[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 212 (Friday, November 1, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66700-66701]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-27744]
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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Request for Public Comment With Respect to the Annual National
Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 303 of the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984,
as amended, USTR is required to publish annually the National Trade
Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE). With this notice, the
Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) is requesting interested parties to
assist it in identifying significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods,
services and overseas direct investment for inclusion in the NTE.
Particularly important are impediments materially affecting the actual
and potential financial performance of an industry sector. The TPSC
invites written comments that provide views relevant to the issues to
be examined in preparing the NTE. In order to ensure the most timely
processing of submissions, the Department of Commerce will receive
comments in response to this Notice. Commenters should review carefully
the written comments section of this Notice for special procedures for
filing comments this year.
DATES: Public comments are due not later than Friday, December 13,
2002. This deadline is firm. No submissions will be accepted after
December 13.
ADDRESSES: Paper submissions: NTE Comments, Office of Trade and
Economic Analysis, Room H-2815, U.S. Department of Commerce,
Washington, DC 20230.
Submissions by electronic mail: [email protected].
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Procedural questions about
transmitting comments or viewing public submissions should be directed
to Ms. Marva Thompson (202-482-2185) or Mr. Howard Schreier (202-482-
4180), U.S. Department of Commerce. Questions regarding the report or
its subject matter should be directed to Ms. Gloria Blue, Office of
Policy Coordination, Office of the United States Trade Representative
(202-395-3475).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Last year's report may be found on USTR's
Internet Home Page (www.ustr.gov) under the section on Reports. In
order to ensure compliance with the statutory mandate for reporting
foreign trade barriers that are significant, we will focus particularly
on those restrictions where there has been active private sector
interest.
The information submitted should relate to one or more of the
following ten categories of foreign trade barriers:
(1) Import policies (e.g., tariffs and other import charges,
quantitative restrictions, import licensing, and customs barriers);
(2) Standards, testing, labeling, and certification (including
unnecessarily restrictive application of phytosanitary standards,
refusal to accept U.S. manufacturers' self-certification of
[[Page 66701]]
conformance to foreign product standards, and environmental
restrictions);
(3) Government procurement (e.g., ``buy national'' policies and
closed bidding);
(4) Export subsidies (e.g., export financing on preferential terms
and agricultural export subsidies that displace U.S. exports in third
country markets);
(5) Lack of intellectual property protection (e.g., inadequate
patent, copyright, and trademark regimes);
(6) Services barriers (e.g., limits on the range of financial
services offered by foreign financial institutions, regulation of
international data flows, restrictions on the use of data processing,
quotas on imports of foreign films, and barriers to the provision of
services by professionals (e.g., lawyers, doctors, accountants,
engineers, nurses, etc.);
(7) Investment barriers (e.g., limitations on foreign equity
participation and on access to foreign government-funded R&D consortia,
local content, technology transfer and export performance requirements,
and restrictions on repatriation of earnings, capital, fees and
royalties);
(8) Anticompetitive practices with trade effects tolerated by
foreign governments (including anticompetitve activities of both state-
owned and private firms that apply to services or to goods and that
restrict the sale of U.S. products to any firm, not just to foreign
firms that perpetuate the practices);
(9) Trade restrictions affecting electronic commerce (e.g., tariff
and non-tariff measures, burdensome and discriminatory regulations and
standards, and discriminatory taxation); and
(10) Other barriers (i.e., barriers that encompass more than one
category, e.g, bribery and corruption, or that affect a single sector).
As in the case of last year's NTE, we are asking that particular
emphasis be placed on any practices that may violate U.S. trade
agreements. We are also interested in receiving any new or updated
information pertinent to the barriers covered in last year's report as
well as new information. Please note that the information not used in
the NTE will be maintained for use in future negotiations.
It is most important that your submission contain estimates of the
potential increase in exports that would result from the removal of the
barrier, as well as a clear discussion of the method(s) by which the
estimates were computed. Estimates should fall within the following
value ranges: Less than $5 million; $5 to $25 million; $25 million to
$50 million; $50 million to $100 million; $100 million to $500 million;
or over $500 million. Such assessments enhance USTR's ability to
conduct meaningful comparative analyses of a barrier's effect over a
range of industries.
Please note that interested parties discussing barriers in more
than one country should provide a separate submission (i.e., one that
is self-contained) for each country.
Written Comments: In order to ensure the most timely receipt and
consideration of comments submitted in response to this Notice, the
following guidelines and special procedures have been established:
(1) All comments will be received at the U.S. Department of
Commerce rather than the Office of the United States Trade
Representative;
(2) The Department of Commerce has arranged to accept non-
confidential, public submissions by electronic mail (e-mail). An
automatic reply confirming receipt of e-mail submissions will be sent.
E-mail submissions in Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect are
preferred. If a word processing application other than those two is
used, please advise us in your submission of the specific application
used;
(3) In order to facilitate prompt processing of submissions, the
Department of Commerce strongly urges and prefers e-mail submission of
non-confidential, public comments;
(4) To ensure security, submissions containing business
confidential information should not be sent by e-mail, but via the U.S.
Postal Service or commercial express delivery (see paragraph 6 and 7
below for special requirements applying to such submissions). If a
submission contains business confidential information, a non-
confidential public version must also be submitted along with the
business confidential version.
(5) Business-confidential submissions must be accompanied by a
justification as to why the information contained in the submission
should be treated confidentially. In addition, any submissions
containing business confidential information must be clearly marked
``Confidential'' at the top and bottom of the cover page (or letter)
and of each succeeding page of the submission. The version that does
not contain confidential information should also be clearly marked, at
the top and bottom of each page, ``public version'' or ``non-
confidential''.
(6) When comments are submitted using the U.S. Postal Service or
commercial couriers, it is strongly recommended that submitters notify
the Department of Commerce by e-mail as to the date of transmittal and
method of delivery (U.S. Postal Service or name of courier company).
(7) All submissions must be in English and should conform to the
information requirements of 15 CFR 2003. If submissions are made via
U.S. Postal Service or commercial express delivery, a party must
provide five copies of its submission and the submission should be
accompanied by a computer disk containing a machine-readable version.
The disk should have a label identifying the software used, the
submitter and the title of the submission. In addition, business
confidential and public or non-confidential submissions should be
submitted on separate disks which are clearly marked ``business
confidential'' or ``non-confidential'', as appropriate.
Submissions must be received at the Department of Commerce no later
than Friday, December 13, 2002.
Written comments submitted in connection with this request, except
for information granted ``business confidential'' status pursuant to 15
CFR 2003.6, will be available for public inspection shortly after the
filing deadline in the Foreign Trade Reference Room (Room 2233) in the
U.S. Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce is located at
14th St. and Constitution Ave., NW., in Washington, DC. Customary hours
of operation for the Foreign Trade Reference Room are from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m., Monday through Friday. Call (202) 482-2185 to confirm. Questions
regarding the operation of the Reference Room should be directed to Ms.
Marva Thompson at 202-482-2185. Non-proprietary public comments will
also be available for review on the web at: http://web.ita.doc.gov/otea/ntecomments.nsf.
Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chairman, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. 02-27744 Filed 10-31-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-01-P