Enforcement

GavelUSTR monitors and secures U.S. trade rights and benefits under international agreements using a variety of tools including consultations, negotiations, and litigation in formal dispute settlement proceedings.

USTR coordinates the Administration’s activities in identifying, monitoring, enforcing, and resolving the full range of international trade issues to assure that American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses receive the maximum benefit under our international trade agreements. Those agreements include broad, multilateral agreements such as those adopted at the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and bilateral agreements such as the various free trade agreements (FTAs).

U.S. rights under trade agreements include protection of intellectual property and basic international labor standards, implementation of environmental agreements, recourse when necessary to trade remedies, and the ability to address a wide array of market access barriers to U.S. goods and services.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk transmitted to Congress the 2010 National Trade Estimate (NTE) on March 31,2010, which describes significant barriers to U.S. trade and investment faced in the last year as well as the actions being taken by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to address those barriers. In addition, Ambassador Kirk delivered two new, related reports focusing specifically on sanitary and phytosanitary barriers and technical barriers to trade that harm the ability of America's agricultural producers and manufacturers to export around the world. Kirk first promised a sharper focus on SPS and technical barriers to trade in a July 2009 speech at U.S. Steel's Mon Valley Steel Works in Braddock, Pennsylvania.

Read the press release on the enforcement reports here.

National Trade Estimate Report Fact Sheet:

Sanitary and Phytosanitary Barriers Report Fact Sheets:

Technical Barriers to Trade Report Fact Sheets: