Sec. 2. Findings and purpose

358 words·~2 min read·/bill/113/hr/3467/ih/section-2

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Congress finds the following: One of the fundamental tenets of the World Trade Organization

(WTO)is reciprocal market access. This principle is underscored in the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization which called for entering into reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade and to the elimination of discriminatory treatment in international trade relations . The American people have a right to expect that the promises that trade negotiators and policy makers offer in terms of the market access opportunities that will be available to United States businesses and their employees if trade agreements are reached, will, in fact, be realized. A results-oriented approach must form the basis of future trade negotiations that includes verification procedures to ensure that the promised market access is achieved and that reciprocal trade benefits result. With each subsequent round of bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade negotiations, tariffs have been significantly reduced or eliminated for many manufactured goods, leaving nontariff barriers as the most pervasive, significant, and challenging barriers to United States exports and market opportunities. The United States market is widely recognized as one of the most open markets in the world. Average United States tariff rates are very low and the United States has limited, if any, nontariff barriers. Often the only leverage the United States has to obtain the reduction or elimination of nontariff barriers imposed by foreign countries is to negotiate the amount of tariffs the United States imposes on imports from those foreign countries. Under the current negotiating process, negotiations to reduce or eliminate tariff barriers and nontariff barriers are separate and self-contained, meaning that tradeoffs are tariff-for-tariff and nontariff-for-nontariff. As a result, a tariff can be reduced or eliminated without securing elimination of the real barrier or barriers that deny United States businesses access to a foreign market. The purpose of this Act is to require that United States trade negotiations achieve measurable results for United States businesses by ensuring that trade agreements result in expanded market access for United States exports and not solely the elimination of tariffs on goods imported into the United States.