USTR | 1 March 2025
2025 national trade estimate report on foreign trade barriers of the President of the United States on the trade agreements program
- Scope and coverage
The 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE) is the 40th report in an annual
series that highlights significant foreign barriers to U.S. exports, U.S. foreign direct investment, and U.S.
electronic commerce. This document is a companion piece to the President’s 2025 Trade Policy Agenda
and 2024 Annual Report, published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on
February 28, 2025.
In accordance with Section 181 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended by Section 303 of the Trade and
Tariff Act of 1984 and amended by Section 1304 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988,
Section 311 of the Uruguay Round Trade Agreements Act, and Section 1202 of the Internet Tax Freedom
Act, USTR is required to submit to the President, the Senate Finance Committee, and appropriate
committees in the House of Representatives, an annual report on significant foreign trade barriers. The
statute requires an inventory from the previous calendar year of the most important foreign barriers affecting
U.S. exports of goods and services, including agricultural commodities and U.S. intellectual property;
foreign direct investment by U.S. persons, especially if such investment has implications for trade in goods
or services; and U.S. electronic commerce. Such an inventory enhances awareness of these trade
restrictions, facilitates U.S. negotiations aimed at reducing or eliminating these barriers, and is a valuable
tool in enforcing U.S. trade laws and promoting U.S. economic and security interests.
The NTE Report is based upon information compiled within USTR, the U.S. Departments of Commerce
and Agriculture, and other U.S. Government agencies, as well as U.S. embassies and supplemented with
information provided in response to a notice published in the Federal Register, and by the trade advisory
committees.
This Report discusses the largest export markets for the United States, covering nearly 60 trading partners.
Omission of particular trading partners and barriers does not imply that they are not of concern to the United
States.
Trade barriers elude fixed definitions, but may be broadly defined as government laws, regulations, policies,
or practices—including non-market policies and practices—that distort or undermine fair competition.
These include measures that protect domestic goods and services from foreign competition, artificially
stimulate exports of particular domestic goods and services, or fail to provide adequate and effective
protection of intellectual property rights. Non-market policies and practices, such as targeting of industrial
sectors for dominance, non-market excess capacity, and distorting activities of state-owned or state-
sponsored firms, may create economic and national security risks and undermine U.S. competitiveness.
The purpose of the NTE Report is to identify barriers the U.S. Government seeks to remove.
The NTE Report classifies foreign trade barriers in 14 categories. These categories cover measures and
policies that restrict, prevent, or impede the international exchange of goods and services, U.S. foreign
direct investment, or U.S. electronic commerce. The categories covered include:
• Import policies (e.g., tariffs and other import charges, quantitative restrictions, import licensing,
customs barriers and shortcomings in trade facilitation, and other market access barriers);
• Technical barriers to trade (e.g., unnecessarily trade restrictive standards, conformity assessment
procedures, or technical regulations, including unnecessary or discriminatory technical regulations
or standards for telecommunications products);
• Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (e.g., measures that unnecessarily restrict trade without
furthering safety objectives because they are applied beyond the extent necessary to protect human,
animal, or plant life or health, not based on science, or maintained without sufficient scientific
evidence);
• Government procurement (e.g., “buy national” policies and closed bidding);
• Intellectual property protection (e.g., inadequate patent, copyright, trade secret, and trademark
regimes and inadequate enforcement of intellectual property rights);
• Services barriers (e.g., prohibitions or restrictions on foreign participation in the market,
discriminatory licensing requirements or regulatory standards, local-presence requirements, and
unreasonable restrictions on what services may be offered);
• Electronic commerce / digital trade barriers (e.g., barriers to cross-border data flows, discriminatory
practices affecting trade in digital products, restrictions on the provision of Internet-enabled
services, and other restrictive technology requirements);
• Investment barriers (e.g., limitations on foreign equity participation and on access to foreign
government-funded research and development programs, local content requirements, technology
transfer requirements and export performance requirements, and restrictions on repatriation of
earnings, capital, fees and royalties);
• Subsidies, including export subsidies (e.g., export financing on preferential terms and agricultural
export subsidies that displace U.S. exports in third country markets) and import substitution
subsidies (e.g., subsidies contingent on the purchase or use of domestic rather than imported goods);
• Anticompetitive practices (e.g., government-tolerated anticompetitive conduct of state-owned or
private firms that restricts the sale or purchase of U.S. goods or services in the foreign country’s
markets or abuse of competition laws to inhibit trade, and fairness and due process concerns by
companies involved in competition investigatory and enforcement proceedings in the country);
• State-owned enterprises (e.g., actions by SOEs and by governments with respect to SOEs involved
in the manufacture or production of non-agricultural goods or in the supply of services that
constitute significant barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S.
investments, or U.S. electronic commerce, which may negatively affect U.S. firms and workers.
These actions include subsidies and non-commercial advantages provided to and from SOEs and
practices with respect to SOEs that discriminate against U.S. goods or services, or actions by SOEs
that are inconsistent with commercial considerations in the purchase and sale of goods and
services);
• Labor (e.g., concerns with failures by a government to protect internationally recognized worker
rights1 or to eliminate discrimination in respect of employment or occupation, in cases where these
failures influence trade flows or investment decisions in ways that constitute significant barriers to,
or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. investment, or U.S. electronic commerce,
which may negatively affect U.S. firms and workers);
• Environment (e.g., concerns with a government’s levels of environmental protection, unsustainable
stewardship of natural resources, and harmful environmental practices that constitute significant
barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. investment, or U.S. electronic
commerce, which may negatively affect U.S. firms or workers); and
• Other barriers (e.g., barriers or distortions that are not covered in any other category above or that
encompass more than one category, such as bribery and corruption, or that affect a single sector).
Pursuant to Section 1377 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, USTR annually reviews
the operation and effectiveness of U.S. telecommunications trade agreements to make a determination on
whether any foreign government that is a party to one of those agreements is failing to comply with that
government’s obligations or is otherwise denying, within the context of a relevant agreement, “mutually
advantageous market opportunities” to U.S. telecommunication products or services suppliers. The NTE
Report highlights both ongoing and emerging barriers to U.S. telecommunication services and goods
exports from the annual review called for in Section 1377.
The prevalence of corruption is a consistent complaint from U.S. firms that trade with or invest in other
economies. Corruption takes many forms and affects trade and development in different ways. In many
countries and economies, it affects customs practices, licensing decisions, and the award of government
procurement contracts. If left unchecked, bribery and corruption can negate market access gained through
trade negotiations, frustrate broader reforms and economic stabilization programs, and undermine the
foundations of the international trading system. The United States continues to play a leading role in
addressing bribery and corruption in international business transactions and has made real progress over
the past quarter century building international coalitions to fight bribery and corruption.
