USTR Announces 2025 Trade Agenda

Mar. 10, 2025
By: Austin J. Eighan

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) recently delivered three documents to Congress, providing a comprehensive overview of U.S. trade policy: (1) President Trump’s 2025 Trade Policy Agenda; (2) the 2024 Annual Report; and (3) a status report on the World Trade Organization (WTO). Congress mandates that each administration submit the President’s trade policy agenda and the previous year’s annual report by March 1 (19 U.S.C. § 2213), along with a report every five years evaluating U.S. participation in the WTO (19 U.S.C. § 3535).

The 2025 Trade Policy Agenda lays out the administration’s vision for addressing economic and national security challenges through trade. By prioritizing the goals set forth in Trump’s America First Trade Policy Memorandum, the agenda focuses on reducing the goods trade deficit, challenging unfair trade practices, and growing the “Production Economy.” The agenda emphasizes that “USTR has been empowered to chart a new course for any trade agreements” that fail to align with the administration’s goal, the agency will also identify new “opportunities for bilateral or sector-specific plurilateral agreements.” However, tariffs will remain a “legitimate tool of public policy” to combat non-reciprocal treatment of U.S. goods. The shift towards a “Production Economy” reflects the administration’s desire to promote domestic manufacturing, which the agenda touts that “for every additional manufacturing job created in a community, 1.6 jobs were created in other sectors.”

The 2024 Annual Report reviews USTR’s activities and trade goals over the past year. The report includes details on the status of trade agreements with key partners, efforts to open markets for American exports, WTO and free trade agreement enforcement initiatives, and measures introduced to address unfair trade practices (see, e.g., our prior discussions on China’s semiconductor and shipbuilding industries).

As the WTO marks its 30^th anniversary, USTR’s report on the organization assesses the extent to which U.S. economic interests are furthered by participation while detailing its institutional challenges. The report underscores the WTO’s shortcomings by calling out its failure to address non-market policies, enforce agreed rules, implement reforms, and achieve meaningful negotiation outcomes. Despite the “persistent systemic failures at the WTO and the intransigence of certain WTO Members,” preventing the U.S. from fully realizing its membership benefits, the report notes that U.S. will continue to support the organization while encouraging meaningful reforms.

The agenda and reports reflect the administration’s “strategic, yet vigorous, approach” to strengthen domestic manufacturing, address unfair trade practices, and encourage more effective oversight within the WTO. As Trump’s trade policies begin to ultimately take shape, their impact on global trade dynamics continues to evolve.

If you have questions on how to prepare for and manage the potential impacts on your supply chain from the administration’s 2025 Trade Policy Agenda, please contact one of our attorneys at Barnes, Richardson & Colburn.