In recent remarks before the Cuyahoga Community College West Campus in Parma, Ohio, President Obama stated that for years, the U.S. tax code has given billions of dollars in tax breaks that encourage companies to create jobs and profits in other countries.
The Department of Energy has issued a proposed rule to amend its test procedure for residential clothes washers under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to provide for measuring standby mode and off mode energy consumption, and to update the active mode test procedure.
The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a direct final rule that promulgates significant new use rules (SNURs) under section 5(a)(2) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 25 chemical substances which were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMNs).
The Foreign Agricultural Service has announced that 24 foreign officials representing 23 countries will tour Montana, Idaho and Yellowstone National Park September 18-25 as part of an annual orientation tour sponsored by FAS. The locations selected for the tour produce a variety of food and agricultural products that are exported worldwide. A list of foreign participants, and their countries, is included in the FAS notice.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a final rule, effective September 21, 2010, that amends the list in Appendix A of 49 CFR Part 593 of vehicles not originally manufactured to conform to U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), that NHTSA has decided are eligible for importation.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has issued a notice regarding its March 2010 request for comment on the agency's definition of green jobs for use in data collection. The notice summarizes the comments received and the BLS response to the comments, and provides the final BLS definition of green jobs for use in data collection.
The Foreign Agriculture Service issued the following GAIN reports:
The National Institute of Standards and Technology posts drafts and changes to foreign technical regulations for manufactured products which may be considered technical barriers to trade and are therefore required to be reported to the World Trade Organization, which distributes the information to WTO Member countries.
On September 17, 2010, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announced the opening of a new Agricultural Trade Office in Shenyang, the capital of northwest China's international trade hub in Liaoning province. The opening of this Agricultural Trade Office marks USDA's expansion into the hub of northeast China and reflects the Administration's National Export Initiative (NEI).
The State Department, World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently issued the following travel warnings, travel alerts, country specific information sheets, and disease outbreak-related information: