Global Policy Forum

U.S. companies are facing a growing number of nontariff barriers to exports, including subsidies to companies in the European Union, excessive regulations in China and movie piracy in India, according to a U.S. government report. "Bringing down barriers to trade promotes growth and prosperity," the U.S. trade representative, Robert Zoellick, said Tuesday in releasing the 2003 edition of the National Trade Estimate Report.

"The Bush administration," Zoellick said, "is committed to identifying unfair barriers to U.S. exports and to working aggressively with our trading partners to eliminate those barriers." The complaints - about the way the EU subsidizes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, China uses sanitary standards to keep out farm imports and India allows drug patents to be broken - comes as the United States, which does $2 trillion in trade a year, is trying to engineer a new global trade agreement. The annual report is used by the government to identify priority targets for negotiations to remove barriers. If those efforts fail, the United States can take its case against the offending countries to the World Trade Organization.

The list, which singles out 55 countries, was released a day after Zoellick criticized Japan and Europe, saying they are hindering a new WTO effort to open markets by failing to overhaul their farm policies. Among the practices highlighted in the report was the ban by the 15-nation EU on genetically modified food products. The report said American corn exports to the European Union had fallen 55 percent since the EU imposed the ban in 1998.

In recent months the EU and Japan have released their own annual trade assessments, which criticized the United States for imposing 30 percent duties on steel imports and increasing subsidies for U.S. farmers just as the WTO is trying to eliminate those supports.

The U.S. report also criticized Europe for using rules on how wine is made to keep out U.S. vintners, price caps to keep out drug imports from companies such as Merck Co. and government payments to Airbus to give it an advantage over Boeing Co., the largest U.S. planemaker.

"Airbus is a mature company that should face the same commercial risks as its global competitors," the report said.

The United States, which on Monday rejected European demands that it allow foreign companies to sort the U.S. mail, also complained about postal monopolies in many EU member states. Federal Express and other package service providers, the trade office said, "remain concerned that postal monopolies in many EU member states restrict their market access and subject them to unequal conditions of competition."

The report also said that China, which joined the WTO in 2001, had made "significant progress" in following through on its pledges to trim tariffs and encourage foreign investment.

Still, many U.S. industries complain that they face nontariff barriers to trade with China, including quarantine demands on food imports, sanitary measures and "high thresholds for entry" in insurance and finance, the report said.

"Several national officials have stated openly in the state-run media that China should manipulate technical standards to limit imports," it said. In India, the report said, piracy affecting patented drugs and cable television "continues to be a significant problem."

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