The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service has issued a GAIN1 Report on the European Union’s feed and pet food labeling requirements established by EU Regulation 767/2009, which became applicable September 1, 2010.
On September 28, 2010, the European Commission proposed an energy label for TVs and updated energy labels for refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines. If the European Parliament and Council do not object to the EC's proposal, the Regulations would enter into force around December 2010 or February 2011. The label would at first be voluntary and only be required one year after the entry into force of the regulations. A Q&A is available here.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada has posted a list of its 2009 "Import for Re-Export Program" participants.
The Secretary General of the World Customs Organization and the Director of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding enhancing cooperation between the two organizations on issues of mutual interest and in particular those relating to promoting Customs facilitation measures in the case of emergency and the handling of humanitarian relief consignments.
Xinhua News reports that a senior official of China's top economic planning body said that conditions for China to launch a carbon emission rights trading system remain premature. However, he said the measures taken by the government to combat climate change would become increasingly strict and emission reduction goals would become increasingly quantified.
The European Chemicals Agency will shut down the REACH-IT system for routine reconfiguration and maintenance on October 1, 2010. REACH-IT will be shut down at 2:00 am Helsinki time and should re-open during the afternoon. Industry's interface with REACH-IT will not change. The upgrade will simply modify the Agency's side of REACH-IT to enable it to handle a higher number of dossiers and with a higher level of automation.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has posted information from the September 23, 2010 meeting of CITES and Summit of the Americas (OAS) members. Discussion topics included targeted legislative support to streamline wildlife trade that is sustainable and traceable.
Laos announced on September 24, 2010 that it has completed bilateral goods and services agreements with Japan and China and is close to a deal with the European Union as part of its 12-year-old negotiations to join the World Trade Organization.
China' s Ministry of Commerce reports that China will levy anti-dumping duties of between 50.3 percent to 105.4 percent on imports of U.S. chicken products for a five year period. The move comes after China imposed anti-subsidy (CV) duties ranging from 4 percent to 30.3 percent on U.S. chicken products in late August for five years.
Foreign Ministers from countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their counterparts from the Latin American Rio Group (e.g. Brazil, Chile, etc.) met on September 24, 2010 at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Both groups reaffirmed their commitments to forge closer relations, particularly in the fields of trade, tourism and collaboration in the global issues of common interests.