South Korean trade officials agreed to work with the U.S. in resolving implementation issues and discussing potential modifications to the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, an official in the economic section of the South Korean Embassy in Washington confirmed Oct. 6. “I initiated Joint Committee discussions at the direction of the President to improve outcomes under this agreement for all Americans,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. “I now look forward to intensified engagement with Korea in an expeditious manner to resolve outstanding implementation issues as well as to engage soon on amendments that will lead to fair, reciprocal trade.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is accepting comments on the implementation of the environmental chapter of the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement through Oct. 2, USTR said. The U.S. and Singapore will hold a public session on implementation of the environmental chapter, Chapter 18, on Oct. 4 in Singapore, USTR said.
A coalition of nine textile associations urged trade officials from all three NAFTA countries to fully retain tariff preference levels (TPLs) for textiles, saying they help keep “NAFTA operations” competitive and product prices low, among other things. In a Sept. 20 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo, groups including the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association and the Canadian Apparel Federation said continuing the “size and scope” of existing TPLs is “essential” to ensuring supply chains and North American jobs are not harmed. “Permanence is vital to giving companies the predictability to make long term investments in sourcing and manufacturing,” the letter says. “As a result, many of today's North American supply chains rely on these provisions to complement originating input purchases, to support manufacturing operations in all three countries, to provide their customers affordable fashions, and to continue using NAFTA despite the proliferation of sourcing options worldwide.” The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, through the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee, is starting an environmental review relating to the NAFTA renegotiation, USTR said. The TPSC is seeking comments by Nov. 25 on topics that should be included in the environmental review, including positive or negative environmental effects that might result from the trade agreement and potential implications for U.S. environmental laws and regulations, USTR said.
Trade associations representing several industries on Sept. 22 united to promote the continuation in NAFTA of a stable and certain investor-state dispute settlement system, amid concerns the Trump administration will move to change or remove ISDS provisions from the deal (see 1708090014 and 1708250013). Anything that would weaken or “not guarantee” ISDS in NAFTA would have costs for U.S. foreign investments and would translate to harming U.S. jobs, National Association of Manufacturers Vice President for International Economic Affairs Policy Linda Dempsey said on a conference call with reporters. Select changes or a lack of certainty with regard to ISDS in NAFTA wouldn’t just hurt “the direct jobs that we see of the exports of pipe or steel, or mining equipment, or all of these other types of products; it’s the jobs associated in those communities -- the suppliers, the small businesses that support the production in those communities,” she said.
The second special session of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement joint committee will take place Oct. 4 in Washington, about a month and a half after the first session, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced. The U.S. wants both countries to consider possible amendments and modifications to the agreement to resolve issues related to the U.S.’s bilateral trade deficit, as well as Korean market access for U.S. exports.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments to inform how the agency should identify Colombia based on its intellectual property protection and enforcement, as USTR undertakes a "Special 301" out-of-cycle review of Colombia's IP practices, USTR said. The review will include an evaluation of Colombia's commitment to the IP provisions of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement and Colombia's implementation of its National Development Plan, USTR said. The agency put Colombia on the Special 301 watch list in its 2017 Special 301 report released in April. USTR will accept comments from foreign governments through Oct. 27, and from everyone else through Oct. 20.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments to inform whether and how the agency should identify Thailand based on its intellectual property protection regime or market access it provides to U.S. persons who rely on IP protection, USTR said. USTR on Sept. 15 announced it was starting an out-of-cycle review of Thailand’s “Special 301” status because of positive steps the country has taken on IP (see 1709180005). The agency put Thailand on the Special 301 priority watch list in its 2017 Special 301 report released in April. USTR will accept comments from foreign governments through Oct. 27, and from everyone else through Oct. 20. Thailand requested the review “in light of its efforts to achieve substantial progress” in its IP regime, USTR said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is starting an out-of-cycle review of Thailand’s “Special 301” status because of positive steps the country has taken in its intellectual property regime, USTR announced Sept. 15. USTR put Thailand on the Special 301 priority watch list in its 2017 Special 301 report released in April. USTR had “noted that the United States was prepared to review that status if Thailand continued to take positive action on IP issues and made substantial progress in addressing the concerns described in the Special 301 report,” the agency said in a statement. The Trump administration has been “closely engaging” with Thailand on improving IP protection and enforcement, and the nation has taken recent steps to improve enforcement against pirated and counterfeit goods, including enhanced agency coordination and a continuing focus on investigations and raids, USTR said. Thailand also acceded to the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks in August, which makes it easier for U.S. companies to file for trademark protection, USTR said.
NAFTA’s yarn-forward rules of origin for textiles and apparel is probably “here to stay,” American Apparel and Footwear Association Executive Vice President Stephen Lamar said during an interview for Just-Style.com. That doesn’t mean minor changes can’t significantly impact sourcing, he added. “Minor changes could mean that someone who is relying on a particular flexibility or a particular provision all the sudden can’t use it, and so their entire supply chain has to pivot and perhaps move outside of North America entirely,” Lamar said. “So any changes, including very, very minor changes, are ones that you really have to do very cautiously with really a lot of education and understanding of exactly who’s going to be impacted, who may or may not be hurt or who may be helped by them.” Modifying or eliminating these “flexibilities” could make yarn-forward much more difficult to comply with, he said.