Emergency Committee For American Trade - Publications

Summary: ECAT Positions on Issues

The following paragraphs provide a summary of ECAT's position on the major trade, investment, and tax issues likely to be of greatest concern to ECAT member companies.

Section 2: Major Trade Policy Issues

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts by the Administration, Congress and the private sector to rebuild the consensus on the importance of trade and investment liberalization through the development of concrete trade and investment priorities. This consensus is critical to establish the foundation for the passage of trade promotion authority legislation in 2001.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT believes that Congress' passage of broad, multi-year trade promotion authority is critical this year to create the necessary infrastructure to achieve further liberalization of international trade and investment. If we are to achieve future economic growth and a higher standard of living through expanding trade and investment; bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade agreements must remain focused on the liberalization of trade and investment. While there may be areas of complementarity in which labor and/or environmental provisions may be cooperatively addressed in the context of a trade agreement, ECAT strongly opposes mandating the inclusion of labor and/or environmental sanctions or specific provisions as a prerequisite to the application of trade promotion authority procedures.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT strongly supports the timely conclusion of China's negotiations to enter the World Trade Organization and its formal entry into the WTO. ECAT also supports the President's formal authorization of PNTR with China to become effective once China becomes a WTO member and the timely conclusion of Taiwan's negotiations to enter the WTO and its formal entry into the WTO.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports prompt Congressional approval of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Commercial Agreement, a Presidential proclamation extending NTR to Vietnam and the renewal of Vietnam's Jackson-Vanik waiver in order to provide NTR status to Vietnam, as well as provide for its continued eligibility for Overseas Private Investment and Export-Import Bank programs.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the FTAA negotiations and efforts at the Third Summit of the Americas to reach agreement on a concrete and, if possible, accelerated timetable for the negotiations to ensure that they are concluded before or by 2005.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the launch in 2001 of comprehensive negotiations on agriculture, services, industrial tariffs and other issues to expand market-access opportunities and reduce barriers across all sectors. ECAT supports efforts to reach a final agreement in the ATL negotiations on toys, chemicals, forest products, fish, energy, environmental goods and services, telecommunications products, medical equipment and scientific instruments, and jewelry. ECAT supports the accelerated negotiation of ITA II and the enactment of necessary implementing legislation. ECAT supports efforts to ensure that WTO provisions are developed and applied in a manner that eliminates barriers to and supports the growth of the Internet and all levels of the e-commerce value chain.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the negotiation and implementation of comprehensive and trade-oriented bilateral and regional free trade agreements.

ECAT POSITION: Continued global trade expansion is the bedrock of progress in achieving greater international observance of high labor and environmental standards and in promoting better access to food and health care. Progress on the human side of trade requires that the United States continue its leadership in the multilateral trading system promoting a strong set of WTO rules based on the right of member countries to set and enforce high environmental, labor, or other domestic standards. Before rushing to adopt trade-oriented solutions that may not be effective, it is critical that policymakers first work to define the United States' objectives in each of these areas, and then determine how those objectives can best be achieved. For the most part, these issues may be better addressed directly through separate agendas in organizations with technical expertise, rather than as add-ons to the trade agenda. And, in those cases where complementarity between U.S. trade and U.S. labor and/or U.S. environmental objectives exists, efforts should be made to address these objectives jointly and in a cooperative manner

ECAT POSITION: ECAT recognizes that while expanding U.S. international trade and investment raise the U.S. standard of living overall, dislocations occur and must be addressed through public and private working retraining and assistance programs. ECAT supports efforts to reform existing trade adjustment assistance programs so that they are able to meet fully the need of U.S. workers dislocated for reasons related to trade or technological change.

ECAT POSITION: It is vitally important that both U.S. unfair trade laws and Section 201 maintain a careful balance between the interests of the petitioning industry and the interests of other U.S. industries and consumers. It is critical that the Congress and the Administration oppose any efforts to impose import restraints or amend U.S. antidumping, countervailing duty, or safeguards laws in ways that would invite foreign retaliation, encourage restrictive foreign mirror legislation, and/or violate the United States' international trade commitments.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the multi-year renewal of the GSP program to support greater economic growth and opportunities for developing countries.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the multi-year renewal and expansion of the ATPA program to support greater economic growth and opportunities for the Andean countries.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT strongly supports full funding of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) from general revenues and opposes the imposition of new user fees to fund the program. The ongoing failure to modernize Customs' automated systems threatens to undermine U.S. productivity and competitiveness in the global marketplace and ECAT supports efforts to resolve these issues in 2001. ECAT also supports efforts to expand funding for Customs Service personnel and technology and to improve the operation of the Customs Service through full and improved implementation of the Customs Modernization Act and the Customs Procedural Reform and Simplification Act of 1978 in a manner that facilitates trade.

