News

Enogen Stewardship

On Tuesday, May 7 Gary and Ryan met with representatives from Syngenta to receive an update on their Enogen corn stewardship plans.

Syngenta is currently expanding sales of Enogen as a feed corn among 3,000 growers, with concentrations in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan, New England and Wisconsin. Syngenta anticipates that, in 2019/2020, two-thirds of Enogen corn will go to feed, while the remaining third will go to fuel usage. As parts of its commercialization, Syngenta is conducting stewardship trainings with its growers and rolling out IP360.com, a password protected mapping software containing information on Enogen corn locations based on contracts between Syngenta and growers. A high resolution, password protected site will be available to consumers and handlers and a lower resolution site will be available to the general public.

More information on Syngenta’s Enogen commercialization can be found here.

EU MRL Comments

USDA APHIS is seeking public comments on the European Union’s notification to the WTO regarding Maximum Residue Limits for cyflufenamid, fenbuconazole, fluquinconazole and tembotrione. A detailed list of products showing changes to Maximum Residue Limits can be seen here.  Please submit comments to Rachel.Vanderberg@usda.gov and PlantDivision@fas.usda.gov by May 24, 2019.

Section 301 China Comments

The U.S. Trade Representative is seeking public comment on proposed modifications to actions being taken in its Section 301 investigation regarding acts, policies, and practices of the Government of China related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation. The proposed modification is to take further action in the form of an additional ad valorem duty of up to 25 percent on products of China with an annual trade value of approximately $300 billion.

USTR is seeking public comment and will hold a public hearing regarding this proposed modification on June 17, 2019 from the International Trade Commission. While it is too late to request to testify at the hearing, written comments will be accepted until the end of the day on June 17.

All written submissions can be made on regulations.gov under the docket number USTR-2019-0004.

U.S. DHS Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program

NAEGA would like to make its members aware of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program (CFATS). CFATS is the first DHS regulatory program focused specifically on security at high-risk chemical facilities. Any facility that maintains holdings of Chemicals of Interest at or above the quantities and concentrations specified in the CFATS regulation list must comply with CFATS requirements. If DHS determines that a facility is high-risk, the facility must submit for approval a Site Security Plan or an Alternative Security Program that includes security measures to meet applicable risk-based performance standards established by DHS. Following approval, facilities enter into a regular cycle of compliance inspections.

An online screening process quickly determines whether your facility is considered “high-risk” by DHS, and can be found here: www.dhs.gov/chemicalsecurity

More information on CFATS can be found here.

China Announces Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Goods

On Monday, May 13 the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced its intention to raise tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. origin goods to 20-25 percent, up from 10 percent. The tariff increase is in response to U.S. President Donald Trump decision to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 percent. This tariff leveraging follows an apparent break-down in bilateral talks after negotiations last week between U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin and China’s lead negotiator Liu He. Over the past year the U.S. and China have been locked in a cycle of negotiations and tariff retaliation following the announcement by the U.S. of tariffs on Chinese goods in response to China’s intellectual property practices.  

A copy of the MOFCOM announcement can be found here.