Category: Press Releases and Statements

USA*Engage Opposes S. 2828, “Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014”

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Washington DC – USA*Engage Director Richard Sawaya issued the following statement today following the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s passage of the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014 (S. 2828).

“Russia’s actions in Ukraine are an immediate and pressing problem for the United States and the EU. To date, both the United States and the EU have not supplied Ukraine with military assistance. Instead, they have implemented increasingly draconian economic sanctions, targeting the Russian energy, defense and financial sectors. These sanctions have made little difference in Russian behavior toward Ukraine.

“S. 2828 is an understandable attempt by its proponents to provide U.S. military, financial and other assistance to Ukraine. But S. 2828 would also codify the executive branch sanctions that have been put in place, in effect freezing the status quo.

“Given the Russian response to the U.S. and EU sanctions, and the fact that sanctions have no connection to the provision of military, financial or other assistance that would presumably improve the Ukrainian government’s position vis-a-vis Russia, their inclusion in the legislation is most unfortunate. For this reason, USA*Engage opposes further congressional action on S. 2828 as reported by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“In their present state, the U.S. and EU sanctions have not changed Russia’s behavior in Ukraine. Given Russia’s financial position, as well as its place in the global economy, there is little chance they will in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, the U.S. sanctions are exacting substantial collateral damage to U.S. investments and operations in Russia across sectors. At least, under the status quo, their rapid reversal remains possible should the situation on the ground in Ukraine change. It is difficult to see how their codification in law would facilitate resolution of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow.”

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About USA*Engage

USA*Engage (www.usaengage.org) is a coalition of small and large businesses, agriculture groups and trade associations working to seek alternatives to the proliferation of unilateral U.S. foreign policy sanctions and to promote the benefits of U.S. engagement abroad. Established in 1997 and organized under the National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org), USA*Engage leads a campaign to inform policymakers, opinion leaders, and the public about the counterproductive nature of unilateral sanctions, the importance of exports and overseas investment for American competitiveness and jobs, and the role of American companies in promoting human rights and democracy worldwide.

The Hidden Cost Of Low Prices: Limited Access To New Drugs In India

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In support of its mission “to inspire, promote, encourage and facilitate international trade and investment in order to enhance economic growth and job creation throughout the world” the National Foreign Trade Council Foundation supports and conducts research and study on the problems and opportunities in international economics and foreign trade and investments. Following is a recent product.

India’s treatment of pharmaceutical patents has been a subject of much attention since its implementation of the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement through amendments in 2005 to India’s Patent Act. Professors Ernst R. Berndt (MIT) and Iain M. Cockburn (Boston Univ.) have recently contributed an article to Health Affairs entitled, “The Hidden Cost of Low Prices: Limited Access to New Drugs in India.”

Abstract: The pricing and accessibility of patent-protected drugs in low- and middle-income countries is a contentious issue in the global context. But questions about price have little meaning if a drug is not available for purchase, and the extent to which patent policy affects when (and if) new drugs become available in these countries has largely been overlooked. We examined data on the sales of 184 drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration between 2000 and 2009. We found that 50 percent of those 184 drugs went on sale in India only after lags of more than five years from their first worldwide introduction. More than half of the drugs that became newly available in India during the study period were produced and sold by multiple manufacturers in the country within one year of their introduction. The presence of multiple manufacturers indicates sharp competition and weak patent protection—factors that are disincentives to manufacturers to incur the costs of gaining access to the market. We conclude that modest patent and regulatory reform could bring the faster availability of a wider range of new drugs in India with limited impact on prices—a trade-off that merits greater policy attention.

The NFTC Foundation has secured a link to the full article for our website visitors. In order to view this article, you must access it from the link below:

The Hidden Cost Of Low Prices: Limited Access To New Drugs In India
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/33/9/1567?ijkey=M0PodbO9SGfZc&keytype=ref&siteid=healthaff

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Reinsch: “WTO Reform Misses the Point”

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Washington DC – Yesterday, in a guest blog post for America’s Trade Policy, titled “WTO Reform Misses the Point,” National Foreign Trade Council President Bill Reinsch wrote:

“The failure of the Doha Round and the hopefully temporary setback in implementing the Bali Trade Facilitation Agreement has once again raised questions about the World Trade Organization’s viability. Once we get past blaming India (correctly) for the most recent disaster, attention will inevitably turn to the question of whether the WTO is up to the task of reaching agreements on complex trade issues and, if not, how to ‘fix’ it.

“Focusing on institutional reform is an attractive road to go down politically. It allows governments to postpone, if not ignore, the real trade issues that divide them, and it allows them to place blame on the organization itself or, at worst, their predecessors who created it, rather than on themselves. Tempting though that is, however, it is ultimately self-defeating because it only postpones the day of reckoning when difficult trade issues will have to be dealt with. It is also a dead end.

“… So what is the alternative? If the institution truly has become unwieldy, then one or both of two things is likely to happen. One is that those who are making it unwieldy will over time learn how to work within the system more diplomatically – in effect, learn how to behave – and the problem will gradually go away as the system adjusts. The second is that work-arounds emerge.”

Click here to read the full blog post.

 
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About the NFTC
NFTC is Celebrating our New Century in 2014! Details at www.nftc.org – The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.Follow us on:

NFTC Statement on Reported Collapse of WTO Talks

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Washington, DC– National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) Vice President for Global Trade Issues Jake Colvin released the following statement following reports that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has failed to advance the Trade Facilitation Agreement as mandated:

“Failure to advance the Trade Facilitation Agreement today would be a blow to the multilateral trading system.

