USTR

House Ways and Means Ranking Member Jim McCrery (R-LA) this week said it is his preference and that of U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab that the new obligations for free trade agreements announced last week not lead to a reopening of the Peru FTA. He acknowledged that this would require convincing Democrats of the merits of this approach.

Restrictions on satellite capacity and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services are two new areas of communications barriers that are included in USTR’s annual 1377 review released on April 10. The report identifies barriers facing U.S. telecommunications service and equipments suppliers in foreign countries.

The automotive provisions of the newly concluded U.S. and Korea free trade agreement would phase out the U.S. tariff for certain cars immediately and the 25 percent truck tariff over 10 years without establishing any specific market access targets, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia indicated in an April 2 press conference.

Of the Democratic trade principles unveiled this week, the most difficult to accept for the Bush Administration appears to be the demand that the U.S. implement International Labor Organization standards in its “domestic laws and practices, ” and that these standards be subject to the same dispute settlement provisions as commercial obligations, according to informed sources.

The U.S. and Vietnam are hoping to launch talks for a trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA), officials from both countries said today (March 16). U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem were scheduled to meet late today to discuss a possible TIFA, and Vietnamese officials said they expected Khiem would also press Schwab to help Vietnam become eligible for preferences under the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab will meet with her counterparts from the European Union, Brazil and India starting this weekend to discuss the status of the Doha round negotiations, according to a USTR spokesman.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab met with South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong yesterday (Feb. 26) in Washington to discuss aspects of free trade negotiations between the two countries, including autos and agriculture.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab this week told the Senate Finance Committee that Russia is not willing to make the necessary concessions to advance the multilateral negotiations for its entry into the World Trade Organization.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab this week signaled that she expects to work out an arrangement on additional labor obligations for pending free trade agreements which could lead to action on the pending Peru FTA.