Large trade sanctions on U.S. exports could be coming as the result of new rules on meat labeling made official on Friday.  

Mexico and Canada are preparing to seek trade retaliation after the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a long awaited final rule on country of origin labeling (COOL) for meat.

The two countries won a case in the World Trade Organization last year arguing that labeling standards instituted at the behest of consumer advocates in 2009 violated the WTO’s technical barriers to trade agreement.

Congress is likely to wait until the WTO weighs in on the new regulation before considering action, industry sources said.

The old COOL regime required processors to collect more information that appeared on the label and was difficult to implement given the way meat is comingled in slaughterhouses and processing plants.

The new COOL rule expands the information on labels rather than limiting the data collected and forbids comingling.

Mexico warned last month that if the final regulation did these things “Mexico would be forced to pursue the available mechanisms for withdrawing trade benefits from the United States.”

Canadian trade minister Ed Fast and agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said Thursday, once an advanced copy of the regulation circulated, that they were “extremely disappointed” in the rule. 

The European Union on Thursday displayed the first signs of daylight with the Obama administration on the goals of a major trade pact with the United States.

President Obama has made a “comprehensive” Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership a key plank of his efforts to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014.

The EU Parliament, however, voted 381 to 191 to exclude the cultural and audiovisual sectors from the commission's negotiating mandate, saying the subsidized sectors should continue to be protected.

In a separate 460-105 vote giving the commission the green light to begin talks, the lawmakers also said the negotiators should take into account European “values,” notably restrictions on genetically modified foods, cloning and protection of intellectual property rights, as well as the EU's labor and environmental standards.

A set of regulations contained in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law is having unintended consequences in war-torn central Africa, lawmakers and witnesses said during a hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

The nation's trade office will get its second acting chief trade negotiator within the past couple of months this week. 

Miriam Sapiro is expected to temporarily take over the top slot as U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) while Congress hashes out when it will consider the nomination of Mike Froman, currently a trade adviser at the White House, for the permanent spot, a senior administration official confirmed to The Hill on Monday.  

Froman has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill but the Senate Finance Committee hasn't scheduled a nomination hearing. 

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Business groups are stepping up their efforts in pushing for a renewal of fast-track authority to negotiate trade agreements.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable were among several trade-focused groups that teamed up on Monday to launch the Trade Benefits America Coalition, which will help consolidate efforts in advocating for trade promotion authority (TPA). 

"The benefits of trade and trade agreements to the United States in today’s global marketplace are clear, and TPA is important to advancing trade deals to further support growth and jobs,” said John Engler, president of Business Roundtable.

Acting Energy Department (DOE) Secretary Daniel Poneman said the Obama administration is not backing down from requests that India eschew solar policies that it says might violate international trade rules.

At issue are Indian requirements that solar energy firms buy all inputs from domestic producers. The subcontinent says that will help grow its solar industry, but the U.S. contends local-content requirements are outlawed by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“At this point our view is, we are in a discussion with India. Our views on … local content are clear, and we’re hoping we can work through this,” Poneman told The Hill on Tuesday after speaking at the U.S.-India Energy Partnership Summit in Washington, D.C.

President Obama and United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday committed to completing an ambitious, comprehensive trade agreement that they hope will create a wave of global economic prosperity.

Appearing together at a joint press conference, Obama and Cameron vowed to pursue a deal without preconditions.

"That means everything is on the table, even the difficult issues, and no exceptions," Cameron said after meeting with Obama at the White House.

"It's worth the effort."

The formal trade talks are expected to begin by July, and Cameron said "there's a real chance now to get the process launched in time" for the Group of 8 summit that is being held next month in Northern Ireland

British Prime Minister David Cameron wants a global standard under which petroleum and mining companies will report their payments to governments, calling it a way to curb corruption in resource-rich nations.

Cameron, who is meeting with President Obama at the White House on Monday, called for the Group of Eight leading industrial nations to work on the effort at its June gathering in Ireland.

The prime minister, in a broader Wall Street Journal column backing free trade, said greater “transparency” must accompany more open global markets.

