REMINDER: Comments Due On U.S. Foreign Trade Barriers Report

As Connecting the Dots reported two weeks ago, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, recently announced that it wants input for its annual “National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers,” a report which will cover trade barriers and market access issues in China and an additional 60 specific countries and regions.

As USTR describes it, the NTE “sets out an inventory of the most significant foreign barriers affecting U.S. exports of goods and services, including agricultural commodities, U.S. intellectual property, U.S. 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 report “facilitates U.S. negotiations aimed at reducing or eliminating these barriers and is a valuable tool in enforcing U.S. trade laws and strengthening the rules-based trading system.” USTR has outlined ten categories of foreign trade barriers, including import and export policies, technical barriers to trade, subsidies, competition challenges, and barriers to digital trade.

Interested parties have until October 29, 2020 to comment.