TPP - KotaKinabalu2013

KOTA KINABALU -- A public health advocate here argued that a proposed alcohol annex to the technical barriers to trade (TBT) chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement could undermine efforts by countries in the region to put in place health warning label requirements on alcoholic beverages. "The World Trade Organization TBT agreement already creates challenges to labeling," said Deborah Gleeson, a lecturer at La Trobe University in Australia, in reference to the WTO's Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade...

KOTA KINABALU -- Before the round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks started here, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reached out to Japanese officials to learn how they plan to "hit the ground running" once they joined the talks and to coordinate positions with Japanese business organization. Japan joined the TPP talks on July 23. Chamber representatives held these meetings with government officials and business representatives during a stop in Tokyo prior to coming here for the 18th round of TPP...

Correction: This story incorrectly stated autos and dairy as examples given by Cal Cohen, president of the Emergency Committee for American Trade, when discussing import-sensitive products on which the United States should offer concessions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In fact, Cohen did not mention autos and dairy when responding to a question whether three sets of sensitive items, textiles and apparel, sugar and footwear, cited in a business letter were more important than others, such as dairy...

KOTA KINABALU -- The New Zealand government last week announced that it would reverse a cabinet decision to review its national copyright law this year as mandated by law and wait until the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have concluded, according to a cabinet paper from the office of Commerce Minister Craig Foss. The review was meant to assess whether the exceptions to copyrights that the law contained are sufficient in light of current digital technology, according to the cabinet paper...

KOTA KINABALU -- A representative of Japan's major business confederation said on July 23 that his group's priorities in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be to press the United States to make changes to its antidumping (AD) rules and roll back "Buy American" procurement requirements. This reflects that fact that Japanese businesses are most focused on shaping the rules of the TPP agreement as opposed to pressing the U.S. to lower tariffs on Japanese goods, said Masanao Ueda, co-director of...

KOTA KINABALU -- Japan's largest agriculture lobbying group, JA-Zenchu, brought a list of demands to this round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, including that Japanese negotiators secure the removal of export subsidies before negotiating market access on agricultural products, sources said. These demands, which were submitted to the Japanese government on July 17, also ask that negotiators draw a clear line between agricultural and industrial goods in market access talks; consider provisions to protect Japanese products through geographical indications (GIs);...

House Textile Caucus co-chairs this week pressed President Obama, as he prepared to meet with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, to stand firm in opposing Vietnam's demands in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations that would open the U.S. to a flood of cheap apparel produced according to a weak rule of origin. In a July 24 letter, Reps. Howard Coble (R-NC) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) emphasized to Obama that the terms of Vietnam's market access for apparel in TPP are...

KOTA KINABALU -- Now that Japan has formally joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, Japanese officials are poised to undertake an intensive process of reviewing the draft texts and developing negotiating positions, much of which will take place before the next TPP round that is scheduled for late August. According to a Japanese official, Japanese negotiators and staff will hold two "retreats" in Saitama Prefecture, which is adjacent to Tokyo, in order to hash out negotiating positions. The first retreat...

A Japan action plan unveiled this week by House Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) calls for a 30-year phaseout of U.S. car and truck tariffs that would be backloaded to start in year 25 of a U.S.-Japan market access deal struck as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But a critical aspect of Levin's plan is that this baseline phaseout could speed up or slow down depending on the degree of foreign import penetration in Japan's auto...

House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI) yesterday (July 23) described his newly unveiled action plan, which is aimed at prying open the Japanese auto market as it joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, as an initial proposal aimed at stimulating discussion on how to promote two-way trade with that country. Levin conceded that the plan, which also seeks to address the broader problem of currency manipulation, may not be incorporated into a final TPP agreement. He...