Section 3: The European Union

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts by the United States and the EU to strengthen their economic relationship, address ongoing trade disputes that have undermined the historically close U.S.-EU relationship, and move forward with mutually supportive trade initiatives in 2001.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports continuing U.S.-EU efforts to promote a positive agenda as part of the Trans-Atlantic Economic Partnership (TEP), to reach additional Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) in the goods and services sectors, and to develop further an early warning system to identify and resolve potential areas of dispute. ECAT also endorses the highly productive efforts of the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) and the TABD recommendations that have helped to lay the foundation for greater regulatory cooperation and harmonization under the TEP.

Section 4: World Trade Organization

ECAT POSITION: Full implementation of WTO agreements is the cornerstone of the multilateral trading system and must remain a top priority on the WTO agenda. Developing country concerns regarding implementation should be addressed through increased technical assistance and not become the pretext for renegotiating existing WTO agreements. ECAT urges the Administration to oppose efforts to reopen the TRIPs, TRIMs, or other agreements or to delay full implementation of these agreements.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports developed country efforts to expand market access opportunities for developing countries. In particular, ECAT supports efforts to implement fully the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act and to expand the benefits provided under those and similar provisions.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts to expand participation by WTO Members in the WTO process and to increase overall transparency, as well as transparency in the dispute settlement process.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the accession in 2001 of China and other countries that agree to commit to WTO principles and agreements.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts to make the WTO more transparent and to conclude the rules of origin harmonization in a timely manner. On issues of labor and environment, ECAT believes that these issues are, for the most part, best addressed in alternative fora and through alternative policy approaches. In those cases, however, where there is complementarity between these issues and WTO objectives, efforts should be made to address these objectives jointly and in a cooperative manner.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT believes that the dispute settlement mechanism has been effective in resolving many disputes, but has had difficulty in addressing a few highly political disputes, particularly between the United States and EU. ECAT supports efforts by the United States and EU to address these issues quickly and in a trade-liberalizing manner. ECAT also supports efforts to reform the WTO dispute settlement system to make it more transparent and make it function more effectively.

Section 5: Investment

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports a continuing effort to build a consensus for an international agreement on investment that will provide a high standard of protection for investors which meets or exceeds protections currently provided under U.S. bilateral investment treaties. ECAT believes that U.S. trade and international tax policies should recognize the vital importance of U.S. foreign direct investment to U.S. economic growth and should promote the expansion of U.S. trade and investment.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports U.S. efforts to ensure that the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and the Inter-American Convention on Corruption are effectively implemented and to combat the problem of foreign corruption through other international efforts.

Section 6: Sanctions Reform

ECAT POSITION: ECAT believes that almost all unilateral sanctions that do not have multilateral support are ineffective and counterproductive. ECAT supports the deliberative and disciplined framework for consideration of sanctions set out in the sanctions process reform legislation sponsored by Senator Lugar and Congressmen Crane and Dooley in 2000 and urges the Congress to take action early this year to enact such legislation. ECAT also supports further efforts to exempt agricultural, medical and other products from unilateral sanctions. ECAT supports the expiration of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act and efforts to review and terminate existing unilateral sanctions, particularly with respect to Cuba.

Section 7: Export Promotion and Financing

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the reauthorization of Ex-Im's charter this year and full funding of Ex-Im, at least at FY 2001 levels. Ex-Im Bank financing, for which U.S. companies already pay fees and interest, serves as a financial instrument of last resort and is especially critical to the ability of U.S. exporters to gain access to developing country markets and to compete with foreign companies, which benefit from much greater and more generous export credit assistance programs. Any decrease in Ex-Im Bank financing would undermine the competitiveness of U.S. companies, particularly as the United States' trading partners have continued to increase export credit assistance in recent years. ECAT also supports full funding for OPIC and TDA and a continuation of FY 2001 funding for U.S. efforts to ensure compliance with trade agreements. ECAT supports full funding for the multilateral development banks and development funds, as well as efforts to use these organizations to address human capital issues, including health, labor and environmental issues.

