Below are 2014 Reports.
2014 Report to Congress on China's WTO Compliance
This is the thirteenth report prepared pursuant to section 421 of the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-286), 22 U.S.C. § 6951 (the Act), which requires the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to report annually to Congress on compliance by the People’s Republic of China (China) with commitments made in connection with its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), including both multilateral commitments and any bilateral commitments made to the United States. The report also incorporates the findings of the Overseas Compliance Program, as required by section 413(b)(2) of the Act, 22 U.S.C. § 6943(b)(2).
In addition, this report is the one report, from among the various annual reports prepared by USTR, that provides comprehensive information on the status of the trade and investment commitments that China has made through the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade and the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.
HOPE II calls for the President to transmit an annual report to Congress by June 18 regarding the establishment and operation of the Labor Ombudsperson’s Office and implementation of the TAICNAR program. The President has delegated the production and transmittal of this report to the United States Trade Representative (USTR). This report is to include an explanation of the efforts of the Government of Haiti, the President, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) with respect to the Labor Ombudsperson’s Office and the TAICNAR program; a summary of reports prepared by the ILO, as the operator of the TAICNAR program, during the preceding one-year period; and, on a biennial basis, a list of the producers that the President has identified as failing to comply with core labor standards and with the labor laws of Haiti that directly relate to and are consistent with core labor standards. 19 U.S.C. § 2703a(e)(5)(B).
2014 Report on WTO Enforcement Actions: Russia
This report is the second annual report prepared pursuant to section 201(b) of the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-208). This Act requires the U.S. Trade Representative to submit a report annually to the Committee on Finance of the U.S. Senate and the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives describing the enforcement actions taken by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) against Russia to ensure Russia’s full compliance with its obligations as a Member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), including any obligations under agreements with members of the Working Party on the accession of Russia to the WTO.
The Special 301 Report reflects the Administration’s continued resolve to encourage and maintain adequate and effective IPR protection and enforcement worldwide. The Report identifies a wide range of concerns, including: (a) the deterioration in IPR protection, enforcement, and market access for persons relying on IPR in a number of trading partners; (b) reported inadequacies in trade secret protection in China, India, and elsewhere, as well as an increasing incidence of trade secret misappropriation; (c) troubling “indigenous innovation” policies that may unfairly disadvantage U.S. rights holders in China; (d) the continuing challenges of copyright piracy over the Internet in countries such as Brazil, China, India, and Russia; (e) market access barriers, including nontransparent, discriminatory or otherwise trade-restrictive measures, that appear to impede access to healthcare; and (f) other ongoing, systemic IPR enforcement issues in many trading partners around the world. The Unites States looks forward to engaging constructively with the trading partners identified in the Report to address these concerns.
2014 Section 1377 Review On Compliance with Telecommunications Trade Agreements
Several of the issues in the 2014 Review have been discussed in past reviews, but USTR considers it appropriate to continue to raise these issues and encourage our trading partners to implement appropriate solutions. The 2014 Review describes practices or measures of U.S. trading partners that USTR will actively monitor throughout the year and with respect to which, if warranted, USTR may take further action.
2014 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers
The 2014 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE) is the 29th in an annual series that highlights significant foreign barriers to U.S. exports. This document is a companion piece to the President’s Trade Policy Agenda published by USTR in March.
The report provides, where feasible, quantitative estimates of the impact of these foreign practices on the value of U.S. exports. Information is also included on some of the actions taken to eliminate foreign trade barriers. Opening markets for American goods and services, either through negotiating trade agreements or through results-oriented enforcement actions, is this Administration‟s top trade priority. This report is an important tool for identifying such trade barriers.
2014 Report on Technical Barriers to Trade
This year the USTR publishes its fifth annual Report on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Report). This report was created to respond to the concerns of U.S. companies, farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers, which increasingly encounter nontariff trade barriers in the form of product standards, testing requirements, and other technical requirements as they seek to sell products and services around the world. As tariff barriers to industrial and agricultural trade have fallen, some standards-related measures have emerged as a key concern.
Governments, market participants, and other entities can use standards-related measures as an effective and efficient means of achieving legitimate commercial and policy objectives, such as protection of the environment, human health and safety. But when standards-related measures are outdated, overly burdensome, discriminatory, or otherwise inappropriate, these measures can reduce competition, stifle innovation, and create unnecessary technical barriers to trade. These kinds of measures can pose a particular problem for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which often do not have the resources to address these problems on their own. USTR is committed to identifying and combating unwarranted technical barriers to U.S. exports, many of which are detailed in this report.
2014 Report on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is pleased to publish its fifth annual Report on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Report). This report was created to maintain an inventory of the concerns of U.S. farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and workers who confront sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) trade barriers as they seek to export high-quality American food and agricultural products globally. SPS measures are rules and procedures that governments use to ensure that foods and beverages are safe to consume and to protect animals and plants from unwanted pests and diseases.
Many SPS measures are fully justified, but some governments cloak discriminatory and protectionist trade measures in the guise of ensuring human, animal, or plant safety. USTR is committed to continuing to engage other governments in all available bilateral, regional, and multilateral fora to dismantle these barriers to U.S. food and agricultural exports and strengthen the rules-based trading system to ensure a level playing field abroad for U.S. farm and ranch products.
2014 Trade Policy Agenda and 2013 Annual Report
