President Barack Obama expanded the membership limit for the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa from 15 to 26 private sector officials (here). The president's executive order cited a high number of U.S. government activities promoting commerce between the U.S. and Africa, broad private sector engagement in sub-Saharan Africa, and a “range of issues on which future advice might be requested” as reasons for the increase. Obama mandated creation of the advisory council in 2014 (see 14080601).

President Barack Obama on July 29 signed a biotech labeling bill into law, according to a White House announcement (here), that will supersede state mandatory biotech labeling regulations, including one that took effect in Vermont July 1, and will require companies to disclose the presence of genetically modified ingredients in food via printed text, a symbol or digital link, including a digitally scannable “QR” code. The House passed the bill, sending it to the White House, on July 14 (see 1607140058).

President Barack Obama “absolutely believes” Trans-Pacific Partnership implementation legislation “should pass this year,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said July 29 during a press briefing (here). Schultz was responding to a question about whether the White House will push for a vote on any TPP activation bill during the upcoming “lame-duck” session of Congress. The White House is pushing for the vote despite the sour political and public environment surrounding free trade and the TPP, and despite Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s opposition to the deal in its current form, Schultz said. “The president is acutely aware of the politics around this,” Schultz said. “But that’s not going to stop him from getting this done.” The House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees didn’t comment. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., during a luncheon in Milwaukee last week said he doesn’t believe a vote on TPP implementation legislation will happen this year, adding that he doesn’t support the pact because the Obama administration “screwed up negotiating it,” according to a transcript of the luncheon provided by his office. Ryan continued: “I’ve spoken to the President about this; I’ve spoken to the [U.S. Trade Representative] about this. They know what [congressional Republicans] think are the problems in this agreement and they’ve got to go fix it, but I don’t see that happening. I don’t know if they’re going to get that done, so I don’t see the votes there for it.”

After chants of “no TPP” swelled through the arena during the speech by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia the evening of July 25, delegates approved a party platform (here) that identifies a need for fair, labor-protecting trade deals but stops short of aligning with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s stated opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “Over the past three decades, America has signed too many trade deals that have not lived up to the hype,” the Democratic platform says. “Trade deals often boosted the profits of large corporations, while at the same time failing to protect workers’ rights, labor standards, the environment, and public health. We need to end the race to the bottom and develop trade policies that support jobs in America.” The vast majority of the platform’s trade section contains the same language as its draft (see 1607110038). For example, like the draft, it doesn’t outright condemn the presence of investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in trade agreements, yet says that democratic decision-making “must not” be undermined through “special interests” and “private courts for corporations” in trade deals, whose negotiations should be “transparent and inclusive.”

The White House on July 25 countered Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s threat to withdraw the U.S. from the World Trade Organization if the WTO goes against his plans to raise tariffs on exports from companies that moved their U.S. operations overseas. In response to a question about Trump's discussion of the WTO, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest touted the enforcement mechanisms the WTO provides, highlighting a case the U.S. filed earlier this month against Chinese duties on several raw materials exports (see 1607190039) and added that leaving the WTO could jeopardize global supply chain relationships (here). For example, that could inhibit U.S. companies’ ability to import integral auto parts and support autoworkers, he said. The issue came up on the July 24 episode of Meet the Press (here) when host Chuck Todd suggested to guest Trump that some of his planned tariff increases would be shot down at the WTO. “It doesn't matter,” Trump responded. “Then we're going to renegotiate or we're going to pull out. These trade deals are a disaster, Chuck. World Trade Organization is a disaster.”

