The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is adopting as a final rule, with minor technical changes, effective August 23, 2010, temporary regulations that implemented increases in Federal excise tax rates on tobacco products and cigarette papers and tubes, the floor stocks tax provisions of the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, and the new statutory criteria for denial, suspension, or revocation of tobacco permits.
This forum in its fifth year has made strong progress in the areas of visa reform, aviation liberalization and introductory steps toward a bilateral tax treaty. The Department of Commerce and the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade are working to develop an agenda under the U.S. -- Brazil Commercial Dialogue to include topics such as; green technology and customs modernization.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is publishing the names of four individuals in Colombia whose property and interests in property have been unblocked pursuant to Executive Order 12978, "Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions With Significant Narcotics Traffickers," effective July 15, 2010.
Secretary of State Clinton, at a meeting of the U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue, announced that the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) would provide $50 million to support a private equity investment fund designed to invest in companies in Pakistan that could benefit from technological upgrades. The fund has a target capitalization of $150 million.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has posted a list of current in-progress Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) risk analyses as of July 8, 2010, which reflects all import requests currently being evaluated by APHIS-PPQ that meet the requirements in 7 CFR 319.5. The risk analyses and rulemaking or other policy documents for each issue on this list may be in any stage of preparation, review, or clearance, but have not yet been released publicly.
The Department of Energy is issuing a supplemental notice to its proposed rule on manufacturer test procedures for microwave ovens, which proposes definitions of modes and language to clarify measurement of standby mode and off mode power consumption. DOE will hold a meeting on these issues on September 16, 2010. DOE has also issued a final rule which repeals the regulatory provisions establishing the cooking efficiency test procedure for manufacturers of microwave ovens.