TPP - Brunei2013

Eliminating duties on imports of athletic footwear from Vietnam as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) upon entry into force would have an "extremely small" effect on the U.S. footwear industry, and would instead displace footwear that the United States imports from China, according to a new study funded by Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA). "The most significant impact of the duty elimination modeled in this study is the large shift to Vietnam from other supplier countries as...

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei -- The Australian government was expected to seek language in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that would require signatories to grant duty-free admission for pallets, containers and packing materials that enter a country temporarily to transport other goods, according to private-sector sources. Australia is doing so here at the request of Brambles, an Australian company that specializes in the provision of reusable pallets, crates and containers in the United States and globally. One business source said Brambles...

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei -- A group of civil society representatives attending the 19th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations here criticized the Aug. 27 stakeholder engagement event organized by the Bruneian government for not including the formal briefing with chief negotiators that has been typical at past negotiating rounds. Instead of a formal briefing, the Bruneian government opted to hold a session where stakeholders could mingle informally with chief negotiators. Some stakeholders from both civil society and the private...

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has been under pressure from International Brotherhood of Teamsters President James P. Hoffa and Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the ranking member on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, to explain how the administration plans to handle what they see as Vietnam's unlikely ability to comply with the labor standards in a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. Both Miller and Hoffa are focused on understanding the specific steps that the administration will take to ensure...

The AFL-CIO labor federation, in conjunction with 12 other unions from six other TPP countries, has launched an online petition campaign by which the public can urge trade officials to change key provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to ensure it responds to workers' needs, not to those of corporations. The petition campaign went live on the AFL-CIO website on Aug. 26 and about 2,300 people had sent petitions through the AFL-CIO's website as of Aug. 28, a union source...

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue has publicly warned that a rush to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations by the end of this year must not sacrifice the ambition of the agreement to address new trade barriers, such as binding state-owned enterprises to a standard of fair competition. "As the discussions enter their end game, we strongly urge the negotiators to hold fast to the goal of making the TPP a 'model of ambition' to address traditional trade...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is ratcheting up efforts to persuade Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) members to endorse the U.S. government proposal for including strict criminal penalties for trade secret theft in a final agreement by working to dispel the notion that this is mainly a U.S.-China issue. It circulated a new study among officials at the TPP negotiations in Brunei that includes specific examples of trade secret theft in TPP countries, such as Australia, Canada, Japan and Chile as well...

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman last week highlighted as a key outcome of an Aug. 22-23 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ministerial meeting in Brunei a pledge by the ministers to stay engaged in the negotiations in the coming weeks leading up to a major summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in October. "One of the key outcomes of the meeting in Brunei is that the ministers are going to stay very much engaged over the course of the next couple of weeks here...

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei -- The United States and all other countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have agreed that regional cumulation of origin will apply to all products, even sensitive items on which TPP countries may apply varying duty rates for imports from different countries, a U.S. trade official said in an Aug. 28 interview here. Cumulation allows a TPP country to include components or inputs from another TPP country into a final good and still be considered...

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei -- The Japanese government made the case here in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations that the fisheries subsidies it provides do not contribute to overfishing and, on the contrary, are aimed at managing fish populations in a sustainable way, according to a Japanese official. Japan's view on fisheries subsidies seems to be a signal that it will be cool to accepting potential disciplines on fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity of fishing fleets and overfishing, which...