“[W]e must lift the veil of secrecy that too often lets corrupt corporations and officials in some countries run rings around the law. The G8 must move toward a global common standard for resource-extracting companies to report all payments to governments, and in turn for governments to report those revenues,” Cameron writes.

Both chambers will dig into the farm bill this week as lawmakers look to strike a deal.

The Senate Agriculture Committee is set to mark up its version of the bill on Tuesday, while its House counterpart will follow suit on Wednesday. 

The biggest difference between the two bills is how they handle food stamps. The House would cut $23 billion from food stamp programs, while the Senate bill would trim just $4 billion.

Leaders in the House and Senate have both committed to floor action in the coming weeks. Farmers are currently operating under an extension of the 2008 farm bill.

European Union officials said a trade agreement must be comprehensive and ambitious to secure support on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Treasury Department on Tuesday said it has identified eight key members of a Mexican drug cartel after a yearlong investigation, setting off a chain reaction of enforcement measures.

Pinpointing and calling out plaza bosses of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel is an “important” victory, federal officials said on Tuesday, but they say actions are only beginning.

The eight men are strategically located along a 375-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border and act as gatekeepers for drugs and other illegal goods smuggled into or out of the United States.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised questions on Tuesday about why the trade gap between the United States and South Korea has increased sharply since a free trade agreement went into effect nearly a year ago. 

During a nomination hearing for Fred Hochberg, head of the Export-Import Bank, Warren asked him if there was anything he could do to stop the trend since part of his job is "increasing exports and lowering the trade deficit." 

"Obviously, based on the math, it seems to be working at cross purposes with what you're trying to accomplish," Warren said during the Senate Banking Committee hearing. 

The House will turn this week to a bill that Republicans say would prevent the United States from defaulting on its debts.

The Full Faith and Credit Act is a preemptive attempt by Republicans to defuse the warnings from the White House and Democrats about holding the debt ceiling “hostage” in fiscal negotiations. The bill would give the Treasury Department the ability to borrow above the limit to cover bond and Social Security payments.

While the Treasury insists it cannot prioritize payments and avoid a default if its borrowing capacity is reached, Republicans disagree, and say their bill should assure markets that the country will always pay its debts.

Lawmakers will likely have to increase the debt ceiling sometime in the late summer or early fall.

President Obama on Thursday rounded out his second-term economic team.

The United States Trade Representative's office said on Wednesday that it has "grave concerns" about Chinese theft of U.S. business secrets.

The office made the statement as part of the release of an annual report grading other countries on their efforts to protect intellectual property.

In the report, the agency noted that trade secret theft can involve "departing employees, failed joint ventures, cyber intrusion and hacking, and misuse of information submitted to government entities for purposes of complying with regulatory obligations."

Two senior House Democrats are pressing President Obama to work with European partners to increase worker safety in Bangladesh, following last week’s collapse of a factory building in that country.

Reps. Sandy Levin (Mich.) and George Miller (Calif.) noted, in a letter to Obama, that European and U.S. retailers buy around two-thirds of the garments produced in Bangladesh.

Because of that, Levin and Miller say, the administration should take the lead in an effort to “adopt a common response leading to a universal standard guaranteeing basic workplace safety and fundamental worker rights” in Bangladesh. That effort should also include the Bangladeshi garment industry, its workers and both local and international labor groups, the lawmakers say.

“This most recent tragedy repeats what has become a serious and disturbing pattern in Bangladesh – labor and workplace laws are flouted and workers’ safety and rights denied in the pursuit of lucrative export opportunities, primarily to Europe and the United States,” wrote Levin and Miller, the top Democrats at the Ways and Means and Education and the Workforce panels, respectively.

“And workers – most of them young women and mothers – are left to pay the terrible consequences with their lives.”

The White house notified Congress on Wednesday of its intention to include Japan in Asia-Pacific trade agreement negotiations.

The United States and Tokyo recently agreed to hold bilateral parallel talks on hard-edged issues including autos and non-tariff sectors, toward completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), possibly later this year. 

“The participation of Japan, a major U.S. trading partner as well as close ally, further increases the economic significance of a TPP agreement," wrote acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis in a letter to congressional leaders.

A leading business group expressed support on Wednesday for a plan by a top Senate Democrat to roll out bipartisan fast-track legislation early this summer. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among a broad array of business groups that back the efforts of Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to move forward with legislation that would give President Obama the authority to negotiate trade agreements amid an expanding global agenda.

"I would like to see a bipartisan TPA [trade promotion authority] bill introduced by June,'' Baucus said at a hearing Wednesday covering the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). 

Christopher Wenk, head of international policy at the U.S. Chamber, said the group is "very pleased" and that it is "extremely encouraging" that Baucus set a timetable. 

"There is a long process ahead but we have to get the ball rolling," he told The Hill. "As far as we're concerned, the discussions couldn't start soon enough."

The State Department on Tuesday vehemently denied the United States was considering sanctions against Venezuela after the oil-rich country threatened to cut energy exports to the U.S.

Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Roberta Jacobson told CNN's Spanish channel over the weekend she did not know either way if the Obama administration would consider sanctions if the country does not have a full recount of last week's disputed presidential election. Foreign Minister Elias Jaua responded with a promise to retaliate if that happens, prompting State Department Spokesman Patrick Ventrell's remarks on Tuesday.

“I think the Venezuelan side may have looked at that … and read into [it that] we're considering something,” Ventrell said at his daily press briefing. “I'm saying that that's not something that we're currently contemplating at this moment.”

Japan has received the go-ahead to join the negotiations for an Asia-Pacific trade deal.

The 11 nations that are a part of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations agreed over the weekend that Tokyo and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have done what is needed to get a seat at the bargaining table.

Several U.S. trade groups expressed support for the move to open the door to the world's third largest economy, although congressional Democrats and the auto industry have expressed their opposition to adding Japan because of economic barriers they argue make their economy the most closed in the world.  

“Skepticism over making meaningful progress on a range of key agricultural, manufacturing and services trade and investment barriers now has the potential to give way to real progress, which, in turn, will give greater economic meaning to the TPP," said Chuck Dittrich, vice resident for regional trade initiatives of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) in a Monday statement. 

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Citi has added a former top official with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to its government affairs team.

Kimberley Claman, who previously served as deputy assistant USTR for financial services, has joined the bank as a senior vice president for its international government affairs team.

According to an internal posting from Citi, Claman's new role will have her representing the bank's interests in its dealings with officials from U.S. and foreign governments, and "support Citi executives and colleagues interacting and building relationships with key government partners and officials."

"As you can see, Kimberley’s unique depth of knowledge and expertise in working with governments and the private sector on global financial issues will provide Citi and its customers with an important perspective on key trade and international affairs issues," wrote Candi Wolff, Citi's head of global government affairs.

Fresh data on U.S. economic growth comes this week as both the House and Senate attend to a full slate of economic events.

On Friday, the Commerce Department will provide its first estimate of economic growth in the first quarter of 2013. The advance estimate will come after the government reported the nation’s gross domestic product grew just 0.4 percent in the last three months of 2012, as businesses braced for the “fiscal cliff.”

Meanwhile, both the House and Senate are in session with a number of high-profile hearings on tap.

In a 9-0 ruling, the court shielded multinational companies from a type of human rights lawsuit.

The move, however, appears imperiled by lawmakers' concerns over Tokyo's ability to meet the stringent requirements.

"The available evidence suggests" that the yuan "remains significantly undervalued," according to a new administration report. 

Lawmakers from Michigan on Friday threatened to oppose a trade deal unless Japan opens up its market to more American automobiles.

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sandy Levin and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, argued the agreement forged between U.S. and Japanese trade officials does not go far enough to open the country to American exports. They said the issue could jeopardize congressional approval of the Asia-Pacific deal.

"The facts are clear that Japan’s market is closed, evidenced by the fact that imports account for just 6 percent of total sales in Japan, compared with nearly half of total sales in the United States and other major auto markets," Levin said. 

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Japan's entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been in the works for more than a year.

The United States and Guatemala have agreed on a robust plan to resolve labor law enforcement concerns. 

Acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis and Acting Secretary of Labor Seth Harris announced on Thursday an 18-point plan that includes specific actions with time frames that Guatemala will implement within six months to improve labor law enforcement. 

The labor case is the first that the United States has brought to dispute settlement under a trade agreement, the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). 

"This landmark agreement with Guatemala demonstrates that, by using the tools in our trade agreements, we can achieve tangible and concrete commitments that will improve the daily lives of workers in Guatemala and ensure a level playing field for American workers upon its implementation,” Marantis said.   

Expectations are high that U.S. and EU officials can forge a far-ranging, high-standard tradeagreement that will open markets and bolster economies on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Business leaders joined congressional lawmakers and European Union (EU) officials on Wednesday to launch a coalition designed to drill down on the trade issues in preparation for the start of negotiation between the United States and the European Union (EU) sometime this summer. 

Talks are expected to start as early as June and stakeholders are pressing for a quick resolution, although it could take two years to sort out the differences in the world's largest trading relationship. 

President Obama will offer a budget this week that is expected to include $600 billion in new tax hikes and calls for entitlement cuts.

The long-delayed White House budget will arrive on Capitol Hill months late — and after the House and Senate approved their own budget blueprints.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will testify at hearings on Thursday with the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance committees. He may also get some questions about his two-day swing through Europe, where he is set to discuss the EU financial crisis.

Jeff Zients, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will testify Thursday before the Senate Budget panel on the president’s proposal. The House Budget Committee will also explore the president’s proposal with Zients on Thursday.

The nation's former top trade official has landed back home in Dallas in a high-powered law firm job. 

Ron Kirk, who recently left the Obama administration Cabinet's position as the U.S. Trade Representative, started on Monday as senior counsel in the Dallas office at the Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, The Texas Lawbook reported. 

The firm has 1,100 lawyers and 18 offices around the world. 

Kirk, who spent most of President Obama's first term as head of USTR, is expected to rely heavily on his experience gleaned as the nation's top trade broker in his new job working with a broad global clientele.

The Obama administration claimed credit for breaking down technical barriers to U.S. exports around the world.

The Treasury secretary is heading to Europe for a two-day trip in early April as financial challenges loom over the region. 

Secretary Jack Lew will spend April 8-9 in Brussels, Frankfurt and Paris for discussions with his European counterparts on economic developments and policies that can boost global growth and further promote financial stability.

This is Lew's second international trip since he was confirmed by the Senate in late February. He recently returned from a trip to China. 

Lew will spend April 8 in Brussels for meetings with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy; European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso; Olli Rehn, European commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro, and European commission vice president; and European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier. 

Two top Democrats urged the Obama administration on Thursday to take action against China for allegedly engaging in the cybertheft of U.S. intellectual property and other trade secrets.

House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) and Trade Subcommittee ranking member Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) are pressing for U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Demetrios Marantis to consider designating China as a "priority foreign country" as evidence mounts that Beijing is involved in "egregious conduct" that is hurting U.S business and likely violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, in a letter sent on Thursday. 

"We have known for some time that the Government of China does not do enough to enforce the intellectual property of U.S. innovators in China," they wrote.  

"But government-sponsored theft of trade secrets would put China in an entirely different category."

Manufacturers want negotiators to target a reduction in tariffs and a smoothing of regulatory policies during U.S.-European Union trade talks as part of an effort to help create jobs and boost the economy. 

National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) President and CEO Jay Timmons sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday calling for a reduction in trade barriers and costs while ensuring that any agreement does not impose new labor, privacy, environmental or other standards that could hamstring competitiveness.

In outlining goals for the talks, which are expected to start in June, Timmons cited rules on trade facilitation, investment and intellectual property along with duplicative and contradictory sanitary and phytosanitary rules as those that must be addressed. 

Timmons suggested that any regulatory agreements must be designed to "favor markets and adhere to sound principles of science, risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis."

"More broadly, a growth-producing U.S.-EU agreement will enhance manufacturing competitiveness and commercial opportunities, and not impose rules or seek to harmonize standards that would undermine the United States’ dynamic labor market, strong intellectual property protections or other policies that promote innovation," Timmons wrote. 

