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 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 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 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 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.
The U.S. is requesting World Trade Organization consultations over Chinese export duties on 21 tariff lines related to the raw materials antimony, cobalt, copper, graphite, lead, magnesia, talc, tantalum and tin, for which Beijing charges 5 percent to 20 percent ad valorem rates, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced (here). The duties hurt U.S. chemical, steel and automotive sectors, to name a few, make the materials more expensive for downstream U.S. manufacturers, and encourage U.S. and other non-Chinese producers to move production to China, Froman’s office said. China committed to erase export duties for all products except those listed in a specific annex upon its accession to the WTO, USTR said. Vice President Joe Biden is addressing the issue during a speech at the Port of San Diego July 13.
G-20 trade ministers over the weekend in Shanghai agreed to finalize a compromise framework for the World Trade Organization Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) by the G-20 leaders meeting in Hangzhou, China, in September, which would set the stage for completion of the deal before the end of 2016, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement (here). The ministers will conclude the EGA itself through a ministerial meeting, Froman said. During the Shanghai meeting of G-20 trade ministers, the G-20 also recognized that “excess capacity is a global issue,” Froman said. “Building on recent U.S.-China bilateral commitments, the G-20 has added to the chorus of voices calling for tackling the root causes of excess capacity for the benefit of both developing and developed countries." The Chinese government during the U.S.-China Strategic Dialogue last month agreed not to initiate new efforts to boost its steel capacity and pledged to give more than $15 billion to incentivize structural adjustments in its steel sector (see 1606080041).
Four industry groups urged the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to extend eligibility for 28 travel goods for all Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary countries and requested a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman after USTR deferred duty benefit decisions on several articles for non-least developed beneficiary developing countries (LDBDCs) (see 1607010008). In a July 5 letter (here), the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the Outdoor Industry Association, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, and the Travel Goods Association said they were “stunned” that USTR “disregarded” the intent of Congress and stakeholder views expressed at the International Trade Commission and Trade Policy Staff Committee hearings, and in other communications with USTR, “despite virtually unanimous stakeholder and strong bipartisan support for the product expansion.”
Saudi Arabia reopened its market to U.S. beef and beef products after the country’s government banned such imports for four years following an “atypical case” of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the U.S. in 2012, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a joint statement (here). Saudi Arabia will start by allowing beef imports from cattle less than 30 months old, expanding access to products from cattle under 48 months old after a phase-in period, they said. In the next few weeks, officials will announce an Agricultural Marketing Service program to certify U.S. beef to Saudi Arabia’s import requirements, Froman and Vilsack added. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.
U.S. trade preference programs have helped lower poverty and reduce hunger in several beneficiary countries, but free-trade agreements and general worldwide tariff decreases could dilute the social impacts of these trade programs, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a report released June 29 that was required by the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (here). Furthermore, tariff waivers can’t replace policy reforms needed to address bottlenecks in certain countries’ supply chains, the report says. The report also summarizes how specific products and countries have fared after implementation of preference programs: for instance, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius and Madagascar accounted for 92 percent of all U.S. apparel imports under the African Growth and Opportunity Act last year. USTR also touted several preference program “success stories,” such as Ethiopia’s surge in shoe exports to the U.S. under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) from $630,000 in 2011 to $20 million 2015, a number that continues to rise.