The U.S. filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization alleging that China provided subsidies in 2015 for domestic production of rice, wheat and corn, totaling $100 billion in excess of its commitments under WTO rules, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Sept. 13 (here). The policy bloats Chinese prices above normal market levels and constitutes an unfair incentive for Chinese farmers to boost production, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement. “Through tariff cuts and the removal of other trade barriers, China has gone from a $2-billion-a-year market for U.S. agricultural products to a $20-billion-plus market,” Vilsack said in a statement. “But we could be doing much better, particularly if our grain exports could compete in China on a level playing field. Unfortunately, China’s price supports have encouraged wheat, corn and rice production in China that has displaced imports.” The policy has injured U.S. producers, who could meet Chinese import demand if China were to follow through with a WTO- and market-oriented agriculture trade policy, Vilsack added.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking for input as it builds its 2016 Notorious Markets List (here). The list is an out-of-cycle review based off 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 2015 Notorious Markets List, published in December, identified counterfeit marketplaces across the globe (here). Comments are due by Oct. 7.

The U.S. should press the East African Community (EAC) to lower duties on recycled and used textiles, industry members said to the Trade Policy Staff Committee, an interagency group led by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, during an Aug. 22 hearing on African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) eligibility. Among other issues discussed were the removal of the Republic of the Congo from the list of AGOA beneficiaries, and whether to keep Lesotho on the AGOA beneficiary list. The hearing was part of USTR's annual review of country eligibility for AGOA benefits in 2017.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reviewed the government of Peru’s verification report of a 2015 timber shipment to the U.S., after USTR in February asked Lima pursuant to the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement to provide documentation that the import complied with relevant Peruvian laws and regulations, the agency said (here). According to a report by the Interagency Committee on Trade in Timber Products from Peru (here), the Peruvian Supervisory Agency for Forestry and Wildlife Resources reported that "significant portions" of the 2015 shipment (see 1602290045) to the Port of Houston did not comply with Peruvian laws and regulations; for instance, some trees were harvested without authorization, USTR said. But the Peruvian government has adopted several programs to reform the country’s forest sector, the agency said. Among these activities are recently reported seizures of illegal timber, and the creation of an independent forestry oversight body, which has conducted more than 4,000 inspections of 1.7 million hectares from 2009 to June 2016 that yielded “thousands of resolutions” to sanction illegal activity or order corrective actions to improve forest management.

The interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) will conduct a public hearing on Oct. 5, and is seeking comment, to prepare its annual report to Congress on Chinese compliance with commitments made as part of its accession to the World Trade Organization, the TPSC said (here). The committee is asking potential testifiers to provide written notification and a summary of testimony by Sept. 21, and will accept public comments until then. Comments may be submitted pertaining to Chinese WTO commitments regarding trading rights, import and export regulation, internal policies affecting trade, intellectual property rights, services, rule-of-law issues and other WTO commitments, the TPSC said. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is also requesting that the public “specifically identify unresolved compliance issues” warranting review and evaluation by USTR’s China Enforcement Task Force. If necessary, the TPSC’s hearing will continue to Oct. 6.

The U.S. waived discriminatory purchasing requirements for eligible products and suppliers of Moldova on July 14, after the nation submitted its instrument of accession to the World Trade Organization June 14, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said (here). USTR waived the requirements, in part, because Moldova on Sept. 21, 2015, joined the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, and is expected to offer U.S. industry “reciprocal competitive government procurement opportunities,” USTR said. However, USTR reserves the right to cancel the waiver, it said.

The U.S. amended a request for World Trade Organization consultations it filed last week, adding chromium to its list of raw materials subject to contested Chinese export duties and a new section on Chinese export quotas for antimony, indium, magnesia, talc and tin, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement. Vital U.S. sectors use those elements to make aerospace, automotive, construction and electronics products, it said. China’s duties and quotas advantage Chinese industries at the expense of U.S. companies, USTR said. “The restraints we challenged last week, along with the ones we have included today, are part and parcel of the same troubling policy – one that provides advantages for China in important manufacturing sectors at the expense of the rest of the world,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is creating a Digital Trade Working Group to target digital trade barriers and promote policies to advance digital trade efforts worldwide, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced (here). Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Robert Holleyman will head the group, which comprises USTR experts in ecommerce, telecommunications, services, intellectual property, innovation and industrial competitiveness, USTR said. “The Digital Trade Working Group is an important resource to help the United States maintain its 'digital trade surplus,' and allow companies and workers in every sector of the U.S. economy to use the Internet to deliver innovative, American-made products and services abroad,” Froman said. The group will focus on barriers to cloud computing, platform services and digital products trade, and will coordinate the negotiation and implementation of digital trade provisions in various bilateral and multilateral agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and the Trade in Services Agreement, USTR said. Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman last week during a House hearing called for lawmakers to work with industry and the USTR to create a chief digital trade negotiator position within USTR.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Trade Policy Staff Committee is requesting public comments by Oct. 27 on significant foreign barriers to U.S. exports for inclusion in USTR’s 2017 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, USTR said (here). Specifically, USTR is seeking information on obstructive or inefficient foreign import policies, government procurement restrictions, export subsidies, intellectual property protections, service and investment barriers, government-tolerated “anticompetitive conduct” of firms that restricts sale of U.S. goods in foreign markets, ecommerce-related trade restrictions, sanitary/phytosanitary barriers, localization barriers, unwarranted standards, conformity assessment procedures, onerous technical regulations, and/or “other barriers,” USTR said. Submissions should include an estimate of the potential increase in U.S. exports connected with the elimination of any cited foreign trade barrier, USTR said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking public comments on its Annual Review of Country Eligibility for Benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2017, USTR said (here). The USTR Trade Policy Staff Committee’s AGOA Implementation Subcommittee will convene a public hearing on AGOA eligibility on Aug. 22, and the deadline to file requests to testify there or to file any prehearing comments is Aug. 5. Sept. 2 is the final deadline for comments.