The interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) is accepting comments and will hold a hearing to help inform the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) annual report to Congress on China’s compliance with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, USTR announced in a Federal Register notice published August 14.
The public hearing will be held on October 2 in Washington, D.C. The deadline for comments and requests to appear at the hearing is at 11:59 p.m. on September 18.
China became a member of the WTO in 2001. The U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 requires USTR to submit a report to Congress on China’s compliance with commitments made in connection with its accession to the WTO by December 11 annually.
The TPSC invites written comments and/or oral testimony of interested persons regarding China’s compliance with WTO commitments in areas including trading rights, tariffs, tariff-rate quotas, quotas, import licenses, export regulations, subsidies, standards and technical regulations, sanitary/phytosanitary measures, government procurement, trade-related investment measures, taxes levied on imports and exports, intellectual property rights and rule of law issues.
Further, USTR requests that interested persons specifically identify unresolved compliance issues warranting review and evaluation by USTR’s China Enforcement Task Force.
The last reports to Congress on China’s WTO compliance took issue with China’s self-identification as a developing country and pointed out several other issues of contention with China’s trade policies.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission will also hold a hearing regarding the national security implications of the bilateral economic relationship in Washington, D.C., on September 4.