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The United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) entered into force on 1 February 2009. The PTPA eliminates tariffs and removes barriers to U.S. services, provides a secure, predictable legal framework for investors, and strengthens protection for intellectual property, workers, and the environment. (…)

The PTPA also established the United States-Peru Forest Sector Subcommittee and the Environmental Affairs Council (EAC). The Subcommittee serves as a forum for the Parties to exchange views and share information on any matter arising under the PTPA's Annex on Forest Sector Governance, and through the EAC, the United States and Peru have had robust engagement concerning the implementation of the environmental obligations under the PTPA Environment Chapter and the Annex on Forest Sector Governance. In January 2013, the Parties agreed to a five point Action Plan to strengthen implementation of the Forest Sector Annex and promote Peru's forestry sector reform efforts. The Action Plan identifies a targeted set of actions for Peru to undertake to address specific challenges in its forestry sector, including implementing anti-corruption measures, improving systems to track and verify the chain of custody of timber exports, ensuring timely criminal and administrative proceedings for forestry-related crimes and infractions, and strengthening development of accurate annual operating plans for timber producers.

In April 2013, the Forest Sector Subcommittee and the Environmental Cooperation Commission (ECC) met in Lima, Peru. The ECC is responsible for reviewing implementation of the United States-Peru Environmental Cooperation Agreement, an agreement designed to enhance environmental cooperation and build capacity between the United States and Peru. The Forest Sector Subcommittee reviewed progress under the Forest Sector Annex, including the development of a prototype for an information system that will track and verify the chain of custody for wood harvested in Peru's forests. In June 2013, the EAC met to review progress in implementing commitments under the environment chapter and the ECC reviewed the implementation of environmental cooperation activities. The Parties held a public session in connection with these meetings. In August 2014, officials from USTR, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the State Department travelled to Peru to engage with Peruvian government officials and civil society groups on recently enacted changes to Peru's laws. The United States continues to engage closely with Peru to discuss the changes and will monitor the implementation of the changes in light of Peru's environmental and labor commitments in the PTPA.

The United States continues to monitor implementation of the United States Singapore FTA, consulting regularly with Singapore. The two sides also continued to discuss trade in textiles and apparel, measures related to Singapore's imports of U.S. beef and pork, protection of intellectual property rights, concerns related to the geographical indications regime in the EU-Singapore FTA, cloud computing deployments in the financial services industry, requirements for pay television companies to cross carry content from competing providers, and continued environmental and labor cooperation efforts. In April 2013, the United States and Singapore met to discuss environmental cooperation and adopted a new Plan of Action for environmental cooperation for 2013-14.

In APEC, the United States continued to advance work on a range of environmental matters. APEC held its first meeting of the Public-Private Partnership on Environmental Goods and Services (PPEGS) in August 2014, which will contribute to APEC's work to address non-tariff barriers in this important sector. APEC economies also agreed to continue capacity building activities to assist economies with implementing their commitments regarding the APEC List of Environmental Goods. The United States launched a work program on electronics stewardship in APEC to increase understanding of the environmental, economic, and social impacts of trade in used electronics and to promote safe handling of used electronics. The APEC Experts Group on Illegal Logging and Associated Trade, which is charged with combating illegal logging and associated trade and promoting legal trade in forest products in the region, convened the first-ever public-private sector dialogue to discuss challenges, activities, and new technologies in the forestry sector, with participation from a broad range of business and civil society representatives. Additionally, the United States met with China and Indonesia under MOUs with each country on combating illegal logging and associated trade. The meetings provided an opportunity to share detailed information on our respective efforts to combat illegal logging and associated trade and on potential areas for collaboration.

Work continued, as well, toward the implementation of APEC Leaders' ground-breaking 2011 commitment to reduce their tariffs on an agreed list of environmental goods to 5% or less by 2015. The Public-Private Partnership on Environmental Goods and Services (PPEGS), having been established by APEC Leaders at their meeting in 2013, met for the first time in August in Beijing. This is a forum where APEC governments and industry representatives collectively address critical issues impacting this sector, including addressing non-tariff barriers impacting trade in environmental goods and services.

While there have been no major changes in the United States' main trade policy framework some initiatives have been put in place by the Administration to improve trade enforcement, through the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center, and to combat wildlife trafficking and fishing fraud, through the establishment of task forces and related policies or strategies. Trade promotion authority remains lapsed, since 2007. Although Congress made some efforts during the review period to reauthorize it, no legislation has been enacted to date.

In July 2013, the President issued an Executive Order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking in order to enhance U.S. Government efforts to combat wildlife trafficking. The Executive Order established a Presidential Task Force to develop and implement a National Strategy for combating wildlife trafficking. The National Strategy was issued in February 2014, and establishes three strategic priorities: (1) strengthening the enforcement of laws and the implementation of international agreements protecting wildlife; (2) reducing the demand for illegal wildlife and related products; and (3) working cooperatively with other governments, the private sector, and civil society to enhance global commitment to combat wildlife trafficking. The National Strategy provides that the United States will engage with existing and future free trade agreement partners to take measures to combat wildlife trafficking and to make wildlife trafficking a priority topic for cooperation and capacity building. (…)

In 2013 the President established a task force on wildlife trafficking to develop and implement a national strategy to combat wildlife trafficking, in particular poaching and illegal trade. The task force issued a national strategy in February 2014. The strategy focuses on (a) strengthening the enforcement of laws and the implementation of international agreements that protect wildlife; (b) reducing demand for illegal wildlife and wildlife products in the United States and abroad; and (c) strengthening partnerships with foreign governments, local communities, NGOs, and the private sector to enhance global commitment to combat wildlife trafficking. The third prong of the strategy provides for engaging trading partners regionally and bilaterally under existing and future free-trade agreements, environmental cooperation mechanisms, and other trade-related initiatives, to take measures to combat wildlife trafficking and to integrate wildlife trafficking and resource protection as priority areas for information exchange, cooperation, and capacity building.

The United States imposed several measures during the review period to restrict or prohibit certain imports. As a result of the National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking (Section 2.1.3), the United States announced a ban on the commercial import, export, or re-sale of elephant ivory. In 2013, the President issued an executive order prohibiting imports from Burma of jadeite, rubies or jewellery containing jadeite or rubies.