News from TAHOCO: Weekly Updates

An updated list of recently published US government memorandums, notices, regulations and decisions for the week ending December 30, 2011 is now available on our website here.

China Raises the Ante on Trade with New Tariffs

(Washington Post Editorial Board)

It has been 10 years since China joined the World Trade Organization. U.S. policymakers of both parties favored Chinese membership in the organization, which promotes global trade and resolves disputes. Not only would this facilitate trade, they argued, it would also help bring China into the framework of international law and thus encourage the rise of a People’s Republic that acted with the greatest possible consideration for the needs and interests of the United States and other nations.

How’s that working out? In short-run economic terms, the bet delivered access to cheaper, high-quality goods for U.S. consumers and more income for the once-impoverished people of China. This is the result one would have expected from freer trade, which remains the key to prosperity for all emerging markets and the global economy in general.

For the longer term, though, much depends on gradually resolving the huge imbalance between the two countries, which has built up as a result of China’s persistent trade surpluses, without triggering a trade war. Read more here.

WTO Risks Future Keeping Doha Talks Alive

(Tom Miles — Reuters)

The 153 members of the World Trade Organization agree on two things: We’re in a hole. And we must keep digging.

The hole is the Doha Development Round, a decade-old negotiation that was billed as the next stage of trade liberalization after the creation of the WTO itself.

After repeated failures to clinch a deal, Doha is on life-support. But nobody is prepared to kill it off.

“There is a Russian proverb that says ‘Don’t chop off the branch you are sitting on’,” WTO Director General Pascal Lamy told trade ministers, defending the body at its biennial conference in Geneva last Saturday.

The ministers had collectively acknowledged that the Doha round was unlikely to be concluded in the near future, but promised to keep working towards it, despite a gulf in opinions - especially between United States and China - that makes it almost unthinkable that the WTO could reach consensus. Read more here.

U.S. Trade Representative Issues Report on China’s Compliance with WTO and TRIPS

(Kevin E. Noonan — Patent Docs)

Intellectual Property called a “Priority Issue”

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) issued a Report on the extent to which China is in compliance with its obligations under the TRIPS provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), as required for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).  The Report acknowledges that China has “put in place a framework of laws and regulations aimed at protecting the intellectual property rights of domestic and foreign right holders” in compliance with its obligations under TRIPS. 

However, the report maintains that “some critical changes to China’s legal framework are still needed in a few areas, such as further improvement of China’s measures for copyright protection on the Internet, and correction of continuing deficiencies in China’s criminal IPR enforcement measures.”  And enforcement of intellectual property rights remains a “challenge” despite “repeated anti-piracy campaigns.”  The Report asserts that counterfeiting activities and piracy remain at “unacceptable high levels,” harming U.S. interests and businesses.  In this regard, this Report cites the USTR study from last May that estimated a total of $48 billion lost in sales, license fees, and royalties in 2009 alone stemming from Chinese piracy, noting that this is more than 2/3rds (almost 70%) of the total ($69 billion) of goods exported from the U.S. to China in that year. Read more here.

Customs and Border Commissioner Alan Bersin Resigns

(Nelson Balido — Security Debrief)

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin last Thursday announced his resignation effective December 30. For folks who monitor border trade and security issues, this wasn’t exactly a surprise. But it was still a disappointment.

In March 2010, President Obama appointed Mr. Bersin CBP commissioner through a recess appointment (when Congress was out of session). This was a case of the president having grown tired of the Senate Finance Committee’s failure to do its job and act on the president’s formal nomination of Mr. Bersin to lead an agency that is critical to the country’s security and economic health.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus convened his committee in May 2010 to consider the Bersin nomination. Unfortunately, very little of the hearing focused on Mr. Bersin’s qualifications and the pressing need to confirm the president’s nomination for an agency that, as Sen. Baucus said in his opening remarks, “is the face of America.” [...]

While I’m disappointed that Mr. Bersin didn’t get a chance to continue as commissioner, it would not be accurate to say that the trade community is saddled with a consolation prize. It’s just the opposite.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the right choice in naming deputy commissioner David Aguilar as the new acting commissioner and Tom Winkowski, who currently heads CBP’s field operations, as the acting deputy commissioner. Read more here.

Mexico Streamlines Border Crossings for U.S. Cargo

(International Freighting Weekly – Pete Goldin)

New trusted shipper programme matches US C-TPAT

Mexico has implemented a voluntary trusted shipper programme to expedite border crossings for US cargo.  Nuevo Esquema de Empresas Certificadas (NEEC) matches the U.S. Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT).

C-TPAT is a clearance programme for low-risk shipments entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico that eases processing for commercial carriers at land border ports.  Key benefits of both NEEC and C-TPAT include access to dedicated lanes, fewer inspections and reduced delays at the border.

To become certified by NEEC, U.S. shippers must have been conducting foreign trade for at least five years and must meet Mexico’s minimum standards for supply chain security.

Mexico’s Secretary of Finance and Public Credit, José Kuribrena, said: “Thanks to this programme, moving goods across the border will be easier and faster, shipments will be better protected and import export times will improve.  This will increase the level of competitiveness of participating companies, and along with that, the competitiveness and logistics capacity of the country.” Read more here.

USDA Issues New Safety Rules for Beef

(WebMD Health News – Daniel J. DeNoon)

The USDA [December 21] announced two new rules to make U.S. beef safer.

The announcement accompanied the first report of the two-year-old Food Safety Working Group, led by the White House and staffed by agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Taking effect in 2012, the new rules:

• Declare "adulterated" and unfit for sale any beef that tests positive for any shigella toxin-producing E. coli bacteria. Current rules cover only a single strain of the potentially deadly bug, yet the other strains cause about 112,000 illnesses each year. 

• Begin a "test and hold" policy for beef. Beef lots selected for testing will be withheld from market until test results show them to be free of germs and drug residues. Under the current system, beef that tests positive for bacteria or contaminants has to be recalled. The FDA estimates that the test-and-hold policy would have prevented 44 recalls from 2007 through 2009.

Read more here.