The Bureau of Industry and Security has sent for approval to the Office of Management and Budget a final rule that would revise the EAR to expand the scope of controls over foreign-produced items that are the direct product of U.S.-origin technology, colloquially is known as the "direct product rule" among other things.

The Foreign Agriculture Service issued the following GAIN reports:

Energy Secretary Chu will postpone a trip to China, scheduled for the week beginning May 24, 2010, at the request of President Obama and stay in the country to continue his work on response efforts to the BP oil spill. Secretary Chu was originally scheduled to visit Beijing and Shanghai and discuss further progress on bilateral clean energy cooperation.

According to an Internal Revenue Service press release, the interest rates for the third quarter of calendar year 2010 (July 1 -- September 30, 2010) for overpayments and underpayments of Customs duties are as follows:

U.S. Ambassador to the World Trade Organization Punke and European Union Chargé d’Affaires Clarke recently met in Geneva with Japanese Ambassador Kitajima to express long-standing and serious concerns that are shared by the U.S. and the EU regarding the lack of a level playing field between Japan Post and private sector companies in the insurance, banking, and express delivery sectors.

In association with the U.S. - Mexico declaration on 21st Century Border Management activities, the State Department issued trade statistics for the two countries. Total 2009 U.S. goods exports to Mexico were $129 billion and U.S. goods imports from Mexico were $177 billion, and more than half of all Mexico's global imports come from the U.S. See the State Department document for additional statistics.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection requests comments on a draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for High Energy X-Ray Inspection Systems (HEXRIS) at sea and land ports of entry, which analyzes the potential environmental impacts due to the use of HEXRIS.

The Enviornmental Protection Agency reports that a five-mile section of the Little Calumet River in South Chicago is now closed to all traffic for a period of four to six days as sampling efforts for Asian carp get underway.

The Food and Drug Administration requests comments on the draft second edition of its guidance, “Questions and Answers Regarding the Reportable Food Registry as Established by the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (Edition 2),” which provides further information to the industry in complying with RFR requirements and on the new Safety Reporting Portal.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has posted questions and answers from its first informal online chat session regarding the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, in which it discusses additional information on U.S. intentions for the TTP.