Trade Agreements & Negotiations
The Office of Industry Analysis plays a role in the negotiation and analysis of trade agreements in both multilateral negotiations, such as the WTO, and bilateral negotiations, such as free trade agreements.
Multilateral Trade Negotiations
Free Trade Agreements
Role of Industry Analysis
IAN staff in the Office of Trade Policy Analysis participate trade agreement negotiations and analysis in three areas: industrial goods market access, government procurement and rules of origin. In addition, OTPA and the Office of Trade and Industry Information analyze the potential effects of new trade agreements and produce sector-specific reports highlighting the new market access trade agreements will provide to U.S. exporters. Finally, the Office of Competition and Economic Analysis analyzes the impact third-party trade agreements have on the competitiveness of U.S. industry.
Industrial Goods Market Access
OTPA serves as the International Trade administration’s principal technical expert on industrial tariffs in bilateral and multilateral negotiations. In this capacity, OTPA:
- Develops U.S. positions and creates the U.S. tariff offers;
- Analyzes industrial market access tariff offers of FTA partners to ensure meaningful access for U.S. industry, and
- Creates specific tariff elimination requests.
Rules of Origin
OTPA serves as the ITA expert on product-specific rules of origin. In bilateral negotiations, OTPA:
- Ensures industry views are included in U.S. positions, and
- Maintains a database of previously negotiated product specific rules of origin.
Government Procurement
OTPA serves as the International Trade Administration's principal policy advisor procurement market access negotiations. In multilateral and bilateral negotiations, OTPA:
- Develops U.S. offers and requests based on industry input and assessments from MAS industry specialists and domestic law;
- Serves as principal policy advisor to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on GP market access negotiations;
- Attends market access negotiations to support USTR and ensure that ITA views are reflected in U.S. proposals;
- Analyzes and reports on the outcome and potential benefits stemming from the agreement.
Agreement Analysis
The Office of Industry Analysis conducts various analyses on bilateral and multilateral agreements to assess their impact on U.S. industry.
- The Office of Trade and Industry Information conducts analysis of the potential effects of new free trade agreements on individual states looking at the opportunities for industries in those states.
- The Office of Trade Policy Analysis produces industry-specific sector reports for the agreements highlighting the effects of the agreement on those industries’ market access in the partner markets.
- The Office of Competition and Economic Analysis analyzes third-country agreements to assess the impact those agreements will have on U.S. companies competing in those markets and overall U.S. competitiveness.
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For more information please contact: Justin Hoffmann
Last Updated: 8/11/11 12:16 PM