The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee is planning to offer several amendments to a Senate budget resolution that would smooth congressional approval of trade agreements and streamline federal agencies handling trade issues. 

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has filed three trade-related amendments — trade promotion authority, creating a new position to oversee intellectual property negotiations and consolidating trade agencies, except those at the Cabinet level such as the U.S. Trade Representative. 

The Hatch amendments seek to create deficit-neutral reserve funds for the amendments, which would mean down the road that if any of the three amendments were offered as bills they could avoid a budget point of order. Creating a reserve fund allows the Budget Committee chairman to adjust the budget resolution’s allocations to account for future legislation that may be considered and avoid triggering a budget point of order. 

Hatch, who has been pressing the White House to move forward with fast-track authority, intends to offer an amendment that calls for implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is expected to be completed this year, along with a U.S.-European Union trade deal, which is set to begin talks in June, and any other potential free-trade agreements to be done under trade promotion authority (TPA).

There are a couple of other amendments calling for trade promotion authority, including one by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a former U.S. Trade represenative. 

Senators have started their first batch of votes, which are expected to last until around 8 p.m. 

The Senate Finance Committee's top Republican affirmed his desire to work with the Obama administration to craft new trade promotion authority legislation.

Panel ranking member Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis in a Thursday letter that he is looking "forward to the negotiations we have ahead of us to developing a sound process with strong negotiating objectives that will yield the highest standards in our trade agreements, giving U.S. businesses and farmers the best opportunities abroad."

During a Tuesday hearing before the committee, Marantis told Hatch that "we've heard your calls on this issue loud and clear and we're ready to begin our work" on trade promotion authority (TPA).

"Laying this strong foundation will demonstrate to our partners our serious commitment to negotiations we have already undertaken and will begin in the future," Hatch wrote. 

A GOP amendment to the Senate Democrats' budget plan would prohibit federal agencies from considering greenhouse gas emissions from exports under a federal environmental law.

The measure from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) would ensure agencies cannot evaluate emissions “produced outside the United States by any good exported from the United States,” according to Barrasso’s office.

A summary of the amendment contends the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) plans to force federal agencies to consider greenhouse gas emissions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) before approving projects.

Business groups and lawmakers welcomed the official announcement by the Obama administration on Wednesday that it plans to start negotiations with the European Union on a deal that would create a $5 trillion free-trade zone. 

Top House and Senate lawmakers, along with several business groups, said a free-trade deal will lead to more U.S. jobs and a more robust economy.

Negotiations are expected to start no earlier than 90 days, setting up talks to start in June, which has been the target. 

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis wrote that progression toward the talks "reflects the broadly shared conviction that trans-Atlantic trade and investment can be an even stronger driver of mutual job creation, growth and increased competitiveness."

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Both chambers of Congress are back to work this week as budget and spending battles continue.

Budgets pushed by both parties will hit House and Senate floors this week. Republicans will look to advance Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) plan, while Democrats mount support for a competing version from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). Both measures are expected to pass, but it remains to be seen how many party defections will take place. The Hill is tracking votes for both budgets here.

Meanwhile, the Senate will continue looking for a way forward on a continuing resolution to keep the government operating beyond March 27. The top Democrat and Republican on the Appropriations panel had struck a deal on a spending package, but the measure was bogged down by amendments on the floor last week, pushing work on it into Monday at least.

U.S. business groups, lawmakers and automakers want specifics as to how Japan will open its markets.

The Treasury secretary will issue a stern warning during his visit to China next week, the Obama administration said.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will head to China his first international trip as the nation's top economic adviser.

The Treasury Department announced Thursday that Le would visit Beijing for two days beginning March 19, where he will meet Chinese leadership and senior economic officials, as well as U.S. business leaders abroad.

Among the topics of conversation will be the "bilateral relationship and opportunities for cooperation and growth," according to Treasury.

Congressional Democrats ramped up their opposition on Thursday to Japan gaining a seat at the negotiating table of an Asia-Pacific trade deal. 

House Democrats have gathered 43 signatures — 35 in the House and 8 in the Senate — against Japan's entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks because of the lack of market access, especially for the auto sector, in a letter headed for the White House on Thursday. 

