[Federal Register: November 24, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 226)]
[Notices]
[Page 68437-68438]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr24no04-131]
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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.
DATES: Public comments are due not later than Tuesday, December 21,
2004. This deadline is firm. No submissions will be accepted after
December 21.
ADDRESSES: Paper submissions: NTE Comments, U.S. Department of
Commerce, USA Trade Center Room, 14th & Constitution Ave., NW., Ronald
Reagan Building, Washington, DC 20230.
Submissions by electronic mail: ntecomments@ita.doc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Procedural questions about
transmitting comments or viewing public submissions should be directed
to Mrs. Lisa Leyser on (202-482-3433), 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).
[[Page 68438]]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Last year's report may be found on USTR's
Internet Home Page (http://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 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 anticompetitive 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 (ntecomments@ita.doc.gov) 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, 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 Tuesday, December 21, 2004.
After the filing deadline, arrangements can be made to view these
non-proprietary public comments at the U.S. Department of Commerce's
USA Trade Center, in the Trade Reference Library. The USA Trade Center
is located in the Ronald Reagan Building, Suite 800 on the Mezzanine
Level, at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20004. The Trade
Reference Library is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through
Friday. Call 202-482-0200 to confirm. Questions regarding the operation
of the library should be directed to Mrs. Lisa Leyser at 202-482-3433.
Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. 04-26034 Filed 11-23-04; 8:45 am]