USCIB Urges Quick Completion of TPP Talks in 2015 Trade Agenda
The U.S. Council for International Business is pushing the Obama administration to wrap up Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations by the end of June, the USCIB said in its 2015 trade agenda, released to International Trade Today. The group, which submitted its agenda to Obama (see 1501160015), also called on the lawmakers to rally together around Trade Promotion Authority, but the agenda doesn’t explicitly call for the bill’s passage. Trade supporters on and off Capitol Hill often say Congress needs to first secure TPA before taking up TPP implementation legislation (see 1501130015).
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Renewal legislation for the African Growth and Opportunity Act is also a priority over the course of 2015, said the agenda. That preference program is set to expire at the end of September. Supporters have called on Congress to modify and renew the program many months before its expiration, and now some are scrambling to move AGOA renewal by any means possible (see 1501080021).
The World Trade Organization also should forge ahead with the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the Environmental Goods Agreement, the USCIB said. While EGA negotiations are still in the early stages, the WTO is set to implement the TFA after two-thirds of WTO partners ratify it (see 1411280027). The USCIB said the U.S. should try to hammer out progress in the U.S.-China Bilateral Investment Treaty, and the administration also needs to keep working to open global markets through a long range of efforts, such as intellectual property rights protections and supply chain transparency.