Executive Office of the President – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Office of the United States Trade Representative

The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), on behalf of the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee of the Committee on Technology, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), will hold a workshop on July 13-14, 2010, to provide an open forum to obtain input from stakeholders regarding the goals and objectives of an updated U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Strategic Plan that is currently under development and scheduled for completion by December 2010. Representatives of the U.S. research community, industry, non-governmental organizations, and interested members of the general public are invited to offer suggestions to the U.S. Government interagency task force that is drafting the new plan, which is an update of the December 2007 NNI Strategic Plan (see https://www.nano.gov/NNI_Strategic_Plan_ 2007.pdf). In particular, the agencies participating in the NNI are seeking input on the specific objectives that should be included in the updated plan under each of the overarching NNI goals, and on the most likely approaches for achieving those objectives.

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 requiring 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, is now

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (``USTR'') is providing notice that on April 8, 2010, the United States received from Indonesia a letter requesting consultations 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 prohibits the production or sale in the United States of cigarettes containing certain additives, including clove. This request may be found at https://www.wto.org in a document designated as WT/DS406/1. USTR invites written comments from the public concerning the issues raised in this dispute.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is providing notice of country-by-country allocations of additional fiscal year (FY) 2010 in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for imported raw cane sugar.