Ambassador Demetrios J. Marantis delivered this statement in Washington, DC

Ambassador Marantis. Last week, I picked up my copy of Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History, Ted Sorensen's memoir of a decade working as President Kennedy's legendary speechwriter and closest advisor. Paging through the 500 page account of working for the young Senator and President who inspired a nation, I was struck that Sorensen dedicated just one half page to China. Half way through the volume he wrote of Kennedy: “The only controversial foreign policy issue that he deliberately, explicitly postponed to his second term…was U.S. relations with China…but a topic that Kennedy knew had to be faced.”

How much the world has changed. An account of President Obama's Administration would more likely address U.S. relations with China on many pages, beginning in chapter one, rather than dedicating just a single page. No longer can a new president delay or postpone the question of China, for a term, a year, or a week. Instead, the President and his Administration must address U.S.-China relations as an imperative of our foreign, security, and economic policy today and every day.

U.S. policy toward China is more important than ever, because the United States and China are in one of the most challenging periods of our trade and economic relationship in decades. Economic events and policies past and present have conspired to lay at our feet a set of historic domestic and bilateral economic challenges, which taken together can define a generation and set the future course of U.S.-China relations.

The nature of these challenges, their causes, and the complex conditions they create are no secret. Domestically, the United States is only beginning to emerge from an economic recession such as has not been seen in a generation. While unemployment has stabilized, too many Americans remain out of work. For some, this recession has deepened skepticism of the potential for international trade to create jobs in the United States. More voices, including an increasingly vocal group of U.S. businesses active in China, are asking tough questions about our trade and investment relationship with China, even while they acknowledge its impressive size and growth. These events coincide with the fact that exports have contributed, as much as household consumption, to our overall economic expansion over the past nine months and promise to be integral to future growth.

Our bilateral challenges with China are also familiar. Nearly a decade after China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), we are challenged to secure our past achievements and build on our successes. China has implemented many important economic reforms, removed trade barriers, and opened markets to U.S. exports. Our manufactured goods exports to China have tripled, and China's strong recovery from the global recession brought double-digit growth in U.S. exports of manufactured and agricultural goods.

Yet we must also contend with the fact that China's implementation of its WTO commitments is incomplete. It has been nearly a decade since China joined the WTO, and is high time for China to follow through on past commitments, as well as provide new market access in key sectors. Failing to do so imperils not just our bilateral ties, but also the success of multilateral trade talks.

The United States has serious concerns about Chinese policies that limit market access or otherwise skew our trading relationship. Trade-distorting measures, including export quotas and value-added tax rebates, impede market forces. Chinese subsidies across a wide range of favored sectors harm U.S. manufacturers and workers, and through their effects impede or displace U.S. exports to China and third country markets.

Proliferating industrial policies set unique technology standards to favor Chinese producers; ‘Buy China’ policies cut off access to procurement markets; and arbitrary measures restrict investment flows. In services, China severely limits opportunities for U.S. companies in its telecommunications sector, hampers access for insurance and private pension suppliers, and its new ‘Postal Law’ excludes foreign express delivery companies from a key segment of China's domestic market. In agriculture, a series of non-science based measures still impede our poultry, pork, dairy, and beef exports. And China's use of import permits, tariff rate quotas, and value added taxes conspire to restrain agricultural trade.

“And one of our greatest challenges with China today flows from a set of industrial policies promoting ‘indigenous innovation.’ These policies aim to foster research and development and value-added production. Good goals for any economy. But the steps China is taking to try to implement these goals are very troubling. As drafted, China's indigenous innovation policies threaten global intellectual property protections, fair government procurement policies, market competition, and innovators’ freedom to decide how and when they transfer technology.

Getting these and other individual policy issues right are also key to the broader goal of rebalancing global economic growth.

The American people and the global community will measure this Administration's success by how it navigates this challenging period. There should be no doubt that, for President Obama, the question of China is fundamental, a crucial issue tied to how our nation will grow and prosper. Our goal is for our two economies to grow together on a sustainable and mutually beneficial path that fosters innovation, growth, and job creation—a path that allows China's economy to continue its impressive growth trajectory, while diversifying its drivers of economic growth, implementing market reforms, and becoming a progressive force in the global economy. Most importantly, our goal is to keep our economies travelling on this path with a keen focus on the economic rules of the road—the binding global trade and investment commitments to which we have bound ourselves to ensure our trade relations are fair and mutually beneficial.

“Goals alone will not steer our economies through our challenges. We need a comprehensive strategy to guide our future course. President Obama's Administration has that China strategy, built on three distinct but mutually reinforcing pillars.

The first pillar of our economic strategy with China begins at home. The United States cannot prescribe economic reforms for others, but hesitate to undertake new necessary measures itself. We recognize that our own domestic policies sometimes fall short, and that our domestic savings and spending practices contributed to our economic imbalances with China and the world.

We must do better. Under the leadership of President Obama, this Administration is working with Congress to put in place a bipartisan plan to reform America's economic present and future. Congress passed and the President signed a robust economic stimulus plan to save and create new jobs in a cleaner and more sustainable economy. Historic healthcare reform is in place. Financial sector regulatory reform is within reach. As our economy emerges from recession, the Administration is crafting a plan to put our future on sound fiscal footing. And the National Export Initiative is mobilizing resources to assure exports play a bigger role in our future economic growth.

“These and other domestic economic reforms promise to make America's economy more competitive and prosperous for generations to come. These domestic economic reforms are also a global plan and a commitment to the world economy. An America that is more competitive and prosperous at home is also an America that can be more ambitious and engaged with its economic partners in all countries. This engagement will not only benefit our trading partners, but it will also create more jobs at home by increasing U.S. exports to the world.

Building on this bedrock of domestic economic reforms, the second pillar of our China strategy is robust bilateral engagement focused on results. These results may not always be flashy. They may not always make headlines. But in every case they are safeguarding and promoting the jobs and livelihoods of American workers, farmers, ranchers, and service providers in a rules-based trading system.

Look at our results in the S&ED last May. The United States went into the dialogue concretely focused on concerns with China's so-called indigenous innovation policies, and we got results. China committed that its innovation policies will be consistent with principles including nondiscrimination, intellectual property rights enforcement, market competition, and open trade and investment. China pledged to leave the terms and conditions of technology transfer, production processes, and other proprietary information to individual enterprises. China also agreed to hold intensive expert and highlevel bilateral innovation discussions, commencing next week, with all relevant U.S. and Chinese agencies. This is progress, but indigenous innovation is a tremendous challenge. We have much more work to do to address it, both on winning Chinese support for non-discriminatory innovation policies overall and our short term concerns with pending measures.

Our S&ED work also won good results on government procurement. China committed to produce a robust revised offer to join the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). Fulfilling that commitment is a solid step toward ensuring China's huge government procurement market is open to U.S. companies. China submitted its revised offer last week. We are still analyzing it, but we recognize that it includes significant improvements over its initial offer that was submitted at the end of 2007. After we complete our analysis, including consulting with domestic stakeholders, we will work with China and other GPA members to ensure China's terms of accession are comprehensive and comparable to that of other GPA parties.

The JCCT is also getting results. At last year's JCCT meeting in Hangzhou, China dropped its H1N1 ban on our pork exports, great news for U.S. pork exporters to this growing market. While that was a solid step toward good results, we are still facing other non-science-based measures affecting our agriculture exports—including beef, dairy, and poultry—that we must work closely with China to address.

On intellectual property protections, at last year's JCCT China agreed to instruct state-run libraries to strengthen protection of copyright-protected academic and medical journals. China also cracked down on IPR violations on the internet, investigating websites, imposing fines, and shutting down hundreds of websites. Here again, we are making progress, but there is no doubt that rampant IPR violations in China still cost U.S. companies billions of dollars every year, and there is much more we must do.

And we continue to work to improve market access in China. At the JCCT, China committed to remove local content requirements on wind turbines, ease compulsory testing for some information security products, and eliminate unnecessary regulatory requirements for medical devices. Yet again, to keep these markets open and fair, there is much more we still must do.

Our focus on results also means that we are looking at our own approach to China to figure out what to do better. For example, we are making sure our Chinese counterparts hear this Administration speak with one voice on a single set of priorities. Which is why, leading up to the Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in May, Ambassador Kirk worked hand-in-glove with Secretaries Geithner, Clinton, Locke, and others in this Administration to prioritize our goals and find the best means to achieve them. This cooperation is the rule on all levels across all agencies.

We can also get more and better results by reexamining our processes with China. Take the JCCT. The JCCT has been the boiler room of U.S.-China trade ties, churning out results to power our relationship forward. We know the JCCT works, but we also know we can do better. Over the past year, we looked for ways to improve the JCCT process. One innovation was to restructure our work into a sustained effort throughout the year, rather than concentrate our efforts in a flurry of activity around the annual JCCT plenary meeting. Together with the Department of Commerce, USTR is pushing for results early and throughout the year by intensifying and accelerating our engagement in sectoral working groups. We are also elevating our engagement above the working level more often. For example, in May, Vice Minister-level officials from U.S. and Chinese agencies held our first-ever mid-year review of our JCCT work. Our session was productive, moving toward better results this fall.

While our negotiators are seeking solutions through dialogue, USTR also works rigorously to lay the groundwork for the filing of enforcement actions in the WTO, if needed. Our goal is to send an unmistakable message that we will not negotiate indefinitely where U.S. rights are concerned. The United States has been by far the most active—and successful—WTO Member bringing WTO dispute settlement cases against China. Last summer, the United States, the European Union, and Mexico commenced a WTO dispute against China challenging its export restraints on nine important raw material inputs. We also have scored important victories for American workers and businesses on market access for books, movies, and music, and on intellectual property rights enforcement. We successfully challenged subsidies benefiting exports of Chinese “famous brands.” And also for the first time, we took action under the Section 421 special safeguard provision against a surge of Chinese tire imports.

The third pillar of our China strategy supports work beyond our bilateral initiatives to address our relationship multilaterally and regionally. Multilaterally, we are working with China to get an ambitious and balanced outcome in WTO Doha negotiations. We can only achieve success in these negotiations if China, and other advanced developing economies, play a role and make commitments commensurate with their position in the world economy. We are disappointed with China's contribution to date. China has come up short and continues to leave the United States and its global trading partners waiting for more serious engagement and a more serious contribution to WTO negotiations. The role in the global economy that China has aspired to and now plays comes with commensurate responsibilities. That means stepping up on such issues as Doha.

Regionally, our China strategy has two aspects. First, we cannot overlook the important work the United States and China can achieve in key regional bodies like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Together, the United States and China can move APEC's 21 member economies to benefit the region and the global economy. As the United States prepares for its 2011 APEC host year, we look forward to working with China to further regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific.

Second, our regional focus also recognizes that China has done a remarkable job integrating its trade and investment ties in the Asia-Pacific region. We welcome China's regional accomplishments, but we also recognize that we need to pursue important trade and investment opportunities for U.S. businesses in this arena. The United States too must anchor its economic future in the region as a Pacific economy. This is why President Obama has directed Ambassador Kirk to strengthen these ties to the region through APEC, work to address outstanding concerns with and complete our Free Trade Agreement with Korea, and pursue an unprecedented regional trade agreement with the eight-country Trans-Pacific Partnership.

