The US must avoid erecting new obstacles to trade and investment in a series of steps it has taken to prevent possible terrorist attacks, the WTO said Friday.
But Linnet Deily, Washington's ambassador to the WTO, tried to dispel such fears, insisting that US President George W. Bush would work with his trading partners to "ensure this does not happen."
In a report on the development of US trade policy over the past two years, the WTO also warned that barriers to market access in the world's largest economy still exist, especially in the areas of farming, steel and textiles.
Many of the global trade body's 146 members have voiced concern about new security laws passed in the US that make it harder and more expensive to import goods, according to officials and the countries involved.
"There was understanding as to why the Americans are doing this in the context of Sept. 11, but members asked the US to be careful that those measures do not harm trade," explained Clem Boonekamp, director of the WTO's trade policy review body, who supervised the compilation of the report.
The US, for example, launched an anti-terrorism initiative at ports worldwide following the September 2001 attacks to pre-screen US-bound cargo containers by deploying its customs officers at foreign harbors.
"Some members worry about the cost of this surveillance mechanism," Boonekamp told a news conference at WTO headquarters in Geneva.
"They want the US to know that they are worried about it and about the costs related to those measures," he said.
The WTO report found: "It is important that the new US security-related policies and practices do not become unnecessary trade or investment barriers."
Speaking during the course of the US trade review earlier this week, the EU's ambassador to the WTO, Carlo Trojan, said the 15-nation bloc recognized the need to prevent potential attacks.
"But we also trust that the US will continue to ensure that security concerns are not used as an excuse for implementing a disguised form of protectionism," Trojan said.
Responding to the remarks, Deily assured a meeting in Geneva of WTO member states that there was no need to worry.
"I can confirm that President Bush and [Homeland Security Secretary Tom] Ridge are sensitive to the issue and fully understand the need to work closely with the international community to ensure this does not happen," she said.
US customs and border protection authorities were in contact with the international trade community to ensure potential problems created by the new security legislation were addressed before they lead to delays, she explained.
"We are committed to ensuring both the security and facility of the international trade supply chain," Deily said.
In addition, the WTO report noted that the US economy continued to rebound after overcoming several shocks since its last trade review in 2001, but voiced concern about Washington's gaping trade and budget deficits.
"Recent US macroeconomic policy has been directed, increasingly successfully, towards recovering and sustaining growth, with benefits to the global economy including through trade transmission," the WTO said.
The trade policies of the WTO's 146 members are regularly reviewed under the mandate of the global trade body.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the