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Deputy USTR Comments on FTA with Korea
Posted February 26, 2010Arirang Korea
The United States is again calling for adjustments to the free trade agreement it signed with Korea in 2007.
In the latest development Deputy US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said progress on automobiles and beef is required for implementation of the agreement. In his keynote address at Georgetown University on Thursday Ambassador Marantis spoke about America’s trade policy stressing that Korea is a market where cars feature prominently but that the Asian country’s application of non-tariff barriers to American automakers should be addressed before moving the deal forward for ratification.
He also said the Obama Administration is working to make sure the US auto industry gets a “fair shake” in Korea adding that once the Korea-US FTA takes effect it will be the “most economically significant in over a decade.”
http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=100598&code=Ne2&category=2
China innovation policies ‘a deep concern’ - USTR
Posted February 25, 2010Reuters India
China’s “indigenous innovation” policies that keep U.S. companies out of its huge government procurement market are “a deep concern” for the United States, a top U.S. trade official said on Thursday.
“That’s an example of the kind of industrial policies that we’re seeing in China that are a significant concern to us,” Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said during a discussion at Georgetown University’s law school.
“We need to look at what’s going to be the most effective way of addressing these policies, but it’s a deep concern for us,” Marantis said.
U.S. business groups have complained to both President Barack Obama’s administration and senior Chinese leaders about Chinese government procurement policies that give preferences to companies that develop intellectual property in China.
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-46479520100225
Obama Giving U.S. R&D to China
Posted February 24, 2010American Thinker
The United States and China are involved in a trade war, the outcome of which will determine who gets America’s remaining manufacturing industries and research and development centers. The Chinese are actively fighting; President Obama is actively talking.
The Chinese government fired a huge broadside in December when it issued new rules requiring that American corporations doing business in China move their research and development centers and patents to China as a condition for selling goods and services to the Chinese government.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/obama_giving_us_rd_to_china.html
China’s Eyes on Obama’s Trade Action
Posted February 24, 2010Clickbank Diary
Will U.S. President Barack Obama take a tougher tack on trade relations with China? China may get its clearest answer yet when Obama decides how to handle the “421 safeguard” case by the fall. China’s Ministry of Commerce may still be getting over its professed “shocked” state that the U.S. launched in short order three trade probes of China wholesale products over the past two weeks. It is also buffeted by the World Trade Organization complaint filed last week by the U.S. and E.U. against China’s export restrictions on raw materials. But what could be a marked sign of whether Obama’s trade approach toward China will deviate from that of the Bush administration is the use of “421.” By September, the Obama administration is expected to decide whether to put a tax on imports from China, under the Section 421 safeguard provision of U.S. trade law. On Monday, the U.S. International Trade Commission said it recommended to Obama that a 35% to 55% duty be levied on U.S. imports from China and light truck tires for the next three years, in order to protect U.S. producers. The 421 “safeguard” provision, which was part of the agreement that allowed China to join the WTO in 2001, allows the U.S. International Trade Commission to decide whether the surge of a particular import from China is causing or risks causing “market disruption,” that is, material harm to the U.S. domestic industry. The commission then recommends remedial action, if any, and the President has the discretion to decide whether to implement temporary “safeguards” against the China wholesale products. The Bush administration was reluctant to use “421.” The trade commission ruled in four cases, involving Chinese metals products, that the China wholesale products were leading to market disruption, but Bush decided not to put temporary barriers on those Chinese imports. “The 421 is a special case against China,” said Judy Wang, a trade lawyer with Troutman Sanders who has helped represent China’s Ministry of commerce in U.S. trade proceedings. “We’re forecasting that [the U.S. will] use this more and more.”
http://clickbankdiary.com/2010/02/24/china-eyes-obamas-trade-action/
USTR Needs Ideas On Autos To Complete FTA With S. Korea
Posted February 24, 2010Tax News
During a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Ron Kirk, has said that, while it was aware of concern in the auto sector about the United States-Korea free trade agreement (KORUS FTA), the government was convinced of the significant economic benefits that the agreement would bring.
There has been vocal opposition in the US to ratification of the KORUS FTA, particularly due to the perceived imbalance in trade between the two countries and the non-tariff barriers to imports into the Korean domestic auto market.
Kirk said that the US government would now “like to get the KORUS FTA into a place where it can be passed by Congress, because we see the significant economic and strategic benefits it could bring us. But to get to that place we need to address the concerns about fair trade in autos. We have let Korea know that we will have to work together so we can show the American people that US cars will be able to compete on a level playing field in Korea.”
“We at USTR are hard at work,” he added, “to develop ideas for addressing these concerns, and we will be consulting closely with members of Congress and other American stakeholders as we move down this path.”
However, until now, the South Korean government has refused to enter into any renegotiation of the bilateral agreement, which was signed in 2007.
Kirk also pointed to trade barriers that the US auto sector faced in Japan. “Japan has a long history of treating our exports unfairly, and in the autos sector in particular, our companies have too often been denied access,” he said. “Just recently we successfully pushed for changes to Japan’s ‘cash-for-clunkers’ programme that is now giving US autos greater opportunities to qualify. We welcome this change, but believe more can and should be done by Japan to make its programme even more inclusive.”
