The emergence of electronic commerce also is opening a whole new set of trade issues. In 1998, ministers of the World Trade Organization issued a declaration that countries should not interfere with electronic commerce by imposing duties on electronic transmissions, but many issues remain unresolved. The United States would like to make the Internet a tariff-free zone, ensure competitive telecommunications markets around the world, and establish global protections for intellectual property in digital products.
President Clinton called for a new round of world trade negotiations, although his hopes suffered a setback when negotiators failed to agree on the idea at a meeting held in late 1999 in Seattle, Washington. Still, the United States hopes for a new international agreement that would strengthen the World Trade Organization by making its procedures more transparent. The American government also wants to negotiate further reductions in trade barriers affecting agricultural products; currently the United States exports the output of one out of every three hectares of its farmland. Other American objectives include more liberalization of trade in services, greater protections for intellectual property, a new round of reductions in tariff and nontariff trade barriers for industrial goods, and progress toward establishing internationally recognized labor standards.
Even as it holds high hopes for a new round of multilateral trade talks, the United States is pursuing new regional trade agreements. High on its agenda is a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, which essentially would make the entire Western Hemisphere (except for Cuba) a free-trade zone; negotiations for such a pact began in 1994, with a goal of completing talks by 2005. The United States also is seeking trade liberalization agreements with Asian countries through the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum; APEC members reached an agreement on information technology in the late 1990s.
Separately, Americans are discussing U.S.-Europe trade issues in the Transatlantic Economic Partnership. And the United States hopes to increase its trade with Africa, too. A 1997 program called the Partnership for Economic Growth and Opportunity for Africa aims to increase U.S. market access for imports from sub-Saharan countries, provide U.S. backing to private sector development in Africa, support regional economic integration within Africa, and institutionalize government-to-government dialogue on trade via an annual U.S.-Africa forum.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to seek resolution to specific trade issues involving individual countries. Its trade relations with Japan have been troubled since at least the 1970s, and at the end of the 1990s, Americans continued to be concerned about Japanese barriers to a variety of U.S. imports, including agricultural goods and autos and auto parts. Americans also complained that Japan was exporting steel into the United States at below-market prices (a practice known as dumping), and the American government continued to press Japan to deregulate various sectors of its economy, including telecommunications, housing, financial services, medical devices, and pharmaceutical products.
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Next Article: Trade with Canada, Mexico, and China
This article is adapted from the book "Outline of the U.S. Economy" by Conte and Carr and has been adapted with permission from the U.S. Department of State.
