Lawmakers express concerns about growing global trade violations

Froman said there are “multiple purposes and facets” of the program and when tackling a renewal of GSP, which expires in July, Congress and the Obama administration will have to sit down and determine what reforms might be appropriate. 

More than a dozen business groups — including the National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Emergency Committee for American Trade, National Foreign Trade Council — are expressing growing concern about India’s trade policies. 

Earlier Thursday, 16 groups sent a letter to Obama and other top administration officials specifically asking the White House to step up enforcement on India for discriminating against a wide range of U.S. exports and for failing to protect intellectual property.

The groups argue that India’s actions are jeopardizing domestic jobs and putting at risk a growing bilateral trading relationship that totaled more than $60 billion last year. 

“Over the last year, the courts and policymakers in India have engaged in a persistent pattern of discrimination designed to benefit India’s business community at the expense of American jobs,” the letter said. 

For example, the Indian government recently demanded that as much as 100 percent of its market for certain information technology and clean energy equipment must be taken on by domestic firms.

“Administrative and court rulings have repeatedly ignored internationally recognized rights, imposing arbitrary marketing restrictions on medical devices and denying, breaking, or revoking patents for nearly a dozen lifesaving medications.”

The groups want India to end its practices and argue that, to make that happen, the U.S. government must immediately “initiate bilateral engagement at the highest levels and to coordinate closely with the European Union and other like-minded economies.”

“If this engagement is not fruitful, we ask the U.S. government to respond purposefully, using all available trade tools and diplomatic engagement.”

In response to additional concerns from Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) about India’s growing barriers to market access and the lack of respect for U.S. patents, Froman vowed, if confirmed, to pursue avenues to convince India to comply with world trade rules. 

A major concern among lawmakers and the business groups is that other countries will follow suit and adopt similar practices. 

“These actions and others constitute a disturbing trend that may continue and even expand to other products, sectors, and countries,” the business groups wrote. 

“Already there are indications that other countries are considering similar measures. Such actions are completely at odds with recognized global norms and raise troubling questions about India’s compliance with its international obligations to protect ideas, brands, and inventions and to treat imported goods no less favorably than domestic products.”

China remained a hot topic and even more so because Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are setting to being two days of meetings on Friday, that are expected to cover a broad range of economy issues include trade.

A bipartisan group of senators, including five on the Senate Finance panel, reintroduced currency manipulation legislation on Wednesday following the release on Tuesday of the latest trade deficit figures that show a 34 percent jump in the U.S.-China trade deficit. 

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a main sponsor of the measure, pressed Froman and the administration to continue pressing Beijing to let its currency, the yuan, increase in value compared with the dollar in an effort to preserve what he says are millions in U.S. job losses.

Brown suggested moving forward on the currency issue before taking up fast-track legislation or the TPP. 

“The issue is very high on the agenda,” Froman said. He argued that exchange rates are just one of several major economic issues, including state-owned enterprises, that have been raised at every meeting and at every administrative level from the presidency on down to push China toward more market oriented exchange rates.

“There is no greater issue than our relationship with China,” Froman said. 

The yuan has appreciated 16 percent since 2009 and Froman agreed with lawmakers that the pace is “not fast enough or far enough” and that the United States must to “continue to press at every occasion determine more effective way to make progress.”

Froman said the United States has proven its willingness to play hard ball with China by filing eight trade cases against Beijing in the last four years and has sought, through the World Trade Organization (WTO), to ensure China is abiding by international trade rules. 

“We’re very focused on making progress where can.”

Japan is another nation moving up the agenda because of its recent acceptance into the now 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. 

There is a movement in the House — joined by 230 members — to push for adding currency provisions into the TPP because of fluctuations in Japan.

Lawmakers and automakers continue to express concern about Japan’s ability to open up its market to U.S. exports, especially autos, which are heavily restricted. 

But Froman said there are parallel negotiations on autos as part of the TPP process that do include Tokyo opening up its market to U.S. autos and other products. 

“We wan to protect the gains we’ve made through auto industry and build on that strength,” he said. 

Still, Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) said regardless of the intentions of those negotiations “there is still skepticism about the ability to open those markets.”