He assured his audience that, in both Japan and South Korea, “we are paying close attention to these barriers and will continue to work to address them.”
http://www.tax-news.com/news/USTR_Needs_Ideas_On_Autos_To_Complete_FTA_With_S_Korea41842.html
Economy, trade defense on Obama’s plate
Posted February 23, 2010United Press International
The economy, trade and defense were on U.S. PresidentBarack Obama’s agenda Tuesday, with closed-door White House meetings scheduled for the three issues.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will receive the daily briefing, the economic briefing and meet with senior advisers in the Oval Office in the morning, the White House said.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/02/23/Economy-trade-defense-on-Obamas-plate/UPI-18151266928191/
US lawmakers press Japan on its auto clunkers plan
Posted February 23, 2010Reuters
A bipartisan group of 46 U.S. lawmakers urged Japan on Tuesday to allow more American cars to qualify for government subsidy payments under that country’s “cash for clunkers” program.
The lawmakers, in a letter to Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki, said steps previously announced by Tokyo to open its cash for clunkers program to more American cars fell short of what they expected.
“We are disappointed that Japan has unfortunately decided to use EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) city mileage ratings instead of EPA combined city/highway mileage ratings as the basis for determining eligibility,” the lawmakers said.
Representative Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat whose district is home to Chrysler’s world headquarters and General Motors [GM.UL] plants, used blunter language.
“The Japanese continue to break their promise. They said they would allow American cars to participate in their cash for clunkers program but have rigged the rules so that few can,” Peters said in a statement.
Export promise could make trade troubles worse
Posted February 22, 2010
AgWeek
President Obama pledged during his State of the Union address to double America’s exports in the next five years. Just don’t mention that to chicken farmers, who now are bumping up against an unintended consequence of Obama’s trade policy.
China’s Ministry of Commerce has proposed antidumping duties of 43 percent to 106 percent on imports of American poultry. Although Beijing claims the U.S. illegally sells chicken feet in China at a price less than the cost of production, this really is a political case. The step is widely viewed as retaliation for the 35 percent “safeguard” tariffs Obama imposed on Chinese tires in September. China launched its antidumping investigation days after the tire tariffs were announced.
U.S. trade leader: Preaching to China not in American interest
Posted February 21, 2010Freep
U.S. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas and Texas secretary of state, has been in politics long enough to know this: If you want to get another politician to do something, you don’t get in his face and publicly scold him.
Applying that logic to the touchiest of America’s global trade relationships, “It’s not in our interest to go preach to China,” Kirk said in an interview Friday before his speech to the Detroit Economic Club.
Rather, he said, President Barack Obama’s calm but firm message to Chinese leaders is that the U.S. wants to grow two-way trade, but will insist that China obey existing trade rules and move faster to open its markets.
Indeed, when asked to cite accomplishments in the trade arena during the first year of the Obama administration, Kirk rattled off a list of enforcement actions.
Governor, trade ambassador discuss boosting exports
Posted February 21, 2010The Daily Tribune
The Obama administration’s top trade official visited Warren Friday and heard a series of disturbing stories about difficulties encountered by small businesses trying to compete overseas with companies from China, India and Russia.
Susan Sprentall of American Laser Enterprises told U.S. Trade Ambassador Ron Kirk that her sole experience trying to establish export customers degenerated into a ruse by Chinese businessman intent on stealing her company’s product designs.
Sprentall said her one venture to China revealed business conditions dominated by low wages, child labor and unsafe work conditions. She said the experience quickly made her realize why foreign competitors are beginning to dominate the U.S. market industrial laser products.
http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2010/02/21/news/srv0000007654016.txt
USDA projects big crops, China demand insatiable
Posted February 20, 2010ForexYard
U.S. farmers can expect a record corn crop this year and another huge soybean harvest, with China a hungry buyer again and possibly on track to become the number one export market for U.S. agriculture in the next few years.
At its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum on Thursday, the U.S. Agriculture Department raised its forecast for farm exports in fiscal 2010 to $100 billion — up from its November estimate of $98 billion and higher than 2009 trade estimated at $96.6 billion — as world demand begins to recover from recession.
The growth will be led by soybeans. For the first time, China is expected to be the third largest market for U.S. products, passing Japan, according to Jim Miller, USDA’s undersecretary for trade.
“No other country over the past several years has seen as much growth as China,” Miller told the conference. “At the current rate China could pass Mexico and Canada as our leading market for exports in just a few years.”
U.S. will seek FTA ratification at ‘appropriate time’: Kirk
Posted February 20, 2010Yonhap News
The Obama administration will present the pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to Congress for ratification at an appropriate time after resolving outstanding issues, the chief U.S. trade negotiator said Thursday.
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, however, fell short of elaborating on when to submit the deals for ratification.
“USTR is seeking to resolve outstanding issues on the Colombian, Korean, and Panama Free Trade Agreements in an effort to move those forward at the appropriate time,” Kirk said in a keynote speech at the 2010 Agricultural Economic Outlook Forum here.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/02/19/13/0301000000AEN20100219000100315F.html
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