Bill to Tie "Elimination of Duty" to Market Access in Future Trade Agreements Introduced
On October 13, 2011, Senator Brown (D-OH) introduced the Reciprocal Market Access Act of 2011 (S. 1711) which would instruct U.S. trade negotiators to eliminate foreign market barriers before reducing U.S. tariffs in trade agreements. The bill would also provide enforcement authority to reinstate the tariff if the foreign government does not honor its commitment to remove its barriers. In addition, S. 1711 would instruct the International Trade Commission to conduct an assessment of the impact of a prospective trade agreement on market opportunities and barriers for U.S. products or services that will be impacted by the trade agreement.
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According to a summary from Senator Brown, S. 1711 would:
- Tie elimination of duties to market access - tie the authority to eliminate tariffs in trade agreements to achieving meaningful market access for U.S. domestic producers that have identified and worked with the U.S. government to address those barriers;
- Require President to certify that reciprocal market access obtained - require the President to provide a certification to the Congress in advance of agreeing to a modification of any existing duty on any product, that sectoral reciprocal market access has been obtained;
- Allow concessions to be revoked if foreign markets not opened - give the government the automatic negotiated right to revoke concessions to cut tariffs if U.S. trading partners don’t implement the commitments they made to open up their markets. (This authority, known as “snap back” authority, could be triggered by a private sector or Congressional request); and
- ITC report on impact of prospective FTA - instruct the International Trade Commission to conduct an assessment of the impact of a prospective trade agreement on market opportunities and barriers for U.S. products or services that would be impacted by the trade agreement.
Senator Brown’s summary of S. 1711 available here