The Obama administration on Dec. 15 filed a World Trade Organization challenge against China’s employment of tariff-rate quotas for rice, wheat and corn, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said (here). Chinese quotas for these commodities were valued at more than $7 billion last year, but USTR claims that China only filled about half the total value of its listed quotas. “China’s TRQ policies breach their WTO commitments and limit opportunities for U.S. farmers to export competitively priced, high-quality grains to customers in China,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement. USTR alleges that China’s administration of quotas for those products is “opaque” and “unpredictable,” and is inconsistent with China’s WTO Accession Protocol and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Although China annually announces the opening of tariff-rate quotas, its application criteria and procedures are unclear, and China doesn’t provide meaningful information on how it administers the quotas, USTR said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is issuing a final rule (here) detailing how protocols for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and disclosures will be amended in line with a larger revision of regulations for the agency. In response to comments filed by the Justice Department, USTR is amending a September proposed rule (see 1609220071) to include language to provide for public inspection and copying in an electronic format, clarify suggestions for submitting a "carefully tailored" FOIA request, explain that FOIA response time is measured in working days as opposed to calendar days, and give notice that when USTR needs additional FOIA processing time, it will tell a requester of the services of its FOIA Public Liaison and Office of Government Information Services of the National Archives and Records Administration, among other things. The rule will become effective on Dec. 15.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is issuing a final rule (here) dictating how the agency handles requests to furnish records, information or testimony in formal proceedings in which the U.S. isn’t a named party. The rule will ban USTR employees from producing these types of documentation in response to demands or requests unless they conform with the rules and USTR gives permission for providing the information. The proposed rule outlines information needed from requesting parties and factors USTR’s general counsel might consider when evaluating demands or requests.

Discussions between the U.S. and China have progressed on areas including intellectual property rights and U.S. beef, but China still needs to address other issues related to IPR and excess capacity, top U.S. business officials told Chinese counterparts Nov. 23 during the final day of the 2016 meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). “Policy challenges remain in our relationship,” Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said during the plenary session. “The U.S. private sector has seen strong results for their businesses in China," she said. "Our companies and your companies need to see China further reform, rebalance, and further open your economy.”

The government of Peru plans to amend export documentation to improve tracking of timber through supply chains, implement pre-export inspections and improve the “accuracy” of yearly forest management plans, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said (here) after officials of both nations attended a meeting in Lima last week of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA)'s Subcommittee on Forest Sector Governance and the Environmental Affairs Council (EAC). Peruvian EAC initiatives between 2016 and 2021 include protecting biological diversity, sustainably managing coastal and marine areas and strengthening environmental institutions, USTR said. U.S. and Peruvian officials also announced the hiring of Dino Delgado to serve as the executive director of the PTPA’s independent secretariat, a role in which he will review public submissions regarding environmental law enforcement. “While Peru has made important progress under the PTPA to combat illegal logging, there is still much more work to be done,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement. “I am encouraged by the concrete actions announced by the Peruvian government, including new actions to help ensure that the timber exported from Peru is legally harvested. For the sake of our forests, our global environment, and our shared future, we will continue to closely monitor the situation in Peru and work closely with them to advance environmental progress.”

Some 11 products look set to exceed competitive need limitations (CNLs) for calendar year 2016 and lose their eligibility for duty-free access under the Generalized System of Preferences, the U.S. Trade Representative said (here). Products that may exceed CNL waivers in 2016 include the following:

MIAMI -- Prospects for U.S. implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership are “unclear” following the election of Donald Trump as the next president, said Sushan Demirjian, assistant deputy trade representative for market access and industrial competitiveness at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, at the Florida Customs Brokers & Freight Forwarders Conference of the Americas on Nov. 14. Despite much “speculation,” nobody can say for sure what will happen to the agreement, said Demirjian, who helped negotiate the deal. It now seems like implementation legislation will not be taken up before Trump takes office, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., indicating Congress won’t consider it during the lame-duck session (see 1611100009). Still to be determined in the transition of presidential administrations, however, are the heads of key economic agencies and the position of congressional leadership, she said. Until that becomes clear, “it’s really difficult to predict anything,” Demirjian said. One early indication of TPP’s prospects will be the USTR’s annual trade report and trade policy agenda, coming in March, which will indicate what the new administration is looking to do in the short term, she said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will conduct a public review to determine whether to add Argentina as a Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary developing country, USTR announced Nov. 7 as officials from the countries met in Buenos Aires for the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Argentina Council on Trade and Investment (here). Argentine President Mauricio Macri’s administration requested the U.S. consider re-designating the country as eligible for GSP benefits, after the U.S. suspended Argentina from the program in 2012 over a cited failure to pay arbitral awards to the U.S. (see 12032738), USTR said. During the meeting, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman recognized Argentina’s settlement of outstanding arbitral awards with two U.S. companies in late 2013, according to USTR. The meeting was conducted pursuant to the U.S.-Argentina Trade and Investment Framework Agreement signed in March.

The International Wood Products Association (IWPA) urged the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to press Peru to expediently review claims of illegal logging in the country, in a letter sent to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman (here). IWPA released a batch of suggestions to improve the Peruvian forest sector and support bilateral trade in wood products, including improvements to the accuracy and clarity of Peru's "SIGO" forestry information management system and a partnership informing U.S. importers on how to use the system as part of their due diligence programs. U.S. and Peruvian officials are meeting in Lima Nov. 3-4 regarding implementation of the environmental chapter of the U.S.-Peru Trade Partnership Agreement, as well as that agreement's Annex on Forest Sector Governance and the U.S.-Peru Environmental Cooperation Agreement. Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in August cited concerns about potentially illegally harvested Peruvian timber, calling for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reinvigorate efforts to identify and intercept such timber (see 1608180016). Peru has acknowledged that "significant portions" of a 2015 shipment to the Port of Houston did not comply with Peruvian laws and regulations, USTR recently said (see 1608170039).

The Obama administration is doing everything it can across all levels of federal government to maximize chances that Congress introduces and passes implementation legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Nov. 1 during the Bureau of Industry and Security Update 2016 Conference on Export Controls and Policy (here). “I cannot overemphasize what’s at stake. If Congress fails to act, the United States will be effectively frozen out of the Asia-Pacific region, economically and strategically,” Froman said. “If the United States walks away from TPP, it will leave a void that China is all too happy to fill, so it can impose its values and interests throughout the region -- values and interests that are markedly different from our own.” Furthermore, an unratified TPP would also translate to lost market share in member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership -- an agreement being negotiated among 16 nations stretching from Japan to India, and including China -- which would hurt U.S. jobs and companies, Froman said. Froman reiterated expected national security issues that a dormant or canceled TPP could pose by citing a quote by Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong: “If you are not prepared to deal when it comes to cars and services and agriculture, can we depend on you when it comes to security and military arrangements?”