Making sure that US trade partners comply with the trade agreements they make is an "absolute" for the Bush Administration, according to Assistant Commerce Secretary for Market Access and Compliance William Lash (WTD, 8/8/02).
"No country is off-limits, no US company is too small to be fought for, no market is sacrosanct," Mr. Lash told a gathering at the Heritage Foundation yesterday. As an indication of that commitment, Mr. Lash said his office has increased its active caseload by 300 percent – and more importantly, increased case closures by 50 percent.
One of the biggest compliance challenges facing the United States is dealing with nontariff barriers to US products and services – and one of the biggest users of those barriers is the European Union. Perhaps the most well-known of these is the EU's ban of agriculture products containing genetically modified organisms (WTD, 7/29/02). There is no scientific basis for the ban, which Mr. Lash said even European officials acknowledge has less to do with any real dangers from GMOs than with European distrust of its own regulatory bodies.
Even worse, the EU is spreading its "rhetoric" about the dangers of GMOs, to other countries, potentially preventing malnourished people in poor countries from benefitting from the higher yield biotech crops.
Mr. Lash cited chemicals as another problem area. He noted an EU white paper has been proposed that would make it difficult for US chemicals to enter the European market. The white paper proposes a new labeling regime for chemicals under which as much as 70 percent of chemicals now in the EU market would be labeled as dangerous and many would be banned outright. But European-produced versions of the same chemicals would be acceptable.
Standards is another area where the EU in effect is trying to "regulate US companies out of the market" by adopting standards that make US products unusable.
More broadly, Mr. Lash said patents, copyrights and intellectual property protections and pharmaceuticals also are problem areas.
Although China is increasingly coming under fire for alleged non-compliance with the agreements it made to join the World Trade Organization, Mr. Lash said he believes Beijing is committed to meeting its obligations (WTD, 9/4/02). "Good progress" is being made on bringing China into compliance with its WTO commitments, he said. As part of the effort, Commerce has been sending a delegation each month to work with Chinese officials on compliance. Undersecretary for Technology Phil Bond will lead this month's delegation and will discuss technology and IPR issues.