President Barack Obama continued to defend the Trans-Pacific Partnership on July 22 amid opposition from both the Republican and the Democratic presidential tickets, saying it is more feasible to steer globalization more fairly through TPP than to “build a wall” around technological advances, an increasingly integrated global supply chain and changes in transportation (here). Obama spoke at a joint press conference alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during his recent visit to Washington. Pena Nieto also championed the pact, saying it strengthens NAFTA and opens up a “highly promising” economic platform for economic development and resultant benefits for all 12 member nations. “There are dangers that globalization increased inequality. There are dangers that because capital is mobile and workers are not, if we are not providing them sufficient protection, they can be left behind in this process,” Obama said. “That’s what we have to focus on, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership is consistent with that.” Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate, is reportedly expected to publicly announce his opposition “soon,” The Washington Post reported (here).

President Barack Obama on July 22 issued an executive order directing the Treasury Department on how to coordinate interagency recommendations for the White House in cases that involve foreign currency manipulation or reduce significant trade surpluses with the U.S., as determined through Treasury investigations (here). Customs reauthorization legislation signed into law earlier this year required Treasury to issue reports on the exchange rate practices of any major trading partner that has a significant bilateral trade surplus with the U.S., a material current account surplus and has repeatedly intervened in currency markets (see 1602240071). The legislation also requires the president to offset countries’ failures to adopt adequate policies to reverse currency manipulation and external surpluses within one year (see 1605020035). According to the executive order, if the Treasury secretary finds that a country hasn’t adopted policies to “correct the undervaluation and surpluses” pursuant to the customs law, the assistant to the president for economic policy, in consultation with the Treasury secretary, the U.S. Trade Representative, the secretary of State, and the Commerce secretary will advise the president on available courses of action or on whether the president should waive the requirement to take remedial action. The order also authorizes State, Treasury, Commerce and the Office of the USTR to delegate outlined functions.

During Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s visit to the White House on July 22, he and President Barack Obama agreed to implement the bilateral Air Transport Agreement, which will create more opportunities for cargo airlines to fly across the border, the White House said (here). The countries are also considering an expansion of the ongoing pre-inspection pilots (see 1601130018) for good bound to other U.S. airports, it said. Both countries will continue work to improve the pilots at the Laredo (Texas) International Airport and Mexican customs facilities at Mesa de Otay, Baja California, and will launch a previously planned pilot in San Jeronimo, Mexico, by spring 2017, the White House said. Additionally, the governments each plan to publish reference guides to highlight options to finance ports of entry on both sides of the border. “Together, these efforts will help inform and improve our border infrastructure processes,” the White House said. Today, July 22, Mexico is publishing a “cluster map,” which will identify clusters of interconnected firms and allow stakeholders to find trade opportunities, among other things, the fact sheet says. Pena Nieto, Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June pledged that their governments would post cluster maps online (see 1606300015).

No “significant trade agreements” should be “rushed” or considered in lame duck congresses, the Republican Party said in its presidential platform, released July 18 (here). Some believe lame duck consideration of a Trans-Pacific Partnership to be the trade pact's best chance for approval (see 1607130040). The platform does not specifically mention TPP or NAFTA, both of which presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has criticized. A GOP House Ways and Means Committee spokeswoman said committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, “believes that the substance and support for the agreement will drive the timing of the vote.” When free trade agreements don’t adequately protect U.S. interests or sovereignty, or when violated without penalty, “they must be rejected,” but “carefully negotiated” deals that are negotiated with “friendly democracies" boost U.S. export-based jobs. The Senate Finance Committee didn’t comment.

Vice President Joe Biden this week highlighted the Obama administration’s trade enforcement record, framing the U.S.’s filing against Chinese export taxes on raw materials at the World Trade Organization (see 1607130012) this week as a move to protect U.S. manufacturing and reverse harmful effects of globalization. “Not all effects of globalization are good, but what Americans have always done is they’ve always bent reality to benefit Americans and American workers,” he said during a July 13 speech at the Port of San Diego (here). He said the U.S. will continue to pursue cases against steel subsidization and dumping, including by China, adding that the administration has assessed $1.2 billion in duties on products from 40 countries believed to trade unfairly, and that it has won all 12 cases it has filed against China at the WTO.