Trade Representative, Office of United States August 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA), Canada agreed to impose export measures on Canadian exports of softwood lumber products to the United States. At the request of the United States, an arbitral tribunal established under the SLA determined in March 2008 that Canada had breached certain SLA obligations. In February 2009, the tribunal issued a remedy award instructing Canada to collect an additional 10 percent ad valorem export charge on softwood lumber shipments from Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, until an entire amount of CDN $68 million has been collected. Canada did not begin collecting the additional export charge. In April 2009, the United States Trade Representative (``Trade Representative'') initiated an investigation under Section 302 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (``Trade Act''). In that investigation, the Trade Representative determined that Canada's failure to implement the tribunal's remedy award had the effect of denying U.S. rights under the SLA; and, pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act, the Trade Representative imposed 10 percent ad valorem duties on imports of softwood lumber products subject to the SLA from the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan (the April 2009 action). Under the April 2009 action, the duties are to remain in place until such time as the United States collects $54.8 million, the U.S. dollar equivalent of CDN $68 million at the time. The Government of Canada, however, has now

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is providing notice that on July 30, 2010, pursuant to the Labor Chapter (Chapter 16) of the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), the United States requested consultations with the Government of Guatemala to discuss Guatemala's apparent failure to meet its obligation under Article 16.2.1(a) to effectively enforce its labor laws. The consultations request may be found at https://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/ cafta-dr-dominican-republic-central-america-fta/kirk-solis-le . USTR invites written comments from the public concerning the issues that will be raised in consultations.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (``USTR'') is providing notice that on June 10, 2010, the United States received a request from the Republic of Indonesia (``Indonesia'') for the establishment of a dispute settlement panel under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (``WTO Agreement'') regarding a provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Pub. L. 111-31). That request may be found at https:// www.wto.org in a document designated as WT/DS406/2. USTR invites written comments from the public concerning the issues raised in this dispute.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) accepted petitions in connection with the 2009 GSP Annual Review to modify the GSP status of certain GSP beneficiary developing countries because of country practices. This notice sets forth the schedule for comment and public hearings on the newly accepted petitions for the 2009 Country Eligibility Practices Review, for requesting participation in the hearings, and for submitting pre-hearing and post-hearing briefs, and determines that the deadline for submitting pre-hearing comments and requesting participation in the hearings is 5 p.m., Friday, September 3, 2010. The list of newly accepted petitions is available at: http: //www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/trade-development/ preference-programs/generalized-system-preference-gsp/current -review-1 in ``List of Country Practice Petitions Accepted in the 2009 GSP Annual Review.'' The petitions accepted include a Worker Rights petition regarding Sri Lanka filed by the AFL-CIO and two Arbitral Awards petitions regarding Argentina filed by Azurix Corporation and Blue Ridge Investments, LLC. The petitions themselves can be found in docket USTR-2009-0015 at https://www.regulations.gov.