According to this Defense News article, the Obama administration will propose splitting US export enforcement authorities among various federal entities. They don't think administrative and criminal enforcement should be housed under one agency, as it is today. Instead, administrative issues will be handled by one "enforcement coordination agency," while criminal issues will be handled by another agency (possibly several). As you are probably aware, one of the Obama administration's goals is to overhaul current US export control regulations to make US companies more competitive in world trade. Eric Hirschhorn, undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, says the general consensus in Washington is that current export control laws are "too complicated, too redundant, and protect too much."

According to World Trade\INTERACTIVE, the World Trade Organization has been notified of several proposed regulatory changes that may affect US exports of the following products:

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative presented the 2010 National Trade Estimate (NTE) to Congress yesterday. The NTE describes significant barriers to U.S. trade and investment faced in the last year, and also outlines the steps taken to address those issues. Ambassador Ron Kirk reported the addition of two new reports that focus on sanitary and phytosanitary barriers as well as technical barriers to trade. These barriers harm the ability of America’s agricultural producers and manufacturers to export worldwide. Kirk issued the following statement to Congress yesterday:

This year, we’ve gone beyond the obligatory reporting to focus on some of the toughest hurdles America’s farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and service providers face when they try to sell overseas. USTR will take the information in these new reports, as well as in the National Trade Estimate itself, and use all the tools that we have to get these markets open to American products.

Check out the key elements of the National Trade Estimate, as well as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's ideas to reduce sanitary and phytosanitary barriers and technical barriers to American exports.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) sent a letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asking USTR Kirk to immediately challenge the legality of the tariffs Mexico has levied on U.S. exports. The Association has previously stated that the tariffs should be declared illegitimate so that the debate regarding cross-border trucking with Mexico can be shifted from economics to highway safety and security.

ITA Issues November 2009 Export Fact Sheet, Includes TPP Data

The International Trade Administration has issued a fact sheet containing November 2009 U.S. export statistics. Among other things, the fact sheet states that U.S. exports of goods and services increased by 0.9% in November 2009, while imports increased 2.6%. The fact sheet also states that in November, the U.S. exported $5.6 billion in goods to the countries that are participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement negotiations (Australia, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam).