 Washington Fair Trade Coalition Working on behalf of people and the planet for a fair global trading system |
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Resources >> Fast Track Resource Center >> Negotiating Objectives | ||||
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Negotiating Objectives
Overall trade negotiating objectives of the United States To obtain:
Principal trade negotiating objectives Dispute settlement Provide for more effective and efficient dispute settlement mechanisms and procedures within the GATT and enable better enforcement of U.S. rights. Improvement of the operation of GATT and multilateral trade negotiation agreements Enhance the status and coverage of GATT and such agreements to areas of trade not adequately covered, and expand country participation in particular agreements where appropriate. Transparency Increase transparency regarding the costs and benefits of trade policy actions. Developing countries Give developing countries the responsibility of establishing an open international trading system in order to promote economic development and reduce nonreciprocal trade benefits for more advanced developing countries. Current account surpluses Put greater pressure and responsibility on countries with large and persistent global account imbalances to undertake policy changes aimed at restoring account equilibrium, including expedited implementation of trade agreements where feasible and appropriate. Trade and monetary coordination Develop mechanisms to assure greater coordination, consistency, and cooperation between international trade and monetary systems and institutions. Agriculture Achieve more open and fair
conditions of trade in agricultural commodities Improve the provisions of the GATT and non-tariff barrier agreements in order to discourage and discipline unfair trade practices having adverse trade effects, including forms of subsidy, dumping, and export targeting practices. Trade in services Develop internationally agreed rules to reduce or eliminate barriers to international trade in services. Intellectual property Seek the enactment and enforcement by foreign countries of laws that protect intellectual property and prevent unfair competition, and ensure that such laws, as well as mechanisms to enforce them, are established in the GATT. Foreign direct investment Reduce or eliminate barriers to foreign direct investment, expand the principle of National Treatment (1), and develop internationally agreed rules, including dispute settlement procedures, that will facilitate this. Safeguards Improve and expand procedures covering safeguard measures, and ensure that safeguard measures are transparent, temporary, degressive, and subject to review and termination when no longer necessary to remedy injury and to facilitate adjustment. Specific barriers Obtain competitive opportunities for U.S. exports in foreign markets equivalent to the competitive opportunities afforded foreign exports in U.S. markets, including the reduction or elimination of specific tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. Worker rights Promote respect for worker rights, and establish in the GATT the principle that denying worker rights should not be a means for gaining competitive advantage in international trade. Access to high technology Eliminate or reduce foreign barriers and policies by foreign governments that limit equitable access by U.S. persons to foreign developed technology. Border taxes Revise GATT provisions concerning the treatment of border adjustments for internal taxes to compensate for the disadvantage to countries relying primarily on direct taxes for revenue rather than indirect taxes.(1) National treatment is a WTO core article which states that imported and locally-produced goods, services, trademarks, and copyrights and patents must be treated equally once the foreign goods have entered the domestic market. |
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