The Obama administration would like to see Congress renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act third-country fabric provision for “as long as possible,” as part of a quick renewal of the underlying AGOA program, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Feb. 26, during the signing of a U.S. trade pact with the East African Community (here). That bloc includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. AGOA expires on Sept. 30, and the administration has long been tight-lipped about its preferences for changes.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative launched a busy week of wide-ranging trade diplomacy on Feb. 23, as USTR Michael Froman championed the U.S. trade agenda before the National Associations of Counties in Washington, the agency said in its weekly schedule. Deputy USTR Robert Holleyman is scheduled to speak to a Personal Care Products Council meeting on the same day, and Assistant USTR for the World Trade Organization Mark Linscott will address the International Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Council for International Business in Miami.
The American Apparel and Footwear Association pressed U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to make some changes to the U.S. proposal for apparel rules of origin in the Trans-Pacific Partnership in two letters to Froman over recent days. Froman affirmed in testimony before Congress in late January the U.S. still plans to put a yarn forward rule in TPP. That rule says a product must be fully manufactured, including the yarns used, in a specific free trade agreement country in order to qualify for FTA preferences.
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East Dan Mullaney will lead a meeting on the U.S.-Algeria Trade and Investment Framework Agreement in Algiers on Feb. 17, the agency said in its weekly schedule. USTR Michael Froman will tour a May Kay production facility in Dallas on Feb. 17, and then give remarks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. On Feb. 19, Froman will meet with European Union Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan in Washington, and on the same day, USTR chief agriculture negotiator Darci Vetter will speak to a Agriculture Department event. Mullaney will then lead a meeting on the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement in Rabat on Feb. 20.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative championed “groundbreaking and enforceable” proposals in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations on Feb. 11, as the Obama administration unveiled its wide-ranging plan to combat wildlife trafficking on the same day. The U.S. TPP proposals would force countries to implement their obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, said USTR Michael Froman in a statement (here). U.S. TPP negotiators are also working to ensure TPP parties combat all illegal wildlife trade, even wildlife not covered under CITES, said Froman. The USTR is developing information tools to share strategies and efforts involved in combating illegal wildlife trade with TPP parties, Froman added.
The Obama administration is challenging Chinese export subsidies across a wide-range of industries at the World Trade Organization, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and several lawmakers on Feb. 11. The U.S. asked China for WTO consultations over the subsidies, which are being provided to producers and exporters in the textile and shrimp export industries, among others, said lawmakers on Feb. 11 (here). If those talks fail, the U.S. may pursue a dispute settlement panel.
The Obama administration donated $1 million for assistance to developing countries in implementing the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement, the WTO said in recent days (here). The money goes to the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund. The U.S. has so far contributed more than $14 million to the fund since 2001, said the WTO. In the statement, U.S. Ambassador to the WTO Michael Punke praised the facilitation agreement, which is due for implementation after more WTO members ratify it.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is taking a break this week from Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership talks, following heightened focus on both negotiations since the beginning on 2015. USTR Michael Froman will meet with Brazilian trade chief Armando Monteiro on Feb. 12 in Washington, and Deputy USTR Robert Holleyman will speak to a Coalition of Services on the same day. Froman will then speak to the U.S.-China CEO Investment Dialogue in New York City on Feb. 13.
Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam should be added to the U.S. Trade Representative’s “priority watch list” in its annual Special 301 report, the International Intellectual Property Alliance said in a Jan. 6 news release (here). The USTR report reviews IP protections and other market practices in foreign countries, highlighting those nations with the most problematic IP standards. The Association of American Publishers, the Entertainment Software Association, the Independent Television & Film Alliance, MPAA and RIAA are IIPA members (here). Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Switzerland, Taiwan and United Arab Emirates should be added to the 301 report’s general watch list, said IIPA. The USTR should have “special engagement” with Italy and Spain, it said. “No country, including the U.S., is immune from the harms posed by high levels of unfair practices on the Internet,” said RIAA Executive Vice President Neil Turkewitz in a separate release (here). But there are “distinctions to be made between the efforts of different countries, and today’s filing highlights practices in some of the countries that have been least responsive in addressing piracy.”
The Obama administration is aiming to wrap up Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and pass an implementation bill before the end of 2015, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told CNBC in an interview that aired Feb. 5 (here). USTR has failed to meet a series of self-declared deadlines for concluding TPP over recent years. The TPP will create more jobs and raise wages, said Froman, adding that trade fits into the administration’s goal of sharpening “middle-class economics.” Not only will the TPP, along with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, ease U.S. trade to and from partner countries, the deals will bring global investment to the U.S., said Froman. Despite a wide range of domestic and international resistance to the agreement, Froman said the administration is laser-focused on securing both pacts. “We’re not considering failure,” he said.