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.
The Guatemalan government is strengthening labor domestic protection through increasing workplace inspectors and passing legislation that ensure police assistance for inspector access and verify employer compliance with labor law, but the reforms remain insufficient, said the Office of the Trade Representative in a March 6 release. The U.S. suspended a labor dispute with Guatemala, initiated through the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement dispute mechanism, after the two countries signed a deal in April 2013 that mandated specific Guatemalan labor protection enforcement. The U.S. may choose to renew the dispute proceeding if U.S. concerns are not sufficiently addressed by April 25, said USTR.
The Obama Administration is prioritizing increases in agriculture and manufacturing exports during the course of 2014, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in the Trade Policy Agenda released on March 4. The USTR will also seek to add protections to intellectual property rights through the World Trade Organization and free trade agreements now being negotiated, the agency said.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations continue to be hampered by gaps between negotiators on a broad set of issues, said a number of industry officials and analysts, despite repeated Obama administration claims that the talks are close to conclusion. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has recently ratcheted up pressure on Japan to deliver more substantial auto and agriculture tariff and non-tariff barrier elimination, indicating the fate of the pact may partially hinge on U.S.-Japanese bilateral agreement (see 14021902). But as the Singapore ministerial round of TPP negotiations concluded on Feb. 25, some say there are unresolved traditional and non-traditional areas of trade that pose obstacles to the heavily-anticipated conclusion of negotiations.
The U.S., along with 13 other nations and the European Union (EU), announced on Jan. 24 an initiative that targets comprehensive elimination of tariffs on environmental "green" goods, according to a joint statement released during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation pledged in 2012 to reduce to 5 percent or less tariffs on 54 environmental products (here). The decision reached at Davos aims to build off that list to reach the broader World Trade Organization (WTO) community, said the joint statement.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting public comment on U.S. antidumping measures on a host of Chinese products. China initiated World Trade Organization consultations in the dispute on Dec. 3, 2013 (here). The products include certain coated paper suitable for high-quality print graphics using sheet-fed presses, certain oil country tubular goods, high pressure steel cylinders, polyethylene terephthalate film, sheet, and strip, aluminum extrusions, frozen and canned warmwater shrimp, certain new pneumatic off--the-road tires, crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, diamond sawblades and parts thereof, multilayered wood flooring, narrow woven ribbons with woven selvedge, polyethylene retail carrier bags, and wooden bedroom furniture.
The conclusion of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations would make the U.S. the international hub of free trade, fueling foreign and domestic investment aimed at boosting U.S. exports, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Jan. 22 at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, held in Washington D.C. A combination of U.S. rule of law, highly-skilled workers, an entrepreneurial culture and affordable, clean energy, as well as the eventual market access acquired through TPP and TTIP, are leading to increased foreign investment and encouraging companies to move production back to the U.S., said Froman.
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) participant nations are far from compromise on environmental rules, particularly on multilateral environmental agreements and a dispute resolution process, WikiLeaks said on Jan. 15 after releasing the confidential TPP environment chapter dated Nov. 24 (here). The consolidated text (here) released by WikiLeaks is said to have been crafted during the TPP summit in Salt Lake City on Nov. 19-24.