Ethanol Blog

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has extended the public comment period on a proposed rule that would add dried distillers grains to the list of commodities on the weekly export report by the Foreign Agricultural Service.

The proposed rule was original published in the Federal Register on March 8, 2012, but was withdrawn just 12 days later due to a procedural error. The rule was published a second time last summer with a second comment period.

Peter Burr, branch chief for the Export Sales Reporting Branch, Import Policies and Export Reporting Division for FAS' Office of Trade Programs of FAS, told DTN that the agency received both favorable and unfavorable comments. Some believed the rule would provide more timely statistics and would help with transparency and price discovery. Others claimed that domestic and foreign markets are much different and this type of reporting might result in skewing domestic market markets.

With such a mix of comments, FAS decided to extend the comment period in hopes of getting more comments to help with the decision of whether to implement the rule.

The public comment period is now extended for an additional 30 days, ending on April 18, 2013. The complete rule and full instructions for comments can be found on the Federal Register website at http://1.usa.gov/….

All submitted comments and attachments are part of the public record, including all comments received during previous comment. For any questions or further information, contact Burr by email at Pete.Burr@fas.usda.gov; or by telephone on (202) 720-3274; or by fax (202) 720-0876.

Cheryl Anderson can be reached at Cheryl.anderson@telventdtn.com

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