Sept 15 -- The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), through the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC), publishes the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE Report) each year. USTR invites comments to assist it and the TPSC in identifying significant foreign barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. foreign direct investment, and U.S. electronic commerce for inclusion in the NTE Report. USTR also will consider responses to this notice as part of the annual review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements regarding telecommunications products and services that are in force with respect to the United States. The deadline for submission of comments is Friday, October 28, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Section 181 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2241), requires USTR annually to publish the NTE Report, which sets out an inventory of significant foreign barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and services, including agricultural commodities and U.S. intellectual property; foreign direct investment by U.S. persons, especially if such investment has implications for trade in goods or services; and U.S. electronic commerce. The inventory facilitates U.S. negotiations aimed at reducing or eliminating these barriers and is a valuable tool in enforcing U.S. trade laws and agreements and strengthening the rules-based trading system. You can find the 2022 NTE Report on USTR's website at
https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/reports-and-publications/2022. To ensure compliance with the statutory mandate for the NTE Report and the Administration's commitment to focus on significant foreign trade barriers, USTR will take into account comments in response to this notice when deciding which significant barriers to include in the NTE Report.
To assist USTR in preparing the NTE Report, commenters should submit information related to one or more of the following categories of foreign trade barriers:
1. Import policies. Examples include tariffs and other import charges, quantitative restrictions, import licensing, pre-shipment inspection, customs barriers and shortcomings in trade facilitation or in valuation practices, and other market access barriers.
2. Technical barriers to trade. Examples include unnecessarily trade restrictive or discriminatory standards, conformity assessment procedures, labeling, or technical regulations, including unnecessary or discriminatory technical regulations or standards for telecommunications products.
3. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Examples include measures relating to food safety, or animal and plant life or health that are unnecessarily trade restrictive, discriminatory, or not based on scientific evidence.
4. Government procurement restrictions. Examples include closed bidding and bidding processes that lack transparency.
5. Intellectual property protection. Examples include inadequate patent, copyright, and trademark regimes, trade secret theft, and inadequate enforcement of intellectual property rights.
6. Services. Examples include prohibitions or restrictions on foreign participation in the market, discriminatory licensing requirements or standards, local-presence requirements, and unreasonable restrictions on what services may be offered.
7. Digital trade and electronic commerce. Examples include barriers to cross-border data flows, including data localization requirements, discriminatory practices affecting trade in digital products, restrictions on the supply of internet-enabled services, and other restrictive technology requirements.
8. Investment. Examples include limitations on foreign equity participation and on access to foreign government-funded research and development programs, local content requirements, technology transfer requirements and export performance requirements, and restrictions on repatriation of earnings, capital, fees, and royalties.
9. Subsidies, especially export subsidies and local content subsidies. Examples of export subsidies include subsidies contingent upon export performance, and agricultural export subsidies that displace U.S. exports in third country markets. Examples of local content subsidies include subsidies contingent on the purchase or use of domestic rather than imported goods.
10. Competition. Examples include government-tolerated anticompetitive conduct of state-owned or private firms that restricts the sale or purchase of U.S. goods or services in the foreign country's markets or abuse of competition laws to inhibit trade, and fairness and due process concerns by companies involved in competition investigatory and enforcement proceedings in the country.
11. State-owned enterprises (SOEs). Examples include actions by SOEs and by governments with respect to SOEs involved in the manufacture or production of non-agricultural goods or in the supply of services that constitute significant barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. investments, or U.S. electronic commerce, which may negatively affect U.S. firms and workers, such as subsidies and non-commercial advantages provided to and from SOEs; practices with respect to SOEs that discriminate against U.S. goods or services; or actions by SOEs that are inconsistent with commercial considerations in the purchase and sale of goods and services.
12. Labor. Examples include concerns with failures by a government to protect internationally recognized worker rights or to eliminate discrimination in respect of employment or occupation, in cases where these failures influence trade flows or investment decisions in ways that constitute significant barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. investment, or U.S. electronic commerce, which may negatively affect U.S. firms and workers. Internationally recognized worker rights include the right of association; the right to organize and bargain collectively; a prohibition on the use of any form of forced or compulsory labor; a minimum age for the employment of children, and a prohibition on the worst forms of child labor; and acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational safety and health.
13. Environment. Examples include concerns with a government's levels of environmental protection, unsustainable stewardship of natural resources, and harmful environmental practices that constitute significant barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. investment, or U.S. electronic commerce, which may negatively affect U.S. firms or workers.
14. Other barriers. Examples include significant barriers or distortions that are not covered in any other category above or that encompass more than one category, such as bribery and corruption, or that affect a single sector.
Please provide, if available, the titles of relevant laws or measures and a description of the concerns with which the laws or measures relate to the significant foreign barriers or distortions identified. Commenters should place particular emphasis on any practices that may violate U.S. trade agreements. USTR also is interested in receiving new or updated information pertinent to the barriers covered in the 2022 NTE Report as well as information on new barriers. If USTR does not include in the 2023 NTE Report information that it receives pursuant to this notice, it will maintain the information for potential use in future discussions or negotiations with trading partners.
Commenters should submit information related to one or more of the following export markets to be covered in the report: Algeria, Angola, the Arab League, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, the European Union, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and Vietnam. Commenters may submit information related to significant barriers or distortions in export markets other than those listed in this paragraph.
In addition, section 1377 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (19 U.S.C. 3106) (Section 1377) requires USTR annually to review the operation and effectiveness of U.S. telecommunications trade agreements that are in force with respect to the United States. The purpose of the review is to determine whether any foreign government that is a party to one of those agreements is failing to comply with that government's obligations or is otherwise denying, within the context of a relevant agreement, “mutually advantageous market opportunities” to U.S. telecommunication products or services suppliers. USTR will consider responses to this notice in the review called for in Section 1377 and highlight both ongoing and emerging barriers to U.S. telecommunication services and goods exports in the 2023 NTE Report.
To the extent possible, each comment should include an estimate of the potential increase in U.S. exports of goods or services, foreign direct investment, or electronic commerce that would result from removing any significant foreign trade barrier the comment identifies, as well as a description of the methodology the commenter used to derive the estimate. Commenters should express estimates within the following value ranges: less than $25 million; $25 million to $100 million; $100 million to $500 million; and over $500 million.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-19896