While President Kennedy may have had the luxury of deferring his China policy a half century ago, he did have the vision to create the Office of the Special Trade Representative in 1963, urging Americans to ‘trade or fade.’ This Administration is honoring this Kennedy legacy by shaping a comprehensive China strategy built on a foundation of domestic economic reforms, focused on results, and bilateral, regional and multilateral engagement. We will adjust and reform our strategy as events and developments require, but we must get it right to keep the U.S.-China relationship on target and on track for success.

Ambassador Ron Kirk delivered this statement in Toronto, Canada

Ambassador Kirk. It's especially nice to join all of you here at Toronto Board of Trade, one of the preeminent platforms for dialogue among prominent and influential economic leaders from both Canada and the United States.

This is a great opportunity to exchange information and ideas among key stakeholders and continue to build the bilateral relationship—not just government to government, but in all dimensions.

Together we—Canada and the United States—are setting a strong example for the world to follow. We enhance economic opportunities through trade with more than $1.4 billion crossing our borders every day. I know that many of you here are key drivers of that record trade volume.

And over the years, Canadian and American companies and workers have proven that strong allies can be friendly competitors at the same time.

Even before our countries came into being our ancestors traveled up and down the St. Lawrence River and across the Great Lakes in pursuit of trade, commerce, and economic opportunity.

Over the years these relationships formed an unbreakable bond between our two countries. And as we approach the anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks this September, Americans are grateful for our Canadian allies.

None of us can forget those difficult days after September 11th when you offered hospitality and safe harbor for so many stranded Americans whose airplanes had to divert to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and all across Canada.

You were there for us in our hour of need—thank you.

Today our sons and daughters are fighting shoulder to shoulder in Afghanistan, combating terrorism. At the same time Canadian and American mothers and fathers both face the effects of a fading economic recession here at home.

In response to these challenging times, we stand together with a common purpose to protect free and peaceful nations and to foster shared prosperity around the world.

And we agree that trade is one of the best ways to grow the economy and create jobs.

That's why President Obama came to Canada on his first official trip outside of the United States to underscore the closeness and importance of the relationship between our two nations. He reaffirmed the commitment of the United States to work with Canada to meet the shared challenges of our times.

And just last month your Prime Minister Harper hosted the G20 Leaders Summit in Toronto, where our respective leaders pledged to make progress on a range of issues including the Doha round of multilateral trade talks.

As two of the world's largest economies and leaders in international trade, Canada and the United States both must be committed to advancing multilateral trade liberalization at the same time as we strengthen our bilateral ties.

From my first day as United States Trade Representative, I set out to make America's trading relationship with Canada a top priority.

I shared this commitment with Minister Van Loan and former Trade Minister Day and said that we ought to be looking for ways to make our partnership even stronger and to contribute to its success and growth.

For example, back in October, I met with my Canadian and Mexican counterparts at the annual NAFTA Commission meeting. We agreed to work together to collect and share information about the experiences of small-and medium-sized businesses under the NAFTA. And we are going to use that information to identify actions that we can take to help those businesses.

Today we had a productive discussion to take stock of our work since October. Since essentially all the tariffs between our three countries have been completely eliminated, we must work on reducing other burdens. For example, we are working to reduce transaction costs by eliminating unnecessary regulatory differences.

This is important work because Small and Medium Sized enterprises are the backbone of the economy and engines of job creation on Main Streets in both Canada and the United States.

At USTR we have launched an SME initiative to craft trade policy in ways that will help more small businesses access customers abroad and succeed in the global economy, since small businesses that export grow faster, add jobs faster, and pay higher wages.

Working together we can find ways to help our U.S. and Canadian SMEs take full advantage of the export opportunities that NAFTA provides and utilize regional supply chains to create competitive advantage.

At the same time, we want to ensure that we respect labor rights and protection of the environment. Since we last met in October, our senior trade officials have met several times to discuss increased cooperation on trade and environment issues. Officials from our trade and labor ministries have discussed proposals on ways to improve the functioning of the labor side agreement. These steps will help pave the way towards collaborative work on these cross-cutting and crucial issues.

But before I get into more specifics, let me just put these issues in context of our overall bilateral relationship, which is quite impressive and unique.

The volume of the U.S.—Canada trading relationship is staggering. In 2009, U.S. goods exports to Canada totaled $204.7 billion and goods imports from Canada totaled $226.2 billion. Since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, two-way trade between the United States and Canada has more than doubled.

The United States is also the top foreign investor in Canada. In 2008, U.S. direct investment to Canada was $227.3 billion and Canadian investment in the U.S. totaled $221.9 billion.

This meaningful economic engagement makes a tremendous positive contribution to our economies. We must continue to build upon this success.

But make no mistake—we have some disagreements such as softwood lumber and country-of-origin labeling that cannot be ignored and need to be resolved.

We can do so through procedures to which we have both agreed to enforce our respective rights—or through cooperative solutions, such as we recently reached with government procurement.

Last year when the Canadian government approached the United States expressing its concern over the Buy American requirements in the Recovery Act, I listened.

After hearing your concerns about the new Buy American requirements, I worked with your ministers to find a solution. Together we were able to turn a short-term bilateral controversy into a long-term opportunity for both of our countries.

For years, the United States and other countries have sought access to the Canadian provincial procurement markets through the World Trade Organization's Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).

Fortunately, we were able to negotiate a ‘win-win’ deal creating new permanent access on both sides of the border to our respective procurement markets.

Canadian suppliers were able to compete for several programs funded by the Recovery Act, and U.S. suppliers gained access to additional construction projects undertaken by Canadian sub-central entities.

Our shared success on procurement serves as a strong example of how we can cooperate on other common challenges, such as the global economic recovery from recession.

Simply put, we need to set an example by stimulating growth without turning inward or resorting to protectionist measures. As global trade leaders, we need to guard against protectionism around the world.

During the Great Depression—the last time the economy was hit as hard as it is today—knee-jerk protectionism propelled the world into deeper suffering. Country after country walled itself off from trade, each responding to the others’ insular restrictions. Soon global trade was near a standstill.

We can't afford to let that happen again. We have to learn the lessons of history or we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.

“That is why we need bilateral and multilateral trade policies that open up opportunities, not shut them down.

We need to seek areas where we can work together to spur economic growth and opportunity between–and within—our countries.

One such area is in the Doha Round. Furthering trade liberalization through new trade flows and meaningful market openings, which an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Round would achieve, would spur economic growth not only in North America but in all countries.

That is why leaders at the G20 Summit in Toronto last month—including President Obama and Prime Minister Harper—committed to continued engagement among key countries to resolve differences and move toward the conclusion of a meaningful round.

We also need innovative ideas to accelerate our economies. Protecting and promoting innovation—through strong intellectual property rights–is essential to economic growth.

Canada is home and host to some of the most creative minds in the world. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has become one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, contributing over C$170 million to Canada's economy. But Canada can only reap the full rewards of its innovation and creativity with strong intellectual property protections.

Take another example—the Blackberry. It was developed here in Canada, but RIM manufactures thousands of them near my hometown of Dallas. This high-tech supply chain is made possible in part by the regional economic integration that NAFTA has created. However, we have to make sure that we protect IP rights across the board so that innovators on both sides of our border have the incentives and legitimate expectations of reward for their creativity and hard work.

Both of our nations need to create highwage jobs today, and build new industries that will bring jobs for years to come— not only for large companies, but for small businesses, too.

Because we both have a shared interest in healthy competition.

When I talk to American workers about trade, I tell them that it's my job to keep the playing field level so they can compete on fair terms around the world.

And with you all here today in Canada, I know you share these goals. You are a proud and hard-working people, too.

In times like these, we're all digging a little deeper, pushing ourselves to get better and do more with less.