Section 8: Export Controls

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts to liberalize controls on encryption products and to build a strong bipartisan consensus for meaningful export control reform. ECAT urges the Administration and Congress to redefine the MTOPS methodology for imposing controls on high performance computers and, in the short term, to expedite upward adjustments in the current MTOPS threshold. Similarly, the Administration should establish an expedited, predictable process for raising the control threshold for microprocessors.

ECAT supports ongoing efforts to re-authorize the Export Administration Act this year, recognizing that such legislation needs to be bipartisan and reflect a consensus among the Congress, the Administration, and the business community. Such legislation should provide an export control system that promotes U.S. national security and maintains U.S. technological leadership. It should codify recent export control liberalization, provide for a higher threshold for the imposition of foreign policy controls, create a mass-market product provision, ease the ability to obtain foreign availability determinations, and reduce export-licensing processing time. Such legislation must not become the vehicle for further unilateral restrictions on U.S. exports.

Section 9: Regional Trading Arrangements and Country-Specific Issues

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports U.S. efforts to promote greater economic reform and growth in the Caribbean Basin. In particular, ECAT supports full implementation of the Caribbean Basin Partnership Trade Act (CBTPA) in a manner that will promote greater U.S. trade with the Caribbean Basin. ECAT is concerned that the U.S. Customs Service is interpreting the CBPTA in a manner that is not consistent with the legislative intent of the Act. The U.S. Customs Service appears to be interpreting the Act in the narrowest sense, which is contrary to the intent of the Congress as expressed in the preamble to the legislation. ECAT supports efforts to improve the implementation of the CBTPA to ensure that beneficiaries of these provisions are not penalized for the use of U.S. components or required to release business confidential information. ECAT also supports efforts to expand the benefits provided by this legislation.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the APEC process as a vital part of expanding trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. ECAT supports ongoing efforts to achieve early voluntary sectoral liberalization and to reach an agreement with all WTO members on the eight sectors targeted for liberalization under the Accelerated Tariff Liberalization (ATL) initiative. ECAT also endorses the U.S. effort to reach an agreement to move forward with liberalization in other sectors, including food and automotive products.

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports U.S. efforts to promote greater economic reform and growth in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, ECAT supports full implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act in a manner that will promote greater U.S. trade with sub-Saharan Africa. ECAT also supports efforts to expand the benefits provided by this legislation.

Section 10: Intellectual Property

ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports U.S. efforts to secure full implementation of the TRIPs Agreement by insisting on adherence to existing transition deadlines, opposing any moratorium on dispute settlement cases, and making aggressive use of WTO dispute settlement procedures to enforce the agreement. ECAT urges the Administration to make every effort to encourage countries to ratify the WIPO copyright treaties, so that they may enter into force by the end of this year and to continue to promote strong intellectual property protection for digitized trade. ECAT supports efforts to combat piracy of optical-media products through effective enforcement and regulation, and to combat end-user software piracy, particularly by foreign governments.

Section 11: Taxation of Foreign Source Income

ECAT POSITION: ECAT opposes any modification to the rules governing the taxation of foreign source income that would undermine the competitiveness of U.S. companies. ECAT supports legislation to make the exemption for active financial services income under Subpart F and the research and development tax credit permanent, to reform the interest allocation rules, to re-characterize domestic losses, to extend the carryforward period for foreign tax credits, and to treat the EU as a single country. ECAT supports the enactment last year of legislation that puts the United States into compliance with the WTO decisions regarding U.S. Foreign Sales Corporation provisions and supports a final resolution of this dispute this year in a manner that ensures that U.S. firms and workers are not at a competitive disadvantage with their European counterparts and guarantees a level playing field for American companies with international operations.


