As we previously reported, Executive Order 13796 of April 29, 2017, requires the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the secretary of State, secretary of the Treasury, attorney general and the director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, to conduct comprehensive performance reviews of all bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral trade agreements and investment agreements to which the United States is a party and all trade relations with countries governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with which the United States does not have free trade agreements but with which the United States runs significant trade deficits in goods.
USTR and Commerce are seeking comments that they will consider as part of these performance reviews and in preparation of the subsequent report to the president. Specifically, commenters should submit information related to one or more of the following assessments:
- The performance of individual free trade agreements (FTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs) to which the United States is a party.
- The performance of the WTO agreements with regard to our trade relations with those trading partners with which the United States does not have an FTA but with which the United States runs significant trade deficits in goods. The trading partners subject to these performance reviews are China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
- The performance of U.S. trade preference programs.
Written comments are due by 11:59 p.m. EDT on July 31, 2017. USTR and Commerce prefer electronic submissions made through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. The docket number is USTR-2017-0010. For additional information, please see the Federal Register notice on this matter.