The U.S., along with 13 other nations and the European Union (EU), announced on Jan. 24 an initiative that targets comprehensive elimination of tariffs on environmental "green" goods, according to a joint statement released during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation pledged in 2012 to reduce to 5 percent or less tariffs on 54 environmental products (here). The decision reached at Davos aims to build off that list to reach the broader World Trade Organization (WTO) community, said the joint statement.
US Trade Representative (USTR)
A U.S. Cabinet level position which serves as the President's primary representative, negotiator, and spokesperson regarding U.S. trade policy. The USTR heads the Office of the United States Trade Representative which develops and coordinates U.S. policy for international trade, commodities, and direct investments, as well as overseeing trade negotiations with other countries.
The conclusion of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations would make the U.S. the international hub of free trade, fueling foreign and domestic investment aimed at boosting U.S. exports, said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Jan. 22 at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, held in Washington D.C. A combination of U.S. rule of law, highly-skilled workers, an entrepreneurial culture and affordable, clean energy, as well as the eventual market access acquired through TPP and TTIP, are leading to increased foreign investment and encouraging companies to move production back to the U.S., said Froman.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting public comment on U.S. antidumping measures on a host of Chinese products. China initiated World Trade Organization consultations in the dispute on Dec. 3, 2013 (here). The products include certain coated paper suitable for high-quality print graphics using sheet-fed presses, certain oil country tubular goods, high pressure steel cylinders, polyethylene terephthalate film, sheet, and strip, aluminum extrusions, frozen and canned warmwater shrimp, certain new pneumatic off--the-road tires, crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, diamond sawblades and parts thereof, multilayered wood flooring, narrow woven ribbons with woven selvedge, polyethylene retail carrier bags, and wooden bedroom furniture.
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) participant nations are far from compromise on environmental rules, particularly on multilateral environmental agreements and a dispute resolution process, WikiLeaks said on Jan. 15 after releasing the confidential TPP environment chapter dated Nov. 24 (here). The consolidated text (here) released by WikiLeaks is said to have been crafted during the TPP summit in Salt Lake City on Nov. 19-24.
The U.S. requested consultation on Jan. 13 with China over antidumping and countervailing duties imposed on U.S. grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel (GOES) exports to the country, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) officials, including USTR chief Michael Froman, told reporters at a press conference. The U.S. says the duties, initially imposed in 2010, fail to meet World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) recommendations for compliance and continue to violate WTO agreements, the officials said.
The U.S. and Libya signed on Dec. 18 a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement that will provide a forum to address trade issues and eliminate barriers to trade, said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in a press release. The agreement will address market access and intellectual property rights, among other issues, said USTR. USTR did not respond for comment on the specifics of the deal.
WikiLeaks released the previously undisclosed Intellectual Property (IP) chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, currently being negotiated by the U.S. and 11 additional nations. WikiLeaks obtained the 95-page document after the August 26-30 TPP summit in Brunei, said WikiLeaks in a Nov. 13 press release (here). The leak comes as chief TPP negotiators prepare to meet in Salt Lake City from Nov. 19 to 24 (see 13110110).
The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) presented lists of outdoor performance apparel and footwear products that should receive both tariff protections and eliminations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Senior Director for Government Affairs Alex Boian said on Oct. 17. The OIA submitted the list to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Commerce on Sept. 25, and to the Vietnamese government the following day, said Boian. The association also publicized their activities in an Oct. 17 statement to the public (here) .
Most federal employees furloughed by the shutdown returned to work Oct. 17, after President Barack Obama signed a bill in the early morning hours to fund the federal government. The Office of Personnel Management said employees are expected to return to work, although it also told agencies to be flexible. Agency websites and databases were restored throughout the morning of Oct. 17. Some websites were slow to come back up on the morning after work resumed -- the Foreign-Trade Zones Board website still redirects to a message about the shutdown as of press time, for example. But most websites, including the International Trade Commission’s online Harmonized Tariff Schedule, are back online. Many agencies anticipate delays as they work through backlogs that accumulated during the shutdown.
The U.S. Trade Representative's Oct. 8 decision to let the International Trade Commission's import ban stand was not surprising, despite a recent USTR veto of an Apple product import ban (see 13080515), said aid Benjamin Levi, a McKool Smith attorney who has argued patent cases before federal courts and the ITC. The patents at issue in the Samsung import ban were not standard-essential patents (SEPs) -- the main factor in the USTR's decision to veto the Apple import ban in August, he said. There remains "some uncertainty" over the full extent to which USTR's veto of the Apple import ban will become a precedent in other cases involving SEPs, Levi said. "But I would doubt that the USTR would routinely veto exclusion orders based" on SEPs, he said.