In addition to pursuing U.S. trade policy objectives through bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements, USTR is pursuing plurilateral agreements under the World Trade Organization, while working with Congress on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the legislation that defines negotiating objectives and priorities for trade agreements.
The United States is also participating in negotiations of the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), a free trade agreement focused on promoting fair and open competition across a broad spectrum of service sectors. Twenty-three economies are participating in the TiSA negotiations, representing nearly 70 percent of the world’s $55 trillion services market. With every $1 billion in services exports supporting an estimated 5,900 U.S. jobs, promoting the expansion of services trade globally will pay dividends for the United States.
In July 2014, the United States and 13 WTO Members launched negotiations on the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), an agreement aimed at eliminating tariffs on a range of environmental goods. Tariffs on these environmental goods, including wind turbines, solar water heaters, and catalytic converters are often high and limit the technological advancement for green technologies. The EGA provides an important opportunity to protect the global environment while unlocking economic opportunity for American workers and businesses.
