will be made public at the completion of negotiations, so that Congress and the public can have ample time to review and discuss before Congress acts on any legislation to implement the TPP agreement."
"It is time" to bring talks aimed at a World Trade Organization agreement in trade in services "back to Geneva with the ultimate aim of reinforcing and strengthening the rules-based multilateral trading system," a group of WTO member nations, including the U.S., said in a statement.
Saying there may be “needless secrecy and over-classification of documents” relating to the ongoing negotiations over a potential Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP-FTA), more than 130 members of Congress wrote U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk urging him to “engage in broader and deeper consultations with members of the full range of committees of Congress whose jurisdiction touches on the wide-ranging issues involved.” The USTR should also ensure “there is ample opportunity for Congress to have input on critical policies that will have broad ramifications for years to come,” they said.
The International Trade Administration found AD cash deposit rates of zero for 25 companies, and found reduced AD rates for 7 companies (one company’s rate is unchanged1), in the final results of its section 129 recalculations of the antidumping cash deposit rates currently in effect for companies whose merchandise is subject to 8 AD duty orders on certain products originating from the European Union and Japan, pursuant to instructions from the U.S. Trade Representative. The recalculations were done in order to implement the WTO’s findings in three zeroing disputes. The ITA made no change between its preliminary section 129 results and these final results. These AD rates will not be in effect until the ITA receives an implementation letter from USTR.
The next round of talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership will have a somewhat different format for public interest participation, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative confirmed. In the new format, outside parties will not be able to make presentations to negotiators and stakeholders about their views, as part of the talks, but will instead be given space to set up exhibits and booths at which they can communicate with negotiators, the press or others.
In its first step toward implementing the WTO's findings in three zeroing disputes, the International Trade Administration issued the preliminary results of its section 129 proceedings to recalculate, pursuant to the USTR's instructions, the antidumping cash deposit rates currently in effect for certain companies whose merchandise is subject to 8 AD duty orders on certain products originating from the European Union and Japan. The ITA has preliminarily found AD cash deposit rates of zero for 25 companies, and found reduced AD rates for 7 companies (one company’s rate is unchanged1). These preliminary AD cash deposit rates are not in effect.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments by April 6, 2012 on the country/tariff number pairs that could lose their Generalized System of Preferences duty-free treatment in the 2011 Annual Review if they exceed certain statutory thresholds or one or both Competitive Needs Limits (CNLs). Comments are also sought on the possible re-designation of articles currently ineligible for GSP. While 2011 full calendar data is available for all GSP-eligible tariff numbers, USTR has issued four lists that indicate the GSP changes for 156 tariff numbers that may take effect on July 1, 2012.
On October 6, 2011, US. Trade Representative Kirk announced that the U.S. had submitted information to the World Trade Organization identifying nearly 200 subsidy programs that China had failed to notify as required under WTO rules. Information was also submitted on 50 subsidy programs in India not previously notified. The Department of Commerce has now posted these lists of subsidies. U.S. list of counter notifications for China available here. U.S. list of counter notifications for India available here.