We thrive on competition so it's in our mutual interest to preserve a level playing field when it comes to global trade.

To that end, Minister Van Loan and I have agreed to meet twice a year to continue this vital work.

And I look forward to working with all of you as we tackle common challenges, work toward shared goals, and preserve our unique relationship through dialogue and cooperation. Thank you.

Ambassador Demetrios Marantis delivered this statement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Recently, a colleague told me of an old Malay legend, according to which, while a person sleeps, his soul leaves the body to travel abroad. A person's dreams are the record of his soul's adventures. This story made me think that my soul must travel to Malaysia while I sleep. Because for weeks following a trip to your country, I have vivid dreams of mangosteens and nasi lemak.

It is a tremendous pleasure to be back in Malaysia and not just for your wonderful food. Malaysia is a country whose natural beauty is matched by its economic dynamism. Here, the people embrace you with their hospitality, and never fail to inspire with their ambition and vision. I am happy to be here at the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), which is dedicated to shaping Malaysia's economic future and U.S.-Malaysian strategic and economic ties.

We meet today at an exciting time in the U.S.-Malaysia relationship. Both the United States and Malaysia are building on our economic strengths and undertaking bold new reforms to secure a better future. These efforts promise to strengthen our economies and improve the welfare of our people. And these efforts also promise to strengthen the bonds between the United States and Malaysia.

On the road to economic reform and greater global cooperation, the Obama Administration knows that Malaysia is a fellow traveler. We are watching with anticipation and support your country's New Economic Model, announced earlier this year by Prime Minister Najib. We are inspired by your ambition to transform Malaysia from a middle income country into an advanced economy by 2020. Your plan holds nothing back and asks tough questions. You recognize your enormous strides in reducing poverty over the past decades, but acknowledge existing income disparities. You are facing up to questions about your workforce skills and the need to avoid shortcuts to future growth. And you set the ambitious goal of transforming your economy to one driven by higher-value added manufactured goods and important services-driven industries.

In the United States, we are emerging from an historic economic recession. President Obama took office last year under the cloud of a financial crisis that cost too many Americans their jobs and shook their outlook for the future. Yet faced with a daunting challenge, the American people are responding.

Under the leadership of President Obama, this Administration is working with Congress to put in place a bipartisan plan to reform America's economic present and future. Congress passed and the President signed a robust economic stimulus plan to save and create new jobs. Historic reforms are now in place that promise better health care for more Americans. Reform to guard our financial system against crisis is now law. And as our economy emerges from recession, the Obama Administration is crafting a plan to put our future on sound fiscal footing by cutting our debt and slashing deficits.

In the United States, we recognize that our past economic policies and practices were not sustainable, and that they contributed to global imbalances. We are determined to increase savings, decrease consumer spending, and boost engagement with global markets. And we are backing that determination with policies that count. In January, President Obama announced the National Export Initiative (NEI), an ambitious plan to double American exports and support 2 million additional American jobs over the next five years. This is a White House initiative that harnesses resources across all agencies to increase the effectiveness of export promotion and export financing. We aim to get U.S. businesses that have never exported to look into the opportunities in global markets.

The U.S. Trade Representative's role in this effort is to do what we do best—negotiate and enforce trade agreements bilaterally and multilaterally. Multilaterally, the United States is committed to an ambitious and balanced outcome to the WTO negotiations. Key to that outcome is to ensure that large emerging economies contribute to the negotiations in a way that is commensurate with their role in the global economy. This isn't happening yet. But the U.S. negotiating team is engaging these key WTO members with flexibility, determination, and energy.

A number of the Administration's most exciting trade initiatives are in Asia. The pending U.S.-Korea agreement is an great opportunity for the United States, promising to generate an additional $10 to $11 billion in annual exports and support up to 70,000 additional export-related jobs. In June, President Obama tasked the U.S. Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, to resolve the Administration's outstanding concerns with this agreement by this November's G20 Summit in Seoul, and have the agreement ready to submit to Congress in the subsequent months.

The United States is also pursuing negotiations with the eight country Trans-Pacific Partnership, which today includes Australia, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. After a good start in Australia in March, we hosted a very successful round of negotiations in San Francisco in June, boosted by expanded outreach to U.S. stakeholders. All eight TPP countries share an ambition to create a 21st century trade agreement that can serve as a platform for economic integration in the Asia-Pacific. The talks to date have strong momentum, as the TPP countries move toward an intersessional round of talks in August and the third round of negotiations in October.

Buttressing our initiatives with Korea and the TPP is the United States’ work in the 21-economy Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC. Two weeks ago, Ambassador Kirk joined key supporters in Congress and the U.S. business community to launch the host committee for America's APEC host year in 2011. We are excited to welcome APEC to the United States for the first time in nearly two decades. And we are determined to make APEC 2011 a banner year for cooperation and outcomes that solidifies our regional economic engagement, and that makes it easier, cheaper, and faster for companies to do business in the Asia Pacific.

In addition to Korea, TPP, and APEC, the United States is working with the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—all together, America's fourth largest goods export market. In May, we welcomed representatives of ASEAN—including your distinguished Trade Minister Mustapa—to the United States for a cross-country “road show.” Ambassador Kirk hosted this trip personally, to show Americans from Seattle, Washington to Washington, D.C. the economic opportunities of the U.S.-ASEAN relationship.

These economic initiatives promise to make America's economy more competitive and prosperous for generations to come. But these plans also have global reach, and show President Obama's commitment to the revival of the world economy. An America that is more competitive and prosperous at home can also be more ambitious and engaged with its economic partners around the world. This, in turn, can benefit Malaysia—enhancing your exports, creating jobs and raising standards of living here.

Malaysia is a country of dynamism, ambition, and vision, and the United States looks forward to having an even stronger Malaysia as our partner. Our partnership already has so many accomplishments to celebrate. Our common successes include our initiatives in ASEAN, where we strive to make our substantial bilateral trade and investment successes work for all ASEAN members. We appreciate Malaysia as a productive member of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering. We welcome Malaysia's bold action to pass its Strategic Trade Act in April. Such positive outcomes of our cooperation is seen, welcomed, and appreciated in the United States—including by President Obama when he met with Prime Minister Najib this spring.

There are many more extraordinary opportunities to further build our bilateral trade and investment ties. We need to consider all these opportunities carefully. We are already working together in the WTO, APEC and ASEAN. And we know that you are looking carefully at possible participation in TPP. We are excited by the prospects of building this 21st-century, regional agreement and welcome other APEC members that share the TPP members’ vision and goals for a high-standard agreement.

When I return to Washington, my nights will again be filled with visions of rambutans and curry laksa. But my days will continue to be consumed by the dreams of what the United States and Malaysia can accomplish together in trade, investment, and other areas. I hope you will join me in helping make those dreams a reality.

Ambassador Ron Kirk delivered this statement in Washington, DC

Ambassador Kirk. We are deeply concerned that the Government of Peru has not yet taken all necessary steps to ensure complete implementation of the Annex on Forest Sector Governance under the PTPA by the August 1, 2010 deadline. We are assessing the other options available to us under the Agreement, but as a first step, I will be sending a senior USTR official to Lima in the coming days to meet with Peruvian officials to determine how this unfortunate situation can be promptly resolved. We are also requesting to convene a meeting of the PTPA's Forest Sector Sub-Committee at the earliest possible date to reach agreement on a concrete course of action that can bring Peru into compliance within a limited timeframe.

