The deadline for submission of written comments is February 5, 2018 at midnight EST.
Section 135 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2155), establishes a private-sector trade advisory system to ensure that U.S. trade policy and trade negotiation objectives adequately reflect U.S. commercial and economic interests.
The current ITACs expire in February 2018, and the Secretary and the Trade Representative intend to renew the ITACs as described below for a new four-year charter terms for the ITACs to begin in February 2018 and end in February 2022.
For the 2014-2018 charter term, the Secretary and Trade Representative chartered: Thirteen sectoral ITACs advising on issues that affect specific sectors of U.S. industry; three ITACs advising on crosscutting, functional issues that affect all industry sectors and include specifically appointed members along with non-voting members from the industry specific ITACs to represent a broad range of industry perspectives; and a Committee of Chairs of the ITACs as follows:
- (ITAC 1) Aerospace Equipment
- (ITAC 2) Automotive Equipment and Capital Goods
- (ITAC 3) Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Health/Science Products and Services
- (ITAC 4) Consumer Goods
- (ITAC 5) Distribution Services
- (ITAC 6) Energy and Energy Services
- (ITAC 7) Forest Products
- (ITAC 8) Information and Communications Technologies, Services, and Electronic Commerce
- (ITAC 9) Building Materials, Construction, and Nonferrous Metals
- (ITAC 10) Services and Finance Industries
- (ITAC 11) Small and Minority Business
- (ITAC 12) Steel
- (ITAC 13) Textiles and Clothing
- (ITAC 14) Customs Matters and Trade Facilitation
- (ITAC 15) Intellectual Property Rights
- (ITAC 16) Standards and Technical Trade Barriers and a Committee of Chairs of the Industry Trade Advisory Committees.
For the 2018-2022 charter term, after considering the statutory factors listed above, the Secretary and the Trade Representative propose to streamline the ITACs as follows based on the nature of the U.S. industry in various sectors, the level of interest in serving on an ITAC (using the number of members and applications for appointment during the 2014-2018 charter terms), the level of activity of each ITAC (using the number of meetings and recommendations submitted during the 20142018 charter terms), and constraints on the resources to support and engage with the ITACs.
Combining the current ITACs on Distribution Services and on Services and Finance Industries into one ITAC on Services.
Combining the current ITACs on Forest Products and on Building Materials, Construction, and Nonferrous Metals into one ITAC on Forest Products, Building Materials, Construction, and Nonferrous Metals.
Changing the name of the ITAC on Information and Communications Technologies, Services, and Electronic Commerce to the ITAC on Digital Economy to reflect the innovation in and full scope of that industry sector.
Discontinuing the Committee of Chairs of the ITACs to both preserve staff resources and to ensure that all ITAC members receive relevant, timely, and unfiltered information directly from appropriate government staff.
This streamlining would result in eleven sectoral ITACs and three functional ITACs for the new four-year charter term as follows:
- (ITAC 1) Aerospace Equipment
- (ITAC 2) Automotive Equipment and Capital Goods
- (ITAC 3) Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Health/Science Products and Services
- (ITAC 4) Consumer Goods
- (ITAC 5) Forest Products, Building Materials, Construction and Nonferrous Metals
- (ITAC 6) Energy and Energy Services
- (ITAC 7) Steel
- (ITAC 8) Digital Economy
- (ITAC 9) Small and Minority Business
- (ITAC 10) Services
- (ITAC 11) Textiles and Clothing
- (ITAC 12) Customs Matters and Trade Facilitation
- (ITAC 13) Intellectual Property Rights
- (ITAC 14) Standards and Technical Trade Barriers
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