Geneva – China wants substantial market-opening in maritime services and “Mode 4" – relating to movement of short-term services providers, elimination of most-favored-nation exemptions and improvements in domestic regulation as a counter to US demands to broaden discussion in the Doha Development Agenda services negotiations, WTD has learned (WTD, 7/9/10).

During a senior-level officials meeting last week of the Group-of-23 industrialized and developing countries, US trade envoy Michael Punke reiterated the importance of services market access to the Obama Administration.

The deputy US trade representative joined Australian senior trade official Bruce Gosper in pushing the “clustering” approach – putting together information and communications technology services and logistics covering various areas of the movement of goods – in a effort to jump-start the negotiations, sources said.

In response, China mentioned other important areas – like maritime services and “Mode 4" – in which the United States has not made any significant market-opening offer so far. Chinese Ambassador Sun Zhenyu said Beijing wants elimination of MFN exemptions that industrialized countries – especially the United States – have taken during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, such as the “Ship America” Jones Act program.

China was backed by several developing countries on “Mode 4" and improvements in domestic regulation, sources said. Developing countries also supported China’s call for an “audit” on what has been offered in the services negotiations until now, WTD has learned.

Geneva – On Friday, the United States served notice to the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Body that it wants a special meeting on July 21 to formally adopt a panel finding that went against several programs that European Union member states have granted as development aid for various models of Airbus commercial aircraft (WTD, 7/9/10).

In related news, the EU said it was “extremely disappointed” to learn of the delay of a dispute panel report on Brussels’ challenges against US subsidies and tax breaks for the Boeing corporation. “It creates the wrong impression that Airbus has received some WTO incompatible support, where as Boeing has not,” Brussels said in a statement. It added, “only when we have received both panel reports will both sides have a more complete picture of the dispute.”

India remains committed to the long-delayed Doha round of global trade talks and does not believe that bilateral and regional trade deals will affect the multilateral process, its trade minister said according to a Reuters news service report from Singapore (see related report this issue). Anand Sharma told Reuters in an interview in Singapore on Thursday that an acceptable global trade regime was necessary for economic recovery, notwithstanding the decision by world leaders to drop a commitment to complete the Doha round by year-end.

“As long as the negotiators are engaged, it is still a positive sign,” Sharma said. “You can see some light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is a long one. A multilateral trade regime which is acceptable to all countries has to be put in place. It will speed up the global recovery; not doing that will slow it down.”

South African Trade Minister Pravin Gordhan told Reuters in an interview last month that Doha was “close to dead.” He said also that bilateral and regional trade deals were complicating the issue. Sharma, however, said the bilateral and regional deals were good for multilateral negotiations. “That eventually will feed into the multilateral process,” he said. “Doing this is not in conflict with the WTO negotiations.”

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said last month he was monitoring the progress of regional deals to make sure there was political momentum left for Doha.

Taiwan's president urged his Chinese counterpart to work toward improving historically testy ties following the signing of a landmark trade deal, the Associated Press news service reported from Taipei (WTD, 7/5/10). Ma Ying-jeou – who has sought to build better relations with the mainland since taking office in May 2008 – said this was an opportunity for the two sides to end decades of mistrust and search for common ground. Taiwan and China signed a broad trade pact last month.

The deal, commonly known as Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, will end tariffs on hundreds of products traded across the Taiwan Strait. It should boost bilateral trade already totaling about $110 billion a year: some $80 billion in goods flowing to China, and $30 billion to Taiwan.

China's trade surplus with the rest of the world grew more than expected in June, according to numbers released Saturday, Market Watch reported. The Chinese government said its trade surplus was $20.02 billion in June, higher than the expected amount of $14.6 billion. The surplus was larger than May's $19.5 billion, which itself was the result of high growth in exports. Dow Jones reported that China's total exports grew 43.9% in June compared to the year-ago period,

A decline in exports from the previous month narrowed Peru's trade surplus to $238 million in May, compared with a surplus of $665 million in the same month a year earlier, the Central Reserve Bank of Peru said Friday according to a Dow Jones news service report from Lima. Exports totaled $2.34 billion in May this year, up 9% from the same month a year earlier. Exports were down 11.5% from the previous month, in part due to a strike at Peru's main seaport in Callao, the government said. Imports in May totaled $2.10 billion, up by 41% from the same month a year before but down by 5.4% from the previous month. The accumulated trade surplus was $2.17 billion in the January-May period.

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Sugar. US Trade Representative’s office allocation of sugar import quotas. (available at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-16823.htm ) issued: 7/9/10.

Softwood Lumber. Statement by Sen. Snowe on enforcement of the US-Canada softwood lumber agreement. (available at: http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=b7e58ecb-802a-23ad-486d-f0070310f569&Region_id=&Issue_id= ) issued: 7/9/10.

Currency. Statement by Sen. Stabenow on China’s manipulation of its currency. (available at: http://stabenow.senate.gov/070910StabenowStatementFollowingTreasuryReportonChineseCurrency.htm ) issued: 7/9/10.

Currency. Statement by Rep. Michaud on China’s manipulation of its currency. (available at: http://www.michaud.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1067&Itemid=76 ) issued: 7/9/10.

Currency. United Steelworkers of America statement on China’s manipulation of its currency. (available at: http://www.usw.org ) issued: 7/9/10.

Currency. AFL-CIO statement on China’s manipulation of its currency. (available at: http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/pr07092010.cfm ) issued: 7/9/10.

Currency. Fair Currency Coalition statement on China’s manipulation of its currency. (available at: http://www.faircurrency.org ) issued: 7/9/10.

Currency. US China Business Council statement on China’s manipulation of its currency. (available at: http://www.uschina.org ) issued: 7/8/10.

Canada. Statement by Sen. Snowe on enforcement of the US-Canada softwood lumber agreement. (available at: http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=b7e58ecb-802a-23ad-486d-f0070310f569&Region_id=&Issue_id= ) issued: 7/9/10.

First Sale. Public Knowledge brief on the ‘First Sale’ rule in the Supreme Court. (available at: http://www.publicknowledge.org/files/docs/PK-Costco-SCt-Amicus20100709.pdf ) issued: 7/9/10.

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