“In the short term, we hope that the more than 150 members of the WTO who were committed to this outcome will seek to engineer a solution that permits this important agreement to move forward.

“More broadly, today’s developments suggest that there is little hope for truly global trade talks to take place. Businesses are multilateralists at heart, but they’re also pragmatic and will look to talks among smaller groups to achieve what now appears to be impossible among the entire membership of the World Trade Organization.

“The vast majority of countries who understand the importance of modernizing trade rules and keeping their promises need to pick up the pieces and figure out how to move forward in ways that avoid letting one country hold up shared progress.”

 
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About the NFTC
NFTC is Celebrating our New Century in 2014! Details at www.nftc.org – The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.Follow us on:

NFTC Statement on Failure to Advance WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement

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Washington, DC – NFTC Vice President for Global Trade Issues Jake Colvin released the following statement in response to reports that negotiators in Geneva failed to advance the Trade Facilitation Agreement:

“Failure to advance the Trade Facilitation Agreement as promised would do lasting damage to the multilateral trading system.

“It is ironic that the very same countries who criticize exclusive trade negotiating groups, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trade in Services Agreement, the loudest seem ready to ensure that those smaller groupings are the only viable paths forward for trade negotiators.

“While we hold out hope that the agreement will advance by unanimous consent prior to the July deadline set in Bali, we would urge negotiators of the overwhelming majority of countries who are committed to the Trade Facilitation Agreement and to improving economic development through the global trading system to engineer a path forward that salvages the credibility of the World Trade Organization.”

 

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About the NFTC

 
NFTC is Celebrating our New Century in 2014! Details at www.nftc.org – The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.Follow us on:

 

 

 

U.S. Business Community Announces Formation of the Coalition for Green Trade

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Coalition founded to Support Environmental Goods Agreement Launch

July 9, 2014

Today the U.S. business community announced the formation of the Coalition for Green Trade, composed of a broad range of associations and companies doing business in the United States who seek to remove barriers to global trade in environmental technologies.

The purpose of the Coalition is to educate policymakers and the public on the importance of lowering trade barriers to environmental technologies, and to advocate for the timely negotiation of an ambitious Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) under the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Coalition is co-chaired by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), and the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), and composed of a steering committee that also includes the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Coalition of Service Industries, Emergency Committee for American Trade, Information Technology Industry Council, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, National Electrical Manufacturers Association, Semiconductor Industry Association, Solar Energy Industries Association, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“It is critical that the EGA negotiations substantially broaden the list of 54 goods agreed upon by the APEC forum in 2012 in order to more accurately reflect the substantial breadth and significant growth in the green goods sector,” said Jessica Lemos, director of international trade policy at the NAM. “The NAM looks forward to working with our U.S. and foreign negotiators and businesses toward a strong result that will grow this sector, manufacturing and jobs.”
“EGA is important in its own right, and can also act as a stepping stone to lower tariffs in other sectors and value chains associated with environmental technologies,” said Eva Hampl, Director, Investment, Trade and Financial Services at USCIB. “A high-quality agreement would advance global innovation and be flexible to permit new entrants and commitments to keep pace with new technologies.”

The first round of EGA talks are scheduled to begin this week in Geneva. Representatives from NAM, NFTC and USCIB are leading a U.S. business delegation to participate in events and meetings on the sidelines of the official negotiations.

“Negotiators have an opportunity to produce a meaningful agreement that is good for economic development and for the environment,” said Jake Colvin, Vice President for Global Trade Issues at NFTC. “It’s also a chance to demonstrate that the WTO can be nimble, and can address emerging concerns of interest to global business and development communities.”

All of the steering committee members of the coalition joined business associations from around the world to release a global industry letter in support of the EGA initiative.

For more information contact:
Nicole L’Esperance, the Fratelli Group, for NFTC: nlesperance@fratelli.com or 202-822-9491
Jamie Hennigan, for NAM, at jhennigan@nam.org or 202.637.3090
Jonathan Hueneke, for USCIB: jhueneke@uscib.org, or 202-703-5043

In Geneva, NFTC Applauds Launch of Environmental Goods Agreement Talks

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In response to the announcement by 14 major trading partners of their intention to negotiate an agreement to eliminate tariffs on environmental technologies under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization, NFTC Vice President for Global Trade Issues Jake Colvin — who is in Geneva for the launch along with other global businesses and associations — released the following statement:

“NFTC applauds today’s launch of talks towards an Environmental Goods Agreement. The green goods initiative is a chance to show how trade policies can address a pressing global challenge and improve environmental outcomes.

“While eliminating tariffs is often thought of as a concession in trade agreements, this initiative provides an opportunity to flip that thinking. Countries who join up and agree to cut tariffs will lower the cost of adopting green technologies.

“The EGA is also a chance to demonstrate that the World Trade Organization can serve as a nimble forum to negotiate new trade commitments that benefit business and the global good.

“NFTC commends the group of 14 negotiators for this announcement. We want to recognize President Obama and Ambassador Froman for their leadership in emphasizing the economic and environmental benefits of this initiative. We look forward to working with the U.S. Government and other economies to advance an ambitious agreement “

About the NFTC

 
NFTC is Celebrating our New Century in 2014! Details at www.nftc.org – The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.Follow us on: