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USTR defends free-trade pacts as ''completing, not undercutting,'' negotiations

WASHINGTON, DC - 03/30/06 - Hope for forward movement in World Trade Organization (WTO) talks is "somewhat fading," said US Trade Representative (USTR) Rob Portman, expressing concern that the energy to drive the negotiations forward "is dissipating a little bit."

This is the case "because other countries have not matched ambitious US proposals on trade-distorting subsidies and agricultural tariffs," he said.

In October 2005, the US submitted a proposal for drastically reducing agricultural tariffs and the most trade-distorting domestic supports.

This initiative "has achieved little," despite a counter-proposal from the European Union that analyses showed would produce little or no additional market access.

Portman, speaking recently before an agribusiness group in the nation's capital, said the US "will continue to be aggressive on all fronts" in an effort to drive the negotiations - also known as the Doha Development Agenda or Doha Round - forward to completion by the April 30 deadline.

But, he warned, "we don't think you can meet the Doha mandate without having ambitious resolve."

In light of the approaching deadline for establishing ways to proceed to the next step, with broad outlines for final commitments, the negotiations are at a "crucial time," said the USTR.

While acknowledging that the negotiations have a history of missed deadlines, Portman said he views April 30 as the "real" deadline because, without progress on the modalities, negotiators will not be able to meet another important target - concluding the Doha Round by the end of this year.

The latter is crucial for the US, he asserted, because the White House's Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) - previously known as "fast track" - to negotiate trade agreements expires in July 2007.

Under TPA Congress restricts itself to approve or reject a negotiated trade agreement within strict time limits and without amendments.

If negotiators miss the 2006 deadline, "it would be difficult to know when the Bush Administration could implement any WTO agreement reached," he said.

According to Portman said the Administration intends to continue pursuing both bilateral and regional free-trade agreements (FTAs) with its trading partners "because deeper economic integration stemming from these agreements can bring great economic and political benefits."

In a March review of US trade policy, the WTO expressed concern that the increasing number of US FTAs "might divert administrative resources away from the multilateral trading system and impede progress in the global negotiations."

At a briefing earlier this month in Geneva, Deputy USTR Peter Allgeier responded, claiming that FTAs "complement multilateral efforts to bring down trade barriers rather than undercut US ability to participate fully in the multilateral negotiations."
 
The US is selecting free-trade negotiating partners that have a "clear, consistent commitment to WTO-based trade liberalization," he said.

"There may be obstacles facing the Doha Development Agenda," said Allgeier, "but US free trade agreements are not among them."

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Korea, US Free Trade Pact ''Possible'' by Early 2007

WASHINGTON, DC – 10/25/06 – A free trade pact between the US and South Korea could become a reality by early 2007, says chief US negotiator Wendy Cutler at the opening of this week’s fourth round of talks between the two countries; since the two sides launched FTA negotiations in February they have reported little progress even though they postponed consideration of the most politically sensitive issues, such as US access to the Korean rice market.