The lawmakers question how a "TPP agreement could be sufficiently equipped to address the necessary transformation of the Japanese market."

They argue that Japan’s "significant, long-standing and persistent economic barriers" have blocked U.S. exports and have hurt workers and businesses for decades. 

"These long-standing, economically harmful practices are not susceptible to cursory negotiation at this stage, three years into the U.S. involvement in the TPP negotiations and close to the Administration’s target date of concluding talks by the end of this year," they wrote in the letter to President Obama.

President Obama said Tuesday that forging new trade deals should serve as a catalyst to job creation and broader economic growth in the United States. 

At a meeting of the President's Export Council, Obama said that many of the jobs generated during the nation's economic recovery have been driven by growing exports amid a goal to double them by 2015. 

One of the best ways to maintain that growth "is making sure that we get in place strong trade deals."

He argued that getting all sizes of U.S. businesses more access to these markets can "make a huge difference in terms of our long-term prospects."

Capitol Hill will be a flurry of fiscal activity this week, as a host of major budget and spending documents are unveiled and considered by lawmakers 

Both parties and chambers will release competing budget documents this week, starting with the House Republican budget set for public consumption on Tuesday. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will host a mark-up of the spending vision Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) intends to roll out a competing proposal Wednesday, the first from Senate Democrats in about four years. A two-day committee markup sets the stage for its passage Thursday.

The intention is for both budgets to receive respective floor votes before Congress breaks for Easter recess beginning March 22.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations panel on Africa unveiled an 18-page report Thursday urging greater U.S. economic engagement with fast-growing Africa.

The United States is losing the economic competition against China, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said, despite its billions of dollars of public health and other forms of aid. To remedy the situation, Coons urged Congress and the Obama administration to focus on increased trade and investment in a region that is home to six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world over the past decade.

“America is losing ground and ceding economic opportunities in Africa to competitors,” Coons said. “China, which has made dramatic inroads across the continent in recent years, may undermine or even counter value-driven U.S. goals in the region, and should serve as a wake-up call for enhanced American trade and investment. This is truly a critical moment, as our Chinese competitors are securing long-term contracts that could lock American companies and interests out of fast-growing African markets for decades to come.”

The nation's trade gap widened in January, pushed up by a large jump in oil imports. 

The monthly deficit increased to $44.4 billion, up 16.5 percent from the revised $38.1 billion in December, driven by a more than 12 percent increase in oil imports, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.

Exports were $184.5 billion, down about 1.2 percent, while imports rose 1.8 percent to $228.9 billion from $224.8 billion in December. 

"We have begun to see some signs of improvement in many of our largest trading partners, with the major exception of the Eurozone as a whole," said Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

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A top Senate Democrat is arguing that a trade deal forged between the United States and European Union would spur significant economic growth and must be made a top priority for the White House and the Congress. 

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), whose panel oversees trade, said a free-trade agreement would not only lower barriers but also raise the level of confidence in the United States and the EU — sparking significant growth in the world’s two largest economies," he wrote in an op-ed in the Financial Times on Monday. 

"This is a deal that must be done, it must be done now, and it must be done right," he wrote. 

"But in order to complete this pact, both sides are going to have to devote significant political focus to making tough choices in sensitive areas such as agriculture and domestic regulatory processes. Without addressing these vital issues, a deal will never happen."

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The sequestration cuts will take a heavy toll on cross-border travel and trade, the Department of Homeland Security warns.

While security efforts remain the department's “highest priority,” furloughed workers will cause back-ups at the nation's ports of entry for both people and merchandise, the department said in a letter to trade and travel industry associations. The cuts take place against a backdrop of “significant growth” in travel and trade, with international air travel growing 12 percent over the past three years and maritime and air cargo shipments growing by 4 percent over the past year.

“We anticipate significant potential impacts to cross-border travel and trade. These negative impacts are going to increase as we enter peak travel seasons,” wrote Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection David Aguilar. “Given the importance of this commercial activity to the U.S. economy, CBP is very concerned about the ramifications of sequestration and we will endeavor to operate in a manner that is least disruptive to our mission and to your businesses.”