On June 14, 2010, in San Francisco, California, the U.S. Trade Representative and agency partners across the Obama Administration hosted the first day of the second round of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement. The round began with a plenary meeting of all negotiators present from the eight TPP partner countries. The opening plenary was an overview of goals for the week’s talks: determining a framework for market access negotiations and the relationship between the TPP agreement and pre-existing FTAs, and defining a path forward on so-called “horizontal” issues including small business priorities, regulatory coherence, competitiveness, supply chains, development, and regional integration. Negotiators also discussed the amount of progress they hope to make this week in order to be in a position to begin drafting text before the third round of TPP talks in October.
The Federal Maritime Commission announces the filing of an amendment to an agreement of the Pacific Maritime Association concerning assessments to pay International Longshore and Warehouse Union employee benefit costs, which revises how the man-hour base assessment will be calculated. Comments are due by June 28, 2010.
The Department of Defense's Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and Defense Acquisition Regulations Council have adopted as final, without change, an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation to add Taiwan to the list of World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement designated countries.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is issuing correcting amendments to its June 4, 2010 final rule which clarified language regarding certain performance criteria of turning machines, among other things. BIS corrects the NS Column number under ECCN 2B001, and inserts quotation marks around "APP" in the Technical Note on Adjusted Peak Performance.
The State Department announces that the Government of the Republic of Nicaragua has proposed to extend its agreement with the U.S. concerning the imposition of import restrictions on archaeological material from the pre-Hispanic cultures of Nicaragua, and possible additional restrictions on certain ethnological material.
On June 10, 2010, State Department officials met for the third U.S.-Malaysia Senior Officials Dialogue in Washington, D.C. During the Senior Dialogue, the delegations exchanged views on a wide range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including matters such as trade, security, ASEAN, regional architecture, nuclear non-proliferation, and climate change.
The Justice Department reports the conviction of two New York importers in one of the largest counterfeit luxury goods prosecutions in U.S. history, with the infringing goods valued at more than $100 million. Chong Lam and Siu Yung Chan, aka Joyce Chan had imported counterfeit handbags, wallets, purses and carry-on bags from China. Lam and Chan each face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy count, 10 years in prison and a $2 million fine for each trafficking count, and 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each smuggling count.
The Coast Guard has issued a proposed rule to require that all vessels subject to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), and carrying bulk solid cargoes other than grain, comply with the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code, among other things. Comments are due by July 19, 2010.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has published notice of the following voluntary recalls:
According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. international trade deficit in goods and services increased to $40.3 billion in April from $40.0 billion (revised) in March, as exports decreased more than imports.