U.S. and South Korean officials will convene a special session of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement Joint Committee in Seoul on Aug. 22, after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer requested the meeting last month (see 1707130002), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced. Lighthizer and South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong will open the meeting with a videoconference, to be followed by “senior-level discussions.” Lighthizer’s July request noted that the U.S. is looking to “resolve several problems regarding market access in Korea for U.S. exports,” and “most importantly, address our significant trade imbalance.”
The U.S. and Colombia reached an agreement for the South American nation to accept more exports of U.S. paddy rice, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Aug. 17. The agreement lifts “costly and unnecessary fumigation and processing requirements” set in a 2012 deal that enabled U.S. exports of paddy rice to Colombia, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said. The updated agreement also expands access beyond the single Colombian port of Barranquilla. USTR noted Colombia has moved from the 26th to 12th largest importer of U.S. food and agricultural products between 2011 and 2016, after the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement entered into force in 2012, as exports totaled more than $2.4 billion in 2016. U.S. paddy rice exports to Colombia totaled $15 million last year.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the International Trade Administration are seeking comments on the costs and benefits to U.S. industry of U.S. and other countries’ government procurement obligations, the agencies said. The government seeks comments by Sept. 18, regarding how U.S. government procurement obligations under all U.S. free trade agreements and the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement affect U.S. manufacturers’ and suppliers’ access to and participation in the U.S. government procurement process. “In addition, because reciprocal access to trading partners’ markets is an important motivation for including government procurement obligations in U.S. free trade agreements and for the United States’ membership in the GPA, the Department and the USTR are also seeking information about the costs and benefits of these obligations to U.S. manufacturers and suppliers competing in U.S. trading partners’ government procurement markets,” the agencies said.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said a reworked NAFTA should result in updated customs procedures, in a statement as the first round of renegotiations began on Aug. 16. More specifically, the deal would benefit from verified -- not “deemed” -- country-of-origin requirements, labor provisions in the core text that are “as strong as possible,” and dispute settlement provisions that “respect our sovereignty and our democratic processes,” Lighthizer said. He added that the U.S. “cannot ignore the huge trade deficits, the lost manufacturing jobs, the businesses that have closed or moved” because of incentives in the current agreement. Lighthizer said President Donald Trump isn’t interested in merely “tweaking” provisions, and that the administration believes the deal needs “major improvement.” A trade lobbyist said the first round of talks doesn't include industry stakeholders.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking for input as it builds its 2017 Notorious Markets List. The list is an out-of-cycle review based on the annual Special 301 Report. The list identifies “online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting,” the USTR notice said. Those commercial areas include foreign trade zones, USTR said. The 2016 Notorious Markets List, published in December, identified counterfeit marketplaces across the globe (see 1612210072). Comments are due by midnight Oct. 2.
Subsidies and “persistent trade imbalances” in North America will be among the issues addressed during the first round of NAFTA renegotiations set for Aug. 16-20, but the working text will remain classified, an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative official told reporters Aug. 15. “The text itself that will be exchanged among the governments is classified text, so that is not released,” the official said during a briefing that generally summarized the areas USTR plans to cover throughout negotiations. “But we do conduct an extremely transparent and collaborative effort … in developing our objectives, and then consulting with Congress and our stakeholders in this ninety-day period and beyond.” Trade Promotion Authority legislation of 2015 requires a 90-day consultation period between the executive and legislative branches before any administration can start formally negotiating a trade deal.
U.S. and Cambodian officials met Aug. 8 under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to discuss ways to expand trade and investment, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Aug. 9. Trump administration officials updated Cambodia on U.S. trade priorities related to enforcement, lowering the trade deficit and opening new markets, USTR said. The U.S. had a $2.5 billion trade in goods deficit with Cambodia in 2016, and two-way trade totaled $3.2 billion. The U.S. and Cambodia “agreed to work together to address outstanding bilateral trade issues,” including on labor, intellectual property protection, and financial services, USTR said. The two nations agreed to establish working groups on labor, IP, digital and services trade, and trade facilitation, USTR said. They also discussed sanitary/phytosanitary standards and reviewed Cambodia’s implementation of the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement and its participation in the WTO Information Technology Agreement.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer approved African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) tariff benefits for textile and apparel imports from Togo, he announced Aug. 7 during the opening of the 2017 AGOA Forum in Lome, Togo. The letter Lighthizer signed approving the AGOA textile and apparel visa “will permit Togolese entrepreneurs to take advantage of the many textile and apparel benefits available under the AGOA program,” he said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking industry stakeholders to comment on Russia’s implementation of its World Trade Organization commitments. The interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee will also use the stakeholder comments to craft its annual report on Russia’s WTO obligations, USTR said. The agency will also convene a Sept. 28 hearing on the matter. The 2016 report criticized Russia for opaque customs regulations for import valuation, tedious import licensing requirements, and troublesome rules for imports of alcoholic products, among other things (see 1612220050). Russia imposed a ban in 2014 on some U.S. agricultural products after the Obama administration and allies sanctioned Russia over its involvement in the Ukraine conflict (see 14082620). Comments for the 2017 report are due on Sept. 22.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced country-by-country allocations of additional fiscal year 2017 in-quota quantities of the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar. USTR also announced sugar may be entered under the FY17 TRQ until Oct. 31, 2017, one month later than the usual last entry date. These TRQs are effective Aug. 2: