in the fashion that it would like to have it approved without fast-track authority? >> i think traditionally all but one trade agreement in history, i believe, at least since the '80s, has been approved under some form of trade promotion authority. and i think that's likely to be the most productive way of moving forward on tpp as well. >> you are not saying you couldn't do without it. during the time i've been on this committee i think most of the trade legislation has been approved without fast-track authority. but you would view it as essential to your work? or are you saying you can do without it? >> i think again, between trade agreement and trade legislation, with the exception of the jordanians, all others have been approved under some form of fast-track authority. i haven't thought through what would mean to try to proceed without that kind of authority but i'm happy to work with the committee and, of course, we stand ready to work with you.

>> in your work on tpp, as ustr undertaken or requested that anyone undertake any studies concerning the economic subsectors where we will see job growth and those were we will see job loss? >> i think there's been a lot of work done by various think tanks and other research centers. i'm not aware of what has been done when tpp started two and a half years ago. oftentimes as a study done by the icc and i'm not sure if that was done in this case or not. i will have to look into that and get back to you. >> is about a factor in your negotiation? >> we are certainly looking to open markets for all of our sectors and we consulted very closely with stakeholders to get their perspective on where they see opportunities for expanded exports in job creation and that helps inform our priorities as well. >> think you. mr. reichert. >> thank you, mr. chairman.

locum, good to see. if i wanted to echo some the comments made by members here, the working relationship we had with the ambassador kirk and his team, i hope continues with our staff. and i know that our staff is in continuous conversation with yours and we hope that continues. i just want to make a quick comment about tpa. we know that you don't have to make a formal request for that authority. it's congress' job to move forward with it. i think there's a perception that goes back to i think the korean agreements, goes back to the ascension of russia. that the administration wasn't, actively involved in the process and those process as we would like to see. and so think there's the perception today that the administration not be as aggressively involved as we would like to see them beat in helping us promote the idea of

the tremendous need for tpa. so i would encourage you to be more active and the president be more active in that regard. but i also want to ask a question on tpp. you mentioned that you have a focus to get this done by the end of the year. i want to get a little more specific. i would like to know which are strategy is to get it done by the end of the year, and is there anything we can do to help get that accomplished? >> our strategy is to work very hard, and we are working around -- >> any more details than that? >> i'm happy to go through more details with you, but the team is doing a phenomenal job. very complex negotiation, 11, soon-to-be 12, countries in the negotiation. we have 29 chapters. many of the issues we're dealing with our new issues, issues that none of the countries around the table have negotiate before in any agreement. and that's an ongoing mutual

learning process. we've done a lot of work over the last two years to close out chapters, close out issues, part issues. they're engaged as we speak right now in trying to move the agenda forward. and they will be meeting with the japanese at the end of this round to welcome them into the discussions and bring them up to speed on the status of the negotiations. our strategy is to work country by country, issue by issue, and to get a sense, particularly as we enter the in we enter the endgame of what the trade-offs are going to be and how best to come up with a deal that everyone will find in their mutual interest but raises the overall standards and achieves the level of ambition that we set out. >> we know that the staff works hard. the fact they work hard and that's are strategy, we can count on them, timeline being the end of the year. >> that's our objective. it's ambitious but it's doable. we're going to do everything we can at all levels of government to try to make it happen.

>> thank you, mr. ambassador. i yield back. >> welcome, ambassador. the trade in services agreement has massive potential, commercial potential and could be a major source of job creation for u.s. firms. if you look at our economy, we have a competitive advantage in this area. clearly with 75% of the u.s. gdp being in services, 80% of the private sector employment and currently 30% of our exports. as i look at this, 70% of the world market is represented with those countries. and yet several high profile events have come and gone. i was glad to hear you mention in your testimony. but in previous occasions, we've not heard the white house or the administration put the kind of emphasis that needs to be put on this agreement. i think it should be given as much emphasis as tpp and the eu

negotiations. i sent a letter this week talking about some of this. i just want to get your assurances that it will be given the priority it really deserves going for because i think the potential is a menace. >> i totally agree and we think this is one of the most promising areas going on in the world right now. we have a terrific ambassador in geneva in the form of michael, leaving those negotiations with our team back here. and as you say, represents 70% of the global services markets we think the very significant, could be very significant market but we'll other countries may join overtime. we very much agree with you on the boards of our economy, it's our job in the united states. promoting growth here in the united states, and we're optimistic will continue to make progress. >> my home state this louisiana. we're in energy producing state. and in the energy sector this could be really beneficial.

i was with chairman nunes down in brazil, and they are struggling with the right kind of expertise and technology to develop deep water resources as well as shale. other countries have the same concerns. we have the expertise. with in jenin services and so forth. thanks. i yield back. >> thanks. mr. thompson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for having the hearing. ambassador, thank you for being here, and congratulations. we look forward to were king with you. the chairman started off talking about some tariff in nontariff barriers as it pertains to agriculture. i'd like to pick up on that. i represent an area that has a very significant agricultural component. we produce some of the best wines in the world. and some of the tpp countries present some pretty good barriers for our product. so i would like to be able to

get a good commitment that we work together to make sure that we lower the barriers and work to protect this important agriculture product that we have the. the '06 bilateral wine trade agreement with the u.s. and eu was a good start, and i would like to make sure that we continue that. along the same lines, counterfeit and imitation lines that are made by other countries that try to capitalize on our brand are a real problem and are a geographical indicator system works well. and i would like to make sure that we work to protect that as well. another agricultural product that's important to california is our rice. and recently the president and japan's prime minister sent a joint statement that said, and i'll paraphrase, all terrorists are on the table -- all tariffs

are on the table. would like to very much make sure that this holds true to rise and we don't exempt rise in any agreement succumbing and. and we include them and work with them as we work towards facilitating this particular market. and then lastly, you have sent a letter to some of our senate colleagues talking about textiles. and i think he said that appropriate balance between divergent views was important. and i hope we can find more opportunities for trade other than just short supply issues. another 40 working with you on all of these issues. >> thank you, congressman. let me just say with regard to the agricultural issues, agricultural trade is at an all time high. our exports flash i think work $140 billion. we see this as a tremendous

opportunity for expansion, working very closely with secretary vilsack to ensure that we're doing everything that we can to promote agricultural trade in all of our agreements. that's why as congressman nunes mentioned, the agreement is important. >> some of our tariff in nontariff barriers are at an all time high also. if you look at china, when we sent our u.s. wine we are paying about 56% combined taxes and tariffs. care but prohibited. these are all issues we want to work on. >> thank you. mr. began. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i rooted afford to congratulation mr. ambassador and looking for to working with you. i'm sure the committee does and a bipartisan basis. i'm from florida, and these trade agreements, the fda's our huge to 40. what trade means to florida with 14 forced to confront and 50,000 jobs, $70 billion in economic

activity, but i also grew up in michigan so i take a look, just trees from ou our standpoint, yu look at a lot of cultural community, huge benefits in terms of trade. the president talk about doubling trade. 95% of the market place outside. we see different parts of the country, the midwest and other areas that don't benefit as much, many times the coastal community. what's your thought on that what we can do more to help more states feel like it's a win-win for them as well on trade? >> thank you very much congressman. from our perspective, trade is part of the broader economic strategy of creighton jobs and promoting growth, strengthen the middle class. that's got to work across the country. different parts of the country will be affected in different ways but it's one reason we put so much emphasis on our manufacturing policy in the administration in making sure our trade policy is supportive of our manufacturing policy. we want to make sure that even as we export additional services

and we export additional agriculture products, that we are also building a stronger manufacturing capability in the united states. >> and other quick question. question to get -- i was in beijing in january and they have about 4500 members of the chamber of u.s. businesses in chamber. of course, you've heard this a lot about intellectual properties, still the biggest issue. an article that the times put out a little while back said it's costing the u.s. i think $48 billion in 2009. if they improve their ip protection it means $87 billion for the u.s. and create 2 million jobs. i know you'd you've worked on that and it's something that is a big issue, but i can tell you that is a very big issue to our country in terms of job creation, additional economic opportunities for companies in the u.s. where are we at on that? >> it's a very high priority. as recently as last week when

heavy strategic and economic dialogue, intellectua intellecty rights, trade secrets, cyber theft, all featured very prominent in that discussion. we need to keep on pressing china to make progress. we have made some progress. we have reached access for our films which -- >> might get agreement but then try to get something implemented. >> we want to see more legalization of software, legal software by government agencies, by others. they have stepped up their efforts in certain respects. it's not enough, hasn't gone far enough or fast enough. the one thing that it would say that it would say that gives us some hope is they are beginning to see in their own country developers of intellectual property. as that happens there's more of a constituency within that wants to see better enforcement of intellectual property rights. we need to capitalize that and press for further resources being put into enforcement, for the metrics and benchmarks and ensure that they are not stealing our -- >> into.

mr. nunes. >> mr. thompson my tomatoes a letter sent to mr. fromm, and secretary vilsack on the measures and want to cement that for the record. >> without objection. as jenkins is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here. strong intellectual property rights protections are essential to the success of u.s. and eu economies. the united states alone intellectual property intensive industry accounts for over 59 jobs, nearly 6 trillion output, and a trillion and exports. so a couple of questions. first, what barriers for ipr intensive trade for goods and services to u.s. companies face in the eu? and second, in what areas is there potential for greater convergence between u.s. and eu, ipr practices, and how can the united states and the eu have high levels of protection in

those areas? i would be interested in hearing about not only patents, trademarks and copyrights, but also about protections and trade secrets from disclosure by government. >> well, it's a critical part of our economy as you said and it's a critical part of our relationship with the eu as well. we both have quite high levels of ipr protection, although they are somewhat different in terms of how they're implement. we see the negotiations is giving us an opportunity to work together with the eu to raise the standards over all of the global committee, for the global economy and to work 30 countries where we have interest. on a bilateral basis we have our differences. geographical indications is one area. we want to make sure we protect the trademarks and the common product themes of our products.

but we see more commonality in terms of the overall level of protections between the u.s. and eu and with the other markets. we see the opportunity to work together to have high standards around the world. >> thank you. i yield back. >> thank you. mr. blumenauer. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome ambassador. we have appreciated the professionalism and hard work and the skill of a usgr, look forward to working with you with the other committees, members. i appreciate our earlier conversation about the importance of labor and environmental protections which i think working with you for the extent to which were able to enhance, i think it makes it better for everybody all the way around my friend referenced the footwear industry. you talked about going to new england. i think that is terrific. i would ask and in this consent to in into the record a letter that we have submitted with my

friend, aaron schrock, almost 50 members of the house that talked about the value chain of footwear. i would hope that you would be able to visit portland, oregon, and look at part of that supply chain. i represent people who manufacture shoes in the united states. we've got a whole range of others, however, because although less than 1% of footwear is manufactured in the united states, the fast amount of the value chain is here. companies like nike and new balance, others. not new balance. well, new balance also. they are design, promotion, intellectual property, the engineering, the sales, marketing, a huge amount of the valley is here. and we are trapped in the past with a tariff structure that is outmoded, long ago ceased to

actually have any rational bearing on the marketplace. in fact, translates into a very substantial sales tax, particularly on the lower end product. and it would be exciting if we could have some meaningful work with the treaty negotiations that are underway, to do something meaningful and to be able to promote that entire value chain. do you have any thoughts or observations? you can accept the invitation to come visit us. we would be happy to put into the mix as the. >> thank you, congressman. i would say on the footwear issue in particular, and this goes to some of the products as well, we've got multiple interests at stake, as you say. those were assembling products that are being imported, the retailers, the consumers. one thing we have to do is what all those interests and find the best possible path, and one in

particular that supports the most jobs in the united states. and so we are looking at all those issues and recognize the sensitivities. and we hope to be able to strike a balance that addresses the multiplicity of interests that are at stake. >> i appreciate that but as i said, we would be able to show you in our community people who are manufacturing but also who designed the production, engineering, the sales. thousands of very high paying jobs right here in the united states support that mechanism that we talked about. thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. paulsen? >> congratulations also, mr. ambassador. i want to shift gears and talk about india will quick. you are aware that many u.s. businesses and investors are facing issues that significant or impeding their ability to compete in any. as you know congressman larson and myself recently sent a letter with 170 of our colleagues headed last month's u.s. in a strategic dialogue urging the administration to

make india's environment for intellectual property a focus of that dialogue. last week come in the announced review of its preferential market, access policy which requires information technology products to be produced in india as a condition of sale. that's a policy that would violate fundamental global trade rules but that review does not solve the problems facing information-technology sector in india. it doesn't do anything to address serious concerns in other sectors including the solar industry and doesn't rethink to address this quickly tax treatment our stop the blatant theft of american intellectual property. the primary forum to discuss this is the trade policy forum which ustr co-chairs that hasn't been held since 2010. when do you expect to hold the next trade policy forum? what can we do to support you in these efforts and what's the administration doing to ensure that u.s.-india trade and investment relationship is on a positive trajectory down the

road? >> thank you, congressman. this is very much at the center of the agenda last week when have the u.s.-india ceo forum. we had the finance minister, the trade minister and a deputy chairman of the plan commission in town for a series of meetings come at precisely on that issue. investment and innovation in time in india, how it's affecting our relationship and help might be able to dress that. very good conversations with my new counterpart, the trade minister sharma there, and we have agreed of our staffs work closely together to key up and try to resolve a number of the outstanding issues so that we can have a trade policy forum sometime in the future but want to make sure that the groundwork is laid and we're making progress for resolving those issues in the run up to the meeting. >> what do we do to help you support that in that effort? congress than crowd and others had a meeting also with the

finance minister, had a great conversatconversat ion to keep the dialogue going but what else can we do to support you? >> i think it's been very important for india to understand the breadth of concern in the business committee, in congress, the bipartisan basis of that concern. i think it helps focus the attention on what needs to be done. it's one thing if we say to them but a fair hearing also from a variety of other sources, i think that's very positive and i would encourage you to continue that. >> i yield back. >> thank you. mr. marchant. >> welcome, ambassador. i represent 750,000 people that live and work within 30 minutes of one of the great trade hubs in the united states, dfw airport. trade agreements equal high quality and high paying jobs in my district. it isn't just an equation. it's a direct equation.

so we are very interested in your success, and we want to let you know that we are more than willing to help in any way. my question is about tpp. the tpp is meant to be a living agreement that could eventually be the basis for free trade areas for the asia-pacific. such a free trade area with further integrate the united states into the supply chain across the asia-pacific region, benefiting our exports and increasing our competitiveness. i understand that now the focus is properly on competing at high standard and ambitious tpp agreement. however, we need to lay the groundwork so the pacific rim countries from latin america through asia meet the high standards will eventually join and increase the valley of the

tpp. what is the ustr strategy for ensuring that this can happen? >> well, thank you, and as you said, our focus right now is trying to compete -- complete disagreement this year with the 12 countries that will be part of it, but it's a platform to which other countries could ultimately deceived if they so wish. we avert expression of interest, formal and informal, from a number of other countries who are following tpp's progress with great interest. and do we expect me want to join in a second tranche of countries sometime in the future. our focus for now is just bringing this first tranche to a close. >> mr. chair, i would like unanimous consent to submit a question for the record concerning our relationship with taiwan to the ambassador. >> without objection. >> you back. >> all right. mr. david. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. let me add my congratulations,

mr. ambassador. you know, as we experience globalization, there seems to be more and more small, moderate minority owned, women-owned businesses who are trying to get into the pipeline and make use of opportunities to do business abroad. how helpful does your office expect to be to help these individuals make inactions, contacts and get movement? >> well, thank you very much for asking that question, because getting small and medium-size businesses into the export business has been a major focus of the administration and we want to do more on that. a couple of years ago ambassador kirk launched an estimate initiative had ustr. and more broadly the administration, through the national export initiative, through the work of the export

promotion cabinet, we made increasing the number of small and medium-size businesses to export a major objective. we went at that by one come increasing the availability of trade finance and working with community banks about the best relationships with small and medium-sizmedium-sized businessg them into the trade finance business. we also looked at the array of points of contact that the administration the government had with small and medium-sized businesses, sba, the commerce offices around the country to ensure that they were trained and capable of providing small and medium-sized businesses with the kind of advice they need about how to begin to export, how to evaluate the market and how to navigate their way to visitors procedures that they need to navigate. so this is been a major priority of ours. ntpp itself with a small and medium-size business chapter and

the objective is to be able to look back at tpp as it's being implemented to ensure that the benefits of the tpp are also going to small and medium-sized businesses and to make adjustments as appropriate. so this is a high priority for us. we believe these are the drivers of jobs in the united states and we think there's much more we could do to help these companies become part of the global economy. >> thank you very much. we have a great relationship with ambassador kirk and look forward to working with you. i yield back. >> thank you. mr. reed. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, ambassador for being here today. i offer my congratulations and also my personal thanks for all the hard work on korea in particular that you're involved with. i know we worked on korea, colombia and panama. i represent upstate western ear. i've got companies like nucor steel, corning, so i'm very concerned about making sure that we are enforcing our trade provisions to make sure we have that level playing field that's critical to the future of

america and american manufacturing in particular. just want to make sure i have a clear understanding that you and i agree that enforcing our trade remedy laws is something that protects american jobs, good for american jobs. >> absolutely true. >> and when it comes to intellectual property, for example, with corning incorporated and the trade secrets and things like that, would you agree with me that being able to point at our u.s. criminal and civil laws is critical in your negotiations as we go in regards to the trade into -- trade agenda across the world? >> the whole area of trade secret has been of great concern to us, a high priority, and corning is one of the specific cases we have advocated for aggressively with china to try to see if we can help resolve that case. i don't know enough about the criminal and civil relationship between that and what we're doing on the trade side, other than to say that we underscore

the trade secrets is unacceptable and it's important that these issues, both individual cases but the broader message on the chinese leadership that trade secret theft will be covered. it's got to be a critical part moving forward. forward. >> i appreciate that because it's an important piece to me. is there any thing that you would recommend to us from a legislative perspective to champion to put you in the best positioned to accomplish your job in regards to that trade secret initiative to? >> well, i would say the following, and i mentioned in my opening statement, that my biggest worry at the moment is really about resources. ustr is lean, nimble, but it's highly constrained at the moment for all the reasons that we know between sequestration and other budget cuts and it's forcing us to make our decisions between what negotiations we can engage in and how, what other market opening measures would want to pursue, and what enforcement cases we can bring.

and so i'm quite concerned that we will manage our resources the best of our ability. we will do the best we can to meet our priorities but, frankly, i think ustr gets the biggest bang for the buck of any place i know, and i think making sure that we're fully resourced to be able to achieve the kinds of enforcement gains in the goshen and monitoring gains that you identify are very important. >> i appreciate that. if there's anything you need from our office dealt hesitate to reach out. good luck. >> mr. griffin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here. i want to talk to you about sts and forcibly, and they think might call a, mr. nunes, talked a little bit about this. i believe that you discussed the current arrangement which is to go through the pto procedures to deal with this as opposed to having something in the agreement itself is that a fair