While much of the attention in Geneva is focused on delivering a package of agreements at the next World Trade Organization ministerial conference in Indonesia in December -- and on whether and how to revive the Doha round after that -- incoming WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo will also face lower-profile challenges once he assumes his post, including whom to select as his deputies and how to deal with low staff morale within the secretariat.

The government of Cuba late last week requested formal World Trade Organization consultations with Australia over that country's "plain packaging" legislation regulating the appearance and form of retail packaging for sales of cigars, cigarettes and other tobacco products. Cuba joins Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, which have already initiated WTO disputes against the Australian law.

An effort to link the Commerce Department into a single, administration-wide information technology (IT) system for export licensing has been delayed due to sequestration-related budget constraints, a department official confirmed.

In the face of mounting objections from U.S. companies, especially technology firms, Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) are engaged in last-minute negotiations in an attempt to craft workable amendments on visa provisions in an immigration bill now working its way through the Senate. The two senators were consulting this week, and Hatch may be able to formally unveil compromise amendments as soon as next week.

U.S. poultry producers are informally floating a proposal for opening the Canadian market through a final Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement under which any expanded tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for poultry to which Canada agrees in the TPP context would be auctioned off to U.S. producers, according to industry sources.

U.S. high technology and business associations are urging the Obama administration to include issues related to cybersecurity in the upcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations with the European Union, according to formal comments submitted to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative last week.