The United States has worked closely with Peru over a period of two years to develop and implement legal provisions that would strengthen environment and forest sector governance as contemplated by the PTPA. The Government of Peru has made unprecedented changes to its legal and regulatory regimes to fully implement the obligations under the Agreement. For example, Peru amended its Criminal Code to increase penalties for forest, wildlife and environmental crimes, and created a Ministry of Environment to take over important environmental duties and the lead on natural protected areas in Peru. Over the last two years, Peru's Ministry of the Interior trained and deployed 3000 Ecological Police Officers. Additionally, the Public Ministry created offices for environmental prosecutors and dispatched a number of prosecutors to various regions in Peru where they will be able to prosecute forest sector crimes.

We will continue to work closely with the Government of Peru, and will remain in close contact with the U.S. Congress and stakeholders, to ensure that the obligations of the Annex on Forest Sector Governance are fully implemented in the most expeditious manner.

BACKGROUND

The Annex on Forest Sector Governance, part of the Environment Chapter of the United States—Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA), is the first set of provisions in any U.S. trade agreement that identifies specific action required to address an environmental concern, in this case, the improvement of forest sector governance. The PTPA is also the first trade agreement in which the environmental obligations are subject to the same dispute settlement procedures, remedies, and sanctions as commercial obligations.

As provided in the PTPA, Peru had an additional 18 months from entry into force of the agreement on February 1, 2009, to implement its obligations under the Annex on Forest Sector Governance. The Annex on Forest Sector Governance reflects the commitment of both countries to take concrete measures to combat trade associated with illegal logging and illegal trade in wildlife and further promote sustainable management of Peru's natural resources. The Sub-Committee on Forest Sector Governance was established under the PTPA as a specific forum for the Parties to exchange views and share information on any matter arising under the Annex on Forest Sector Governance.

Ambassador Ron Kirk delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

Ambassador Kirk. “We are disappointed that the Mexican government has announced its intention to impose duties on additional U.S. products related to the cross-border trucking dispute between our countries. Mexico is an important U.S. export market and President Obama understands the economic pain that these tariffs cause for American farmers, companies and workers. Following President Obama's direction, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and I have worked with other agencies and stakeholders in Congress seeking to resolve this issue in a way that addresses safety concerns and upholds our trade obligations. We are committed to continuing to work with Members of Congress and our counterparts in Mexico to resolve the dispute and end these duties.”

In March 2009, Mexico applied a first round of tariffs on 89 U.S. products. Today's announcement indicated Mexico's intention to add several products and reduce or eliminate duties on several others, for a total of 99 products. Mexican officials have not provided a list of those products, but expect to do so later this week.

Ambassador Ron Kirk and Minister Anand Sharma delivered this Joint Statement in Washington, D.C.

Ambassador Kirk, Minister Sharma.

Today's Trade Policy Forum gave us the opportunity to focus together on the state of the burgeoning U.S.-India trade and investment relationship, which is becoming an increasingly significant factor in the economic life and prosperity of our countries, as well as in the global economy. We held comprehensive discussions on a wide range of issues, identifying areas for future constructive engagement between the two trading partners. In doing so, we noted our shared goals of bringing growth and prosperity to our two peoples. At the same time, we were also able to exchange concerns on issues where we differ, recognizing that such issues are a natural part of growing trade and investment linkages between economies as dynamic as those of India and the United States. We welcomed the reports of the Focus Groups established under the TPF. Recognizing that more can and should be done to strengthen our bilateral trade and investment relationship, we instructed our Focus Group leads and other staff to redouble their efforts, particularly in the coming weeks before President Obama's visit to India, to take concrete steps towards resolving several issues of concern and to keep senior officials regularly informed of the results of those efforts. We were particularly appreciative of the input provided by the Private Sector Advisory Group and in the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-India SME Forum. Both of these institutions serve to remind us that—just as in the domestic economy—it is private enterprises, and especially those that are small-and medium-sized, that are key to maximizing trade and investment flows that provide sustained employment, higher incomes, and other critical economic benefits. We firmly believe that this session of the TPF has moved our relationship in the direction of realizing those benefits, and look forward to continued cooperation to this end in the coming years.