	Summary: ECAT Positions on Issues The following paragraphs provide a summary of ECAT's position on the major trade, investment, and tax issues likely to be of greatest concern to ECAT member companies. Section 2: Major Trade Policy Issues ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts by the Administration, Congress and the private sector to rebuild the consensus on the importance of trade and investment liberalization through the development of concrete trade and investment priorities. This consensus is critical to establish the foundation for the passage of trade promotion authority legislation in 2001. ECAT POSITION: ECAT believes that Congress' passage of broad, multi-year trade promotion authority is critical this year to create the necessary infrastructure to achieve further liberalization of international trade and investment. If we are to achieve future economic growth and a higher standard of living through expanding trade and investment; bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade agreements must remain focused on the liberalization of trade and investment. While there may be areas of complementarity in which labor and/or environmental provisions may be cooperatively addressed in the context of a trade agreement, ECAT strongly opposes mandating the inclusion of labor and/or environmental sanctions or specific provisions as a prerequisite to the application of trade promotion authority procedures. ECAT POSITION: ECAT strongly supports the timely conclusion of China's negotiations to enter the World Trade Organization and its formal entry into the WTO. ECAT also supports the President's formal authorization of PNTR with China to become effective once China becomes a WTO member and the timely conclusion of Taiwan's negotiations to enter the WTO and its formal entry into the WTO. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports prompt Congressional approval of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Commercial Agreement, a Presidential proclamation extending NTR to Vietnam and the renewal of Vietnam's Jackson-Vanik waiver in order to provide NTR status to Vietnam, as well as provide for its continued eligibility for Overseas Private Investment and Export-Import Bank programs. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the FTAA negotiations and efforts at the Third Summit of the Americas to reach agreement on a concrete and, if possible, accelerated timetable for the negotiations to ensure that they are concluded before or by 2005. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the launch in 2001 of comprehensive negotiations on agriculture, services, industrial tariffs and other issues to expand market-access opportunities and reduce barriers across all sectors. ECAT supports efforts to reach a final agreement in the ATL negotiations on toys, chemicals, forest products, fish, energy, environmental goods and services, telecommunications products, medical equipment and scientific instruments, and jewelry. ECAT supports the accelerated negotiation of ITA II and the enactment of necessary implementing legislation. ECAT supports efforts to ensure that WTO provisions are developed and applied in a manner that eliminates barriers to and supports the growth of the Internet and all levels of the e-commerce value chain. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the negotiation and implementation of comprehensive and trade-oriented bilateral and regional free trade agreements. ECAT POSITION: Continued global trade expansion is the bedrock of progress in achieving greater international observance of high labor and environmental standards and in promoting better access to food and health care. Progress on the human side of trade requires that the United States continue its leadership in the multilateral trading system promoting a strong set of WTO rules based on the right of member countries to set and enforce high environmental, labor, or other domestic standards. Before rushing to adopt trade-oriented solutions that may not be effective, it is critical that policymakers first work to define the United States' objectives in each of these areas, and then determine how those objectives can best be achieved. For the most part, these issues may be better addressed directly through separate agendas in organizations with technical expertise, rather than as add-ons to the trade agenda. And, in those cases where complementarity between U.S. trade and U.S. labor and/or U.S. environmental objectives exists, efforts should be made to address these objectives jointly and in a cooperative manner ECAT POSITION: ECAT recognizes that while expanding U.S. international trade and investment raise the U.S. standard of living overall, dislocations occur and must be addressed through public and private working retraining and assistance programs. ECAT supports efforts to reform existing trade adjustment assistance programs so that they are able to meet fully the need of U.S. workers dislocated for reasons related to trade or technological change. ECAT POSITION: It is vitally important that both U.S. unfair trade laws and Section 201 maintain a careful balance between the interests of the petitioning industry and the interests of other U.S. industries and consumers. It is critical that the Congress and the Administration oppose any efforts to impose import restraints or amend U.S. antidumping, countervailing duty, or safeguards laws in ways that would invite foreign retaliation, encourage restrictive foreign mirror legislation, and/or violate the United States' international trade commitments. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the multi-year renewal of the GSP program to support greater economic growth and opportunities for developing countries. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the multi-year renewal and expansion of the ATPA program to support greater economic growth and opportunities for the Andean countries. ECAT POSITION: ECAT strongly supports full funding of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) from general revenues and opposes the imposition of new user fees to fund the program. The ongoing failure to modernize Customs' automated systems threatens to undermine U.S. productivity and competitiveness in the global marketplace and ECAT supports efforts to resolve these issues in 2001. ECAT also supports efforts to expand funding for Customs Service personnel and technology and to improve the operation of the Customs Service through full and improved implementation of the Customs Modernization Act and the Customs Procedural Reform and Simplification Act of 1978 in a manner that facilitates trade. Section 3: The European Union ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts by the United States and the EU to strengthen their economic relationship, address ongoing trade disputes that have undermined the historically close U.S.-EU relationship, and move forward with mutually supportive trade initiatives in 2001. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports continuing U.S.-EU efforts to promote a positive agenda as part of the Trans-Atlantic Economic Partnership (TEP), to reach additional Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) in the goods and services sectors, and to develop further an early warning system to identify and resolve potential areas of dispute. ECAT also endorses the highly productive efforts of the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) and the TABD recommendations that have helped to lay the foundation for greater regulatory cooperation and harmonization under the TEP. Section 4: World Trade Organization ECAT POSITION: Full implementation of WTO agreements is the cornerstone of the multilateral trading system and must remain a top priority on the WTO agenda. Developing country concerns regarding implementation should be addressed through increased technical assistance and not become the pretext for renegotiating existing WTO agreements. ECAT urges the Administration to oppose efforts to reopen the TRIPs, TRIMs, or other agreements or to delay full implementation of these agreements. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports developed country efforts to expand market access opportunities for developing countries. In particular, ECAT supports efforts to implement fully the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act and to expand the benefits provided under those and similar provisions. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts to expand participation by WTO Members in the WTO process and to increase overall transparency, as well as transparency in the dispute settlement process. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the accession in 2001 of China and other countries that agree to commit to WTO principles and agreements. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts to make the WTO more transparent and to conclude the rules of origin harmonization in a timely manner. On issues of labor and environment, ECAT believes that these issues are, for the most part, best addressed in alternative fora and through alternative policy approaches. In those cases, however, where there is complementarity between these issues and WTO objectives, efforts should be made to address these objectives jointly and in a cooperative manner. ECAT POSITION: ECAT believes that the dispute settlement mechanism has been effective in resolving many disputes, but has had difficulty in addressing a few highly political disputes, particularly between the United States and EU. ECAT supports efforts by the United States and EU to address these issues quickly and in a trade-liberalizing manner. ECAT also supports efforts to reform the WTO dispute settlement system to make it more transparent and make it function more effectively. Section 5: Investment ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports a continuing effort to build a consensus for an international agreement on investment that will provide a high standard of protection for investors which meets or exceeds protections currently provided under U.S. bilateral investment treaties. ECAT believes that U.S. trade and international tax policies should recognize the vital importance of U.S. foreign direct investment to U.S. economic growth and should promote the expansion of U.S. trade and investment. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports U.S. efforts to ensure that the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and the Inter-American Convention on Corruption are effectively implemented and to combat the problem of foreign corruption through other international efforts. Section 6: Sanctions Reform ECAT POSITION: ECAT believes that almost all unilateral sanctions that do not have multilateral support are ineffective and counterproductive. ECAT supports the deliberative and disciplined framework for consideration of sanctions set out in the sanctions process reform legislation sponsored by Senator Lugar and Congressmen Crane and Dooley in 2000 and urges the Congress to take action early this year to enact such legislation. ECAT also supports further efforts to exempt agricultural, medical and other products from unilateral sanctions. ECAT supports the expiration of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act and efforts to review and terminate existing unilateral sanctions, particularly with respect to Cuba. Section 7: Export Promotion and Financing ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the reauthorization of Ex-Im's charter this year and full funding of Ex-Im, at least at FY 2001 levels. Ex-Im Bank financing, for which U.S. companies already pay fees and interest, serves as a financial instrument of last resort and is especially critical to the ability of U.S. exporters to gain access to developing country markets and to compete with foreign companies, which benefit from much greater and more generous export credit assistance programs. Any decrease in Ex-Im Bank financing would undermine the competitiveness of U.S. companies, particularly as the United States' trading partners have continued to increase export credit assistance in recent years. ECAT also supports full funding for OPIC and TDA and a continuation of FY 2001 funding for U.S. efforts to ensure compliance with trade agreements. ECAT supports full funding for the multilateral development banks and development funds, as well as efforts to use these organizations to address human capital issues, including health, labor and environmental issues. Section 8: Export Controls ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports efforts to liberalize controls on encryption products and to build a strong bipartisan consensus for meaningful export control reform. ECAT urges the Administration and Congress to redefine the MTOPS methodology for imposing controls on high performance computers and, in the short term, to expedite upward adjustments in the current MTOPS threshold. Similarly, the Administration should establish an expedited, predictable process for raising the control threshold for microprocessors. ECAT supports ongoing efforts to re-authorize the Export Administration Act this year, recognizing that such legislation needs to be bipartisan and reflect a consensus among the Congress, the Administration, and the business community. Such legislation should provide an export control system that promotes U.S. national security and maintains U.S. technological leadership. It should codify recent export control liberalization, provide for a higher threshold for the imposition of foreign policy controls, create a mass-market product provision, ease the ability to obtain foreign availability determinations, and reduce export-licensing processing time. Such legislation must not become the vehicle for further unilateral restrictions on U.S. exports. Section 9: Regional Trading Arrangements and Country-Specific Issues ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports U.S. efforts to promote greater economic reform and growth in the Caribbean Basin. In particular, ECAT supports full implementation of the Caribbean Basin Partnership Trade Act (CBTPA) in a manner that will promote greater U.S. trade with the Caribbean Basin. ECAT is concerned that the U.S. Customs Service is interpreting the CBPTA in a manner that is not consistent with the legislative intent of the Act. The U.S. Customs Service appears to be interpreting the Act in the narrowest sense, which is contrary to the intent of the Congress as expressed in the preamble to the legislation. ECAT supports efforts to improve the implementation of the CBTPA to ensure that beneficiaries of these provisions are not penalized for the use of U.S. components or required to release business confidential information. ECAT also supports efforts to expand the benefits provided by this legislation. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports the APEC process as a vital part of expanding trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. ECAT supports ongoing efforts to achieve early voluntary sectoral liberalization and to reach an agreement with all WTO members on the eight sectors targeted for liberalization under the Accelerated Tariff Liberalization (ATL) initiative. ECAT also endorses the U.S. effort to reach an agreement to move forward with liberalization in other sectors, including food and automotive products. ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports U.S. efforts to promote greater economic reform and growth in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, ECAT supports full implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act in a manner that will promote greater U.S. trade with sub-Saharan Africa. ECAT also supports efforts to expand the benefits provided by this legislation. Section 10: Intellectual Property ECAT POSITION: ECAT supports U.S. efforts to secure full implementation of the TRIPs Agreement by insisting on adherence to existing transition deadlines, opposing any moratorium on dispute settlement cases, and making aggressive use of WTO dispute settlement procedures to enforce the agreement. ECAT urges the Administration to make every effort to encourage countries to ratify the WIPO copyright treaties, so that they may enter into force by the end of this year and to continue to promote strong intellectual property protection for digitized trade. ECAT supports efforts to combat piracy of optical-media products through effective enforcement and regulation, and to combat end-user software piracy, particularly by foreign governments. Section 11: Taxation of Foreign Source Income ECAT POSITION: ECAT opposes any modification to the rules governing the taxation of foreign source income that would undermine the competitiveness of U.S. companies. ECAT supports legislation to make the exemption for active financial services income under Subpart F and the research and development tax credit permanent, to reform the interest allocation rules, to re-characterize domestic losses, to extend the carryforward period for foreign tax credits, and to treat the EU as a single country. ECAT supports the enactment last year of legislation that puts the United States into compliance with the WTO decisions regarding U.S. Foreign Sales Corporation provisions and supports a final resolution of this dispute this year in a manner that ensures that U.S. firms and workers are not at a competitive disadvantage with their European counterparts and guarantees a level playing field for American companies with international operations. ECAT - Homepage About ECAT \| Hot Issues \| ECAT Positions Press Releases \| Trade Resources \| Key Trade Votes \| Publications Steel \| CAFTA \| Search \| Members Only Copyright 1999-2002, the Emergency Committee for American Trade