Trade Act Programs: Investigative Forms to Assess Workers Group Eligibility for TAA

Confidentiality.

The Department collects commercial and financial data during its investigation of petitions for certification of worker eligibility to apply for TAA and ATAA, including information provided to the Department on OMB-approved forms.

The pertinent statutes governing the disclosure by the Department of Labor of confidential business information are the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) and the Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. 1905). The applicable regulations of the Department of Labor are found at 29 CFR Part 70 and sections 90.32(b) and 90.33 of 29 CFR Part 90.

The Trade Secrets Act affirmatively prohibits the Department's officers or employees from disclosing in any manner or to any extent not authorized by law information concerning or relating to "trade secrets, processes, operations, style of work, or apparatus, or to the identity, confidential statistical data, amount or source of any income, profits, losses, or expenditures of any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or association". Criminal sanctions may be imposed against any officer or employee of the Government who violates this Act.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) generally requires an agency to make disclosures. However, exemption 4 of the FOIA (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)) provides that an agency may withhold from disclosure to the public "trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential". The regulation explaining how the Department applies exemption 4, 29 CFR 