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Table 3.5 Federal Excise Taxes
Trust funds
Fund/Subject: Land and Water Conservation Fund
Products: Bows and arrows, regular firearms and ammunition, motorboat fuel

Table 3.5 Federal Excise Taxes
General funds
Fund/Subject: Ozone-depleting chemicals
Products: Certain CFC and related chemicals

The United States submitted 269 TBT notifications in 2013 (248 in 2012) , including sub federal measures notified under Article 3.2 of the TBT Agreement (Table A2.2). The United States was the only WTO Member to notify at the local government level during the review period, with 11 sub federal notifications submitted in 2013, mainly relating to environmental protection. The federal regulatory agencies with greatest number of TBT notifications related to international trade include: the Department of Energy (DOE), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of Agriculture (USDA), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). (…)

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible, inter alia, for registering pesticides (including herbicides and fungicides) for use in the United States, and establishing maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides on food, known as "tolerances" in the United States. The EPA is required to conduct a risk assessment to study the potential health and ecological effects of a pesticide before it can enter the U.S. market. Since 2012, the EPA has established 897 tolerances for pesticides on food, 827 of which are new trade facilitating tolerances, according to the authorities; the remainder are revised tolerances.

OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) has special provisions on where it can operate and who it is may work with. Partners must be U.S. citizens or U.S. companies, and projects should not result in the closing of U.S. operations or reduce the U.S. workforce. The countries in which OPIC works must uphold worker rights' rules or be taking steps to do so. Also, certain sectors are prohibited as they have adverse environmental or social effects. As of 2013, it had operations in 102 countries. Its total portfolio grew over 2011-13 (Table 3.14).

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 signed into law in January 2013 further extended the 50% first-year bonus depreciation for qualified property acquired and placed in service from 1 January 2013 through 31 December 2013. It also provided one-year extensions for several tax credits, including: credit for alternative-fuel vehicle refuelling property; alternative fuels excise tax credits; extension and modification of cellulosic biofuel producer credit; incentives for biodiesel and renewable diesel; and special allowance for cellulosic biofuel plant property.

State-level legislatures have also focused on providing investment incentives to businesses through grants, tax credits, loans, and corporate income tax abatement with the aim of promoting, inter alia, job creation (New Jersey, Oregon), clean technology (New Mexico, Wyoming), and development activities (Colorado).

Table 3.21 Services excluded by the United States from trade agreements
(…)
4. Service: (ii) Operation of all Department of Defense, Department of Energy, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration facilities; and all Government-owned research and development facilities or Government-owned environmental laboratories
WTO GPA, KORUS: b
Bahrain FTA, CAFTA-DR, Chile FTA, Colombia FTA, NAFTA, Oman FTA, Panama FTA and Peru FTA: X
Singapore FTA: b
Australia and Morocco FTA: X

[b]: Acquisitions of the services listed at (4) (ii) of this table are a subset of the excluded services at (4) (i), and are therefore not covered under the WTO GPA.

USTR reported active participation in the TRIPS Council reviews of TRIPS Agreement implementation and use of the TPR mechanism to "seek constructive engagement on issues related to TRIPS Agreement implementation" , and has raised a wide range of IP interests in these processes. The United States introduced TRIPS Council discussions on IP and innovation and the role of IP in sport, and contributed to discussions regarding IP and climate-related technology. In turn, during the most recent review of U.S. trade policies, other Members raised questions on methodologies for assessing the contribution of IP to the economy, as well as on many patent issues (patent quality and pendency, unity of invention, litigation by non-practicing or patent-assertion entities, humanitarian and green-technology initiatives, disclosure standards, remedies, post grant review, grace periods), copyright (foreign works, performers' rights, technological protection measures), trademarks and geographical indications, and enforcement of foreign-owned IP rights. In its Trade Policy Review and at the DSB, the United States also reported on legislative activities linked to implementation of DSB recommendations concerning IP-related case.

With the exception of upland cotton, the 2014 Farm Bill holds the loan rates at the same level as for crop years 2010-13 and the statutory rates are fixed for the crop years 2014-18. For most commodities, loan rates in recent years have been far below current market prices and cost of production, thus providing income support in a low-price environment. Unlike the PLC (Price Loss Coverage) or ARC (Agricultural Risk Coverage), marketing loan programme payments are not tied to, or capped by, base acres. Thus, marketing loan support is fully coupled to current prices and production. To be eligible, farmers must comply with environmental cross-compliance provisions and report all crop acreage planted on the farm.