Washington, D.C. - Today the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that, due to inclement weather, the filing deadlines are being extended for public comments and other submissions in the 2010 "Special 301" review of the adequacy and effectiveness of U.S. trading partners' protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. The new deadlines are as follows:
Thursday, February 18 - 5 p.m. deadline for interested parties, except for foreign governments, to submit written comments, and requests to testify at the Special 301 Public Hearing, and accompanying hearing statements.
Tuesday, February 23 - 5 p.m. deadline for foreign governments to submit requests to testify at the Special 301 Public Hearing.
Friday, February 26 - 5 p.m. deadline for foreign governments to submit written comments and hearing statements.
For scheduling reasons, the deadlines above reflect that foreign governments wishing to testify at the Special 301 Public Hearing on Wednesday, March 3, must still make their requests to do so by the original February 23 deadline. However, foreign governments may wait until the new February 26 deadline to submit written comments and hearing statements.
The Special 301 Public Hearing will take place as previously scheduled on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, and additional days from March 4 - 8, as necessary, at the United States International Trade Commission, 500 E St. SW, Washington, D.C. 20436.
All other aspects of the process will be conducted as described in USTR's January 15, 2010 Federal Register notice, which is available at http://www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2010-0003.
All written comments, requests to testify, and hearing statements should be sent electronically via http://www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2010-0003. Submissions should contain the term "2010 Special 301 Review" in the "Type comment & Upload file" field on http://www.regulations.gov.
