“It is most troubling that as efforts are underway to deepen the opportunities for economic growth and opportunity between the United States and New Zealand, we now find that the New Zealand government is considering the destruction of an industry’s legitimate trademark protection and branding – rights long protected under law and international treaties.

While there is no question that protecting public health is a legitimate objective, there is also no question that trademarks and other forms of intellectual property stimulate innovation and are essential to building vibrant economies. There is no fact-based evidence which suggests that mandating the destruction of intellectual property (IP) will advance public health. We firmly believe the measure in question could instead undermine public health as a result of unintended consequences, such as an increased influx of counterfeit tobacco products.

New Zealand has made binding commitments under international obligations to protect IP while it has no such obligation to mandate plain packaging of tobacco products. There are numerous methods to effectively regulate the tobacco industry that do not undermine the protection of IP, do not have such damaging unintended consequences, and are consistent with New Zealand’s international trade obligations. New Zealand, as a world leader in the international trading system, surely recognizes the critical importance of abiding by international trade rules and the value of not undermining that system. We do not believe the current international trading system in any way impedes the ability of governments to regulate in the public interest. But, the mandated trademark destruction through government imposed plain packaging does violate international trade rules.

New Zealand has long called upon trading partners to avoid arbitrary measures not sufficiently grounded in science when regulating industry. The destruction of branding and the related trademarks of an industry without reliable evidence to support these actions defy these long-held views that science should be the foundation of regulation. This assault on trademark represents a fundamental challenge to the global IP system we have fought hard to build. Although presently this effort is only confined to tobacco products, we see this as a systemic threat to rules which intellectual property and the trading system is dependent upon. We hope the New Zealand government will consider the concerns we have raised for the possible impact on New Zealand exports, such as dairy and wine, should other governments feel emboldened to take similar measures.

As leading representatives of business, we rely on the rules-based international trade framework to sustain economic growth, employment, innovation and prosperity. We encourage governments, including in New Zealand, to reflect on not only the importance of the rules based international system in their actions, but also the science and evidentiary basis for such an extreme step, and call upon the New Zealand government to place the effort in the well-intentioned, yet ill-advised, category.”
 

“We welcome the announcement and applaud the Administration for working in concert with the Colombian government to set a date for implementation of the FTA, as the agreement will further strengthen our longstanding bilateral economic ties and promote U.S. export growth and job creation.

“Colombia is fast becoming a leading economic player in Latin America. With the third largest economy and more than 46 million consumers, Colombia is an expanding market for U.S. goods and services. Implementation of the agreement will ensure that American companies, farmers and ranchers will remain competitive in this critical market and have new opportunities to maximize economic growth and create American jobs.

“The NFTC urges the Administration to press forward and continue to work with the Panamanian government, as it did with South Korea and Colombia, to implement the U.S.-Panama FTA as soon as possible.”
 

“Ambassador Kirk highlighted many issues of priority for the NFTC and our members. In particular, we are encouraged by the Administration’s efforts to implement the Colombia and Panama free trade agreements as soon as possible, just as it worked toward swift implementation of the Korea agreement,” said NFTC President Bill Reinsch. “We also welcome Ambassador Kirk’s remarks on the Administration’s push to terminate Russia’s Jackson-Vanik Amendment status and to establish permanent normal trade relations, conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and restore Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) this year. The NFTC has already drafted a bill on the latter, which we plan to offer for Congressional consideration.”

During his testimony before the committee, NFTC Chairman Alan Wolff highlighted the TPP as a model for structuring future global trade rules and as a platform for making progress on 21st century trade issues, including services and state-owned enterprises (SOE). Wolff also called for modernizing international trade rules governing cross-border data flows and emphasized the need to restore TPA. To follow is an excerpt from Wolff’s testimony:

“TPP is the world’s only live and exciting trade negotiation in which the United States is involved. One thing that I wish to convey is that those TPP participants that employ state-owned enterprises have an interest in disciplines being put into place on how these government enterprises compete in commercial markets. Participating countries in TPP should negotiate with full awareness that it is more than a vague possibility that some other country will have a larger SOE that will distort competition in a manner harmful to their interests. TPP is exciting and important because it has the real potential to set the future rules for trade in a way that I regret the WTO has not been able to continue at this time. I hope that TPP will become a good template for the new rules that ultimately govern global trade through the WTO.”

“With the KORUS FTA implementing legislation signed by the President exactly four months ago, the NFTC welcomes today’s announcement and commends the Administration for working with the South Korean government toward swift implementation of this important agreement.

“Once the agreement enters into force, American companies, workers, farmers and ranchers will begin to reap the benefits of the FTA, which will increase U.S. competitiveness in a critical market, create and support thousands of American jobs and boost the U.S. economy, in addition to strengthening ties with a key geo-strategic partner.

“We urge the Administration to keep this momentum going and work as efficiently as possible to work with the Colombian and Panamanian governments to implement the U.S.-Colombia and U.S.-Panama FTAs as soon as possible.”