USTR National Trade Estimate Report Released

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today released the 2024 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE Report), which provides a comprehensive review of significant foreign barriers to U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. foreign direct investment, and U.S. electronic commerce in key export markets for the United States.
 
 Ambassador Katherine Tai addressed up front some of the changes from previous years, notably the reduction in countries maintaining digital trade barriers and local content requirements.
 
“The NTE Report has received unprecedented attention this year because we are taking steps to return it to its stated statutory purpose.

"We respect that each government—including our own—has the sovereign right to govern in the public interest and to regulate for legitimate public policy reasons.

"Over the years, the NTE Report expanded from its statutory purpose to include measures without regard to whether they may be valid exercises of sovereign policy authority.

"By carefully editing and returning the NTE Report to the statute’s intent, USTR is making it a more useful document that enumerates significant trade barriers that could be addressed to expand market opportunities and help our economy grow."

Bill Reinsch of CSIS disagrees:   "That completely misses the point of the statute. The issue is not whether trade measures were legitimate or valid for the implementing country, but how they affect us."

Jake Colvin of the National Foreign Trade Council shared a similar assessment. “The NTE report is the latest example of deeply misguided efforts by this USTR to erode the standards that have governed decades of aggressive U.S. Government advocacy on behalf of American businesses and workers. America’s global economic competitors cannot be allowed to stand up blatantly discriminatory policies that disadvantage U.S. companies under the pretense of legitimate regulation." 
 

Published annually since 1985, this year’s NTE Report covers significant foreign trade barriers in 59 markets. Examples of these significant barriers include:
 

• Barriers to U.S. agricultural exports.Such as Indonesia’s facility registration requirements for dairy, meat, and rendered products, the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) requirements across a wide range of food and agricultural products; sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, or are applied beyond the extent necessary such as India, Turkey,  and Mexico’s policies regarding products of agricultural biotechnology, as well as the European Union’s policies.

• Failure to recognize U.S. motor vehicle standards. Certain countries effectively exclude U.S. vehicles built to conform to the U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), including Colombia, Egypt, Laos, Morocco, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.

• Lack of uniformity in the European Union.  Areas of concern include customs, labeling, agricultural biotechnology, packaging and packing waste, government procurement, investment, and intellectual property protection and enforcement.

• Non-Market Policies and Practices. The PRC’s state-led, non-market approach to the economy and trade continues to shape the industrial policies that the PRC pursues, and provide unfair competitive advantages to PRC companies. 

• Data policies in furtherance of state intrusion. . USTR has identified problematic data policies across a range of countries, including the PRC and Russia.

 
The 2024 NTE Report can be viewed here.
 
The release of the 2024 NTE Report follows the March 1, 2024 release of the 2024 President’s Trade Policy Agenda and 2023 Annual Report. USTR plans to release its annual Special 301 Report on the adequacy and effectiveness of trading partners’ protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights within 30 days.