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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 3802. Trade negotiating objectives
(a) Overall trade negotiating objectives
The overall trade negotiating objectives of the United States for
agreements subject to the provisions of section 3803 of this title
are -
(1) to obtain more open, equitable, and reciprocal market
access;
(2) to obtain the reduction or elimination of barriers and
distortions that are directly related to trade and that decrease
market opportunities for United States exports or otherwise
distort United States trade;
(3) to further strengthen the system of international trading
disciplines and procedures, including dispute settlement;
(4) to foster economic growth, raise living standards, and
promote full employment in the United States and to enhance the
global economy;
(5) to ensure that trade and environmental policies are
mutually supportive and to seek to protect and preserve the
environment and enhance the international means of doing so,
while optimizing the use of the world's resources;
(6) to promote respect for worker rights and the rights of
children consistent with core labor standards of the ILO (as
defined in section 3813(6) of this title) and an understanding of
the relationship between trade and worker rights;
(7) to seek provisions in trade agreements under which parties
to those agreements strive to ensure that they do not weaken or
reduce the protections afforded in domestic environmental and
labor laws as an encouragement for trade;
(8) to ensure that trade agreements afford small businesses
equal access to international markets, equitable trade benefits,
and expanded export market opportunities, and provide for the
reduction or elimination of trade barriers that
disproportionately impact small businesses; and
(9) to promote universal ratification and full compliance with
ILO Convention No. 182 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate
Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor.
(b) Principal trade negotiating objectives
(1) Trade barriers and distortions
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States
regarding trade barriers and other trade distortions are -
(A) to expand competitive market opportunities for United
States exports and to obtain fairer and more open conditions of
trade by reducing or eliminating tariff and nontariff barriers
and policies and practices of foreign governments directly
related to trade that decrease market opportunities for United
States exports or otherwise distort United States trade; and
(B) to obtain reciprocal tariff and nontariff barrier
elimination agreements, with particular attention to those
tariff categories covered in section 3521(b) of this title.
(2) Trade in services
The principal negotiating objective of the United States
regarding trade in services is to reduce or eliminate barriers to
international trade in services, including regulatory and other
barriers that deny national treatment and market access or
unreasonably restrict the establishment or operations of service
suppliers.
(3) Foreign investment
Recognizing that United States law on the whole provides a high
level of protection for investment, consistent with or greater
than the level required by international law, the principal
negotiating objectives of the United States regarding foreign
investment are to reduce or eliminate artificial or
trade-distorting barriers to foreign investment, while ensuring
that foreign investors in the United States are not accorded
greater substantive rights with respect to investment protections
than United States investors in the United States, and to secure
for investors important rights comparable to those that would be
available under United States legal principles and practice, by -
(A) reducing or eliminating exceptions to the principle of
national treatment;
(B) freeing the transfer of funds relating to investments;
(C) reducing or eliminating performance requirements, forced
technology transfers, and other unreasonable barriers to the
establishment and operation of investments;
(D) seeking to establish standards for expropriation and
compensation for expropriation, consistent with United States
legal principles and practice;
(E) seeking to establish standards for fair and equitable
treatment consistent with United States legal principles and
practice, including the principle of due process;
(F) providing meaningful procedures for resolving investment
disputes;
(G) seeking to improve mechanisms used to resolve disputes
between an investor and a government through -
(i) mechanisms to eliminate frivolous claims and to deter
the filing of frivolous claims;
(ii) procedures to ensure the efficient selection of
arbitrators and the expeditious disposition of claims;
(iii) procedures to enhance opportunities for public input
into the formulation of government positions; and
(iv) providing for an appellate body or similar mechanism
to provide coherence to the interpretations of investment
provisions in trade agreements; and
(H) ensuring the fullest measure of transparency in the
dispute settlement mechanism, to the extent consistent with the
need to protect information that is classified or business
confidential, by -
(i) ensuring that all requests for dispute settlement are
promptly made public;
(ii) ensuring that -
(I) all proceedings, submissions, findings, and decisions
are promptly made public; and
(II) all hearings are open to the public; and
(iii) establishing a mechanism for acceptance of amicus
curiae submissions from businesses, unions, and
nongovernmental organizations.
(4) Intellectual property
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States
regarding trade-related intellectual property are -
(A) to further promote adequate and effective protection of
intellectual property rights, including through -
(i)(I) ensuring accelerated and full implementation of the
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights referred to in section 3511(d)(15) of this title,
particularly with respect to meeting enforcement obligations
under that agreement; and
(II) ensuring that the provisions of any multilateral or
bilateral trade agreement governing intellectual property
rights that is entered into by the United States reflect a
standard of protection similar to that found in United States
law;
(ii) providing strong protection for new and emerging
technologies and new methods of transmitting and distributing
products embodying intellectual property;
(iii) preventing or eliminating discrimination with respect
to matters affecting the availability, acquisition, scope,
maintenance, use, and enforcement of intellectual property
rights;
(iv) ensuring that standards of protection and enforcement
keep pace with technological developments, and in particular
ensuring that rightholders have the legal and technological
means to control the use of their works through the Internet
and other global communication media, and to prevent the
unauthorized use of their works; and
(v) providing strong enforcement of intellectual property
rights, including through accessible, expeditious, and
effective civil, administrative, and criminal enforcement
mechanisms;
(B) to secure fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory market
access opportunities for United States persons that rely upon
intellectual property protection; and
(C) to respect the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and
Public Health, adopted by the World Trade Organization at the
Fourth Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar on November 14,
2001.
(5) Transparency
The principal negotiating objective of the United States with
respect to transparency is to obtain wider and broader
application of the principle of transparency through -
(A) increased and more timely public access to information
regarding trade issues and the activities of international
trade institutions;
(B) increased openness at the WTO and other international
trade fora by increasing public access to appropriate meetings,
proceedings, and submissions, including with regard to dispute
settlement and investment; and
(C) increased and more timely public access to all
notifications and supporting documentation submitted by parties
to the WTO.
(6) Anti-corruption
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States with
respect to the use of money or other things of value to influence
acts, decisions, or omissions of foreign governments or officials
or to secure any improper advantage in a manner affecting trade
are -
(A) to obtain high standards and appropriate domestic
enforcement mechanisms applicable to persons from all countries
participating in the applicable trade agreement that prohibit
such attempts to influence acts, decisions, or omissions of
foreign governments; and
(B) to ensure that such standards do not place United States
persons at a competitive disadvantage in international trade.
(7) Improvement of the WTO and multilateral trade agreements
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States
regarding the improvement of the World Trade Organization, the
Uruguay Round Agreements, and other multilateral and bilateral
trade agreements are -
(A) to achieve full implementation and extend the coverage of
the World Trade Organization and such agreements to products,
sectors, and conditions of trade not adequately covered; and
(B) to expand country participation in and enhancement of the
Information Technology Agreement and other trade agreements.
(8) Regulatory practices
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States
regarding the use of government regulation or other practices by
foreign governments to provide a competitive advantage to their
domestic producers, service providers, or investors and thereby
reduce market access for United States goods, services, and
investments are -
(A) to achieve increased transparency and opportunity for the
participation of affected parties in the development of
regulations;
(B) to require that proposed regulations be based on sound
science, cost-benefit analysis, risk assessment, or other
objective evidence;
(C) to establish consultative mechanisms among parties to
trade agreements to promote increased transparency in
developing guidelines, rules, regulations, and laws for
government procurement and other regulatory regimes; and
(D) to achieve the elimination of government measures such as
price controls and reference pricing which deny full market
access for United States products.
(9) Electronic commerce
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States with
respect to electronic commerce are -
(A) to ensure that current obligations, rules, disciplines,
and commitments under the World Trade Organization apply to
electronic commerce;
(B) to ensure that -
(i) electronically delivered goods and services receive no
less favorable treatment under trade rules and commitments
than like products delivered in physical form; and
(ii) the classification of such goods and services ensures
the most liberal trade treatment possible;
(C) to ensure that governments refrain from implementing
trade-related measures that impede electronic commerce;
(D) where legitimate policy objectives require domestic
regulations that affect electronic commerce, to obtain
commitments that any such regulations are the least restrictive
on trade, nondiscriminatory, and transparent, and promote an
open market environment; and
(E) to extend the moratorium of the World Trade Organization
on duties on electronic transmissions.
(10) Reciprocal trade in agriculture
(A) The principal negotiating objective of the United States
with respect to agriculture is to obtain competitive
opportunities for United States exports of agricultural
commodities in foreign markets substantially equivalent to the
competitive opportunities afforded foreign exports in United
States markets and to achieve fairer and more open conditions of
trade in bulk, specialty crop, and value-added commodities by -
(i) reducing or eliminating, by a date certain, tariffs or
other charges that decrease market opportunities for United
States exports -
(I) giving priority to those products that are subject to
significantly higher tariffs or subsidy regimes of major
producing countries; and
(II) providing reasonable adjustment periods for United
States import-sensitive products, in close consultation with
the Congress on such products before initiating tariff
reduction negotiations;
(ii) reducing tariffs to levels that are the same as or lower
than those in the United States;
(iii) reducing or eliminating subsidies that decrease market
opportunities for United States exports or unfairly distort
agriculture markets to the detriment of the United States;
(iv) allowing the preservation of programs that support
family farms and rural communities but do not distort trade;
(v) developing disciplines for domestic support programs, so
that production that is in excess of domestic food security
needs is sold at world prices;
(vi) eliminating government policies that create
price-depressing surpluses;
(vii) eliminating state trading enterprises whenever
possible;
(viii) developing, strengthening, and clarifying rules and
effective dispute settlement mechanisms to eliminate practices
that unfairly decrease United States market access
opportunities or distort agricultural markets to the detriment
of the United States, particularly with respect to
import-sensitive products, including -
(I) unfair or trade-distorting activities of state trading
enterprises and other administrative mechanisms, with
emphasis on requiring price transparency in the operation of
state trading enterprises and such other mechanisms in order
to end cross subsidization, price discrimination, and price
undercutting;
(II) unjustified trade restrictions or commercial
requirements, such as labeling, that affect new technologies,
including biotechnology;
(III) unjustified sanitary or phytosanitary restrictions,
including those not based on scientific principles in
contravention of the Uruguay Round Agreements;
(IV) other unjustified technical barriers to trade; and
(V) restrictive rules in the administration of tariff rate
quotas;
(ix) eliminating practices that adversely affect trade in
perishable or cyclical products, while improving import relief
mechanisms to recognize the unique characteristics of
perishable and cyclical agriculture;
(x) ensuring that import relief mechanisms for perishable and
cyclical agriculture are as accessible and timely to growers in
the United States as those mechanisms that are used by other
countries;
(xi) taking into account whether a party to the negotiations
has failed to adhere to the provisions of already existing
trade agreements with the United States or has circumvented
obligations under those agreements;
(xii) taking into account whether a product is subject to
market distortions by reason of a failure of a major producing
country to adhere to the provisions of already existing trade
agreements with the United States or by the circumvention by
that country of its obligations under those agreements;
(xiii) otherwise ensuring that countries that accede to the
World Trade Organization have made meaningful market
liberalization commitments in agriculture;
(xiv) taking into account the impact that agreements covering
agriculture to which the United States is a party, including
the North American Free Trade Agreement, have on the United
States agricultural industry;
(xv) maintaining bona fide food assistance programs and
preserving United States market development and export credit
programs; and
(xvi) striving to complete a general multilateral round in
the World Trade Organization by January 1, 2005, and seeking
the broadest market access possible in multilateral, regional,
and bilateral negotiations, recognizing the effect that
simultaneous sets of negotiations may have on United States
import-sensitive commodities (including those subject to
tariff-rate quotas).
(B)(i) Before commencing negotiations with respect to
agriculture, the United States Trade Representative, in
consultation with the Congress, shall seek to develop a position
on the treatment of seasonal and perishable agricultural products
to be employed in the negotiations in order to develop an
international consensus on the treatment of seasonal or
perishable agricultural products in investigations relating to
dumping and safeguards and in any other relevant area.
(ii) During any negotiations on agricultural subsidies, the
United States Trade Representative shall seek to establish the
common base year for calculating the Aggregated Measurement of
Support (as defined in the Agreement on Agriculture) as the end
of each country's Uruguay Round implementation period, as
reported in each country's Uruguay Round market access schedule.
(iii) The negotiating objective provided in subparagraph (A)
applies with respect to agricultural matters to be addressed in
any trade agreement entered into under section 3803(a) or (b) of
this title, including any trade agreement entered into under
section 3803(a) or (b) of this title that provides for accession
to a trade agreement to which the United States is already a
party, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the
United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement.
(11) Labor and the environment
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States with
respect to labor and the environment are -
(A) to ensure that a party to a trade agreement with the
United States does not fail to effectively enforce its
environmental or labor laws, through a sustained or recurring
course of action or inaction, in a manner affecting trade
between the United States and that party after entry into force
of a trade agreement between those countries;
(B) to recognize that parties to a trade agreement retain the
right to exercise discretion with respect to investigatory,
prosecutorial, regulatory, and compliance matters and to make
decisions regarding the allocation of resources to enforcement
with respect to other labor or environmental matters determined
to have higher priorities, and to recognize that a country is
effectively enforcing its laws if a course of action or
inaction reflects a reasonable exercise of such discretion, or
results from a bona fide decision regarding the allocation of
resources, and no retaliation may be authorized based on the
exercise of these rights or the right to establish domestic
labor standards and levels of environmental protection;
(C) to strengthen the capacity of United States trading
partners to promote respect for core labor standards (as
defined in section 3813(6) of this title);
(D) to strengthen the capacity of United States trading
partners to protect the environment through the promotion of
sustainable development;
(E) to reduce or eliminate government practices or policies
that unduly threaten sustainable development;
(F) to seek market access, through the elimination of tariffs
and nontariff barriers, for United States environmental
technologies, goods, and services; and
(G) to ensure that labor, environmental, health, or safety
policies and practices of the parties to trade agreements with
the United States do not arbitrarily or unjustifiably
discriminate against United States exports or serve as
disguised barriers to trade.
(12) Dispute settlement and enforcement
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States with
respect to dispute settlement and enforcement of trade agreements
are -
(A) to seek provisions in trade agreements providing for
resolution of disputes between governments under those trade
agreements in an effective, timely, transparent, equitable, and
reasoned manner, requiring determinations based on facts and
the principles of the agreements, with the goal of increasing
compliance with the agreements;
(B) to seek to strengthen the capacity of the Trade Policy
Review Mechanism of the World Trade Organization to review
compliance with commitments;
(C) to seek adherence by panels convened under the Dispute
Settlement Understanding and by the Appellate Body to the
standard of review applicable under the Uruguay Round Agreement
involved in the dispute, including greater deference, where
appropriate, to the fact-finding and technical expertise of
national investigating authorities;
(D) to seek provisions encouraging the early identification
and settlement of disputes through consultation;
(E) to seek provisions to encourage the provision of
trade-expanding compensation if a party to a dispute under the
agreement does not come into compliance with its obligations
under the agreement;
(F) to seek provisions to impose a penalty upon a party to a
dispute under the agreement that -
(i) encourages compliance with the obligations of the
agreement;
(ii) is appropriate to the parties, nature, subject matter,
and scope of the violation; and
(iii) has the aim of not adversely affecting parties or
interests not party to the dispute while maintaining the
effectiveness of the enforcement mechanism; and
(G) to seek provisions that treat United States principal
negotiating objectives equally with respect to -
(i) the ability to resort to dispute settlement under the
applicable agreement;
(ii) the availability of equivalent dispute settlement
procedures; and
(iii) the availability of equivalent remedies.
(13) WTO extended negotiations
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States
regarding trade in civil aircraft are those set forth in section
3555(c) of this title and regarding rules of origin are the
conclusion of an agreement described in section 3552 of this
title.
(14) Trade remedy laws
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States with
respect to trade remedy laws are -
(A) to preserve the ability of the United States to enforce
rigorously its trade laws, including the antidumping,
countervailing duty, and safeguard laws, and avoid agreements
that lessen the effectiveness of domestic and international
disciplines on unfair trade, especially dumping and subsidies,
or that lessen the effectiveness of domestic and international
safeguard provisions, in order to ensure that United States
workers, agricultural producers, and firms can compete fully on
fair terms and enjoy the benefits of reciprocal trade
concessions; and
(B) to address and remedy market distortions that lead to
dumping and subsidization, including overcapacity,
cartelization, and market-access barriers.
(15) Border taxes
The principal negotiating objective of the United States
regarding border taxes is to obtain a revision of the WTO rules
with respect to the treatment of border adjustments for internal
taxes to redress the disadvantage to countries relying primarily
on direct taxes for revenue rather than indirect taxes.
(16) Textile negotiations
The principal negotiating objectives of the United States with
respect to trade in textiles and apparel articles are to obtain
competitive opportunities for United States exports of textiles
and apparel in foreign markets substantially equivalent to the
competitive opportunities afforded foreign exports in United
States markets and to achieve fairer and more open conditions of
trade in textiles and apparel.
(17) Worst forms of child labor
The principal negotiating objective of the United States with
respect to the trade-related aspects of the worst forms of child
labor are to seek commitments by parties to trade agreements to
vigorously enforce their own laws prohibiting the worst forms of
child labor.
(c) Promotion of certain priorities
In order to address and maintain United States competitiveness in
the global economy, the President shall -
(1) seek greater cooperation between the WTO and the ILO;
(2) seek to establish consultative mechanisms among parties to
trade agreements to strengthen the capacity of United States
trading partners to promote respect for core labor standards (as
defined in section 3813(6) of this title) and to promote
compliance with ILO Convention No. 182 Concerning the Prohibition
and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of
Child Labor, and report to the Committee on Ways and Means of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the
Senate on the content and operation of such mechanisms;
(3) seek to establish consultative mechanisms among parties to
trade agreements to strengthen the capacity of United States
trading partners to develop and implement standards for the
protection of the environment and human health based on sound
science, and report to the Committee on Ways and Means of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the
Senate on the content and operation of such mechanisms;
(4) conduct environmental reviews of future trade and
investment agreements, consistent with Executive Order 13141 of
November 16, 1999, and its relevant guidelines, and report to the
Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and
the Committee on Finance of the Senate on such reviews;
(5) review the impact of future trade agreements on United
States employment, including labor markets, modeled after
Executive Order 13141 to the extent appropriate in establishing
procedures and criteria, report to the Committee on Ways and
Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on
Finance of the Senate on such review, and make that report
available to the public;
(6) take into account other legitimate United States domestic
objectives including, but not limited to, the protection of
legitimate health or safety, essential security, and consumer
interests and the law and regulations related thereto;
(7) direct the Secretary of Labor to consult with any country
seeking a trade agreement with the United States concerning that
country's labor laws and provide technical assistance to that
country if needed;
(8) in connection with any trade negotiations entered into
under this Act, submit to the Committee on Ways and Means of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the
Senate a meaningful labor rights report of the country, or
countries, with respect to which the President is negotiating, on
a time frame determined in accordance with section 3807(b)(2)(E)
of this title;
(9) with respect to any trade agreement which the President
seeks to implement under trade authorities procedures, submit to
the Congress a report describing the extent to which the country
or countries that are parties to the agreement have in effect
laws governing exploitative child labor;
(10) continue to promote consideration of multilateral
environmental agreements and consult with parties to such
agreements regarding the consistency of any such agreement that
includes trade measures with existing environmental exceptions
under Article XX of the GATT 1994;
(11) report to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate, not
later than 12 months after the imposition of a penalty or remedy
by the United States permitted by a trade agreement to which this
chapter applies, on the effectiveness of the penalty or remedy
applied under United States law in enforcing United States rights
under the trade agreement; and
(12) seek to establish consultative mechanisms among parties to
trade agreements to examine the trade consequences of significant
and unanticipated currency movements and to scrutinize whether a
foreign government engaged (!1) in a pattern of manipulating its
currency to promote a competitive advantage in international
trade.
The report under paragraph (11) shall address whether the penalty
or remedy was effective in changing the behavior of the targeted
party and whether the penalty or remedy had any adverse impact on
parties or interests not party to the dispute.
(d) Consultations
(1) Consultations with congressional advisers
In the course of negotiations conducted under this chapter, the
United States Trade Representative shall consult closely and on a
timely basis with, and keep fully apprised of the negotiations,
the Congressional Oversight Group convened under section 3807 of
this title and all committees of the House of Representatives and
the Senate with jurisdiction over laws that would be affected by
a trade agreement resulting from the negotiations.
(2) Consultation before agreement initialed
In the course of negotiations conducted under this chapter, the
United States Trade Representative shall -
(A) consult closely and on a timely basis (including
immediately before initialing an agreement) with, and keep
fully apprised of the negotiations, the congressional advisers
for trade policy and negotiations appointed under section 2211
of this title, the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of
Representatives, the Committee on Finance of the Senate, and
the Congressional Oversight Group convened under section 3807
of this title; and
(B) with regard to any negotiations and agreement relating to
agricultural trade, also consult closely and on a timely basis
(including immediately before initialing an agreement) with,
and keep fully apprised of the negotiations, the Committee on
Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the Committee
on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate.
(e) Adherence to obligations under Uruguay Round Agreements
In determining whether to enter into negotiations with a
particular country, the President shall take into account the
extent to which that country has implemented, or has accelerated
the implementation of, its obligations under the Uruguay Round
Agreements.
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