U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue urged all Western Hemisphere countries to ratify the Trade Facilitation Agreement by the end of 2015, in line with the timeframe target put forth by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “The agreement advances reforms that would streamline the passage of goods across borders by cutting red tape and bureaucracy in ways that could boost the world economy by as much as $1 trillion,” said Donohue on April 8 at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City (here). “Every nation in this hemisphere who signed that agreement should ratify it this year, implement it in a commercially meaningful way, and ensure that the private sector has a seat at the table during the entire process.” USTR is pressuring ratification by the end of 2015 for two-thirds of World Trade Organization membership, the threshold required to implement the agreement (see 1502240001). President Barack Obama will attend the summit on April 10-11, and his delegation intends to encourage TFA ratification, administration officials said recently (see 1504070072). Donohue also voiced support for Trade Promotion Authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership in his remarks.
The basic principles of U.S. investment agreements, including related proposals in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, represent the “hallmarks of a society that is governed by law,” said dozens of law professors from U.S. and Canadian universities in an April 7 letter (here). The professors rejected the argument that investor-state dispute settlement allows companies to sue governments over lost profits, and emphasized such mechanisms help ensure fair treatment for foreign investors.
Ongoing and pervasive labor rights violations in Colombia illustrate the weak U.S. approach to labor rules in free trade agreements, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in an April 7 statement (here). More than 100 union activists have been killed since the U.S.-Colombia FTA entered into force in 2012, but the two sides signed the Labor Action Plan addendum the year before, said Trumka, citing statistics provide by the Colombian National Union School (ENS). "The latest report issued by the ENS demonstrates that there has been virtually no progress over the past year in compliance with the LAP," said Trumka. "As the US government negotiates broad trade agreements with Europe and the Pacific Rim, it must look back at the LAP’s continued failure in protecting workers’ rights in Colombia, and not commit the same mistakes." The AFL-CIO has consistently opposed Trade Promotion Authority, and often criticized Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.
Given that there are “several important free trade agreements currently under negotiation,” Congress should “swiftly re-enact” Trade Promotion Authority legislation, said Semiconductor Industry Association President John Neuffer in an SIA report (here). Global sales of semiconductors reached $27.8 billion for February, a 6.7 percent increase from February 2014 but a sequential 2.7 percent decline from January this year, reflecting seasonal trends, it said. Regionally, February sales in the Americas increased 17.1 percent from last February to lead all regional markets, the SIA said.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership provides an opportunity to "maintain U.S. jobs and boost stagnant wages," despite warnings from critics that TPP will harm the U.S. economy, said The Oregonian in an April 2 editorial (here). The trade pact would stimulate U.S. growth by opening up export markets, said The Oregonian. Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., hasn't yet reached a public agreement with committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Trade Promotion Authority, widely seen as critical to TPP implementation (see 1503310017). "Trade benefits all areas of the state, from athletic apparel and semiconductor companies in the Portland area to wheat farmers in Eastern Oregon to berry growers and wine producers in the Willamette Valley and Southern Oregon," said the editorial. "Oregonians should cheer Wyden as he helps negotiate for increased trade transparency. But they also should expect him and the rest of Congress ultimately to reach a deal on both trade promotion authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership." TPP involves the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim countries, including Japan, the globe's third largest economy. U.S. industry is also eyeing Vietnamese inclusion in the pact as a boon to apparel importers (see 14081105).
The International Trade Commission should remove outdated HTS provisions for textiles and apparel that became obsolete with the expiration of the U.S. absolute quota regime, said the U.S. Fashion Industry Association in a letter dated March 31 (here). Statistical breakouts in chapters 50, 53, 61 and 62 that cover textiles and apparel “subject to” cotton, man-made fiber or wool restraints no longer serve any purpose, and dealing with them is a “confusing and now totally unnecessary requirement,” said USFIA.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration denied a bonding exemption request from the Association of Independent Property Brokers and Agents, the agency said March 31 (here). The trade group asked the FMCSA to exclude "all property brokers and freight forwarders" from new $75,000 bonding requirements in 2013 (see 13122421). The new bonding requirements were part of the implementation of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). The trade group in 2013 also filed a lawsuit against the provision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which stayed the case until the FMCSA ruled on the request, the agency said. The AIPBA also filed a separate suit earlier this year with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, said the FMCSA.
The Federal Trade Commission is changing Energy Guide Labels for televisions to update the “range of comparability” of the highest and lowest energy consumption or efficiency for comparable models. The agency’s final rule (here) takes effect July 15.
Trans-Pacific Partnership talks are "doomed" if Congress fails to lock down Trade Promotion Authority, and a TPP collapse would be a "grave mistake" for both economic and security reasons, said a Bloomberg View March 22 editorial (here). "The fate of the most ambitious trade agreement ever attempted is in doubt," said the editorial. "The main harm, if the talks fall apart, is the damage this would cause to the larger process of global economic integration."
U.S. trade policy has “badly burned” American workers and the U.S. needs to make sweeping changes to its existing free trade agreement paradigm, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a March 18 speech to the Peterson Institute of International Economics. Trumka rejected both Trade Promotion Authority, also known as fast-track, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and said the American public shouldn’t allow secrecy in trade negotiations. “Every single thing in our trade deals should be openly discussed and subject to public oversight and the full legislative process,” said Trumka, according to an transcript. “There should be no question about that. Fast track is wrong and undemocratic, it’s a rotten process, and the American labor movement intends to kill it.” Trumka criticized the lack of currency rules and enforceable labor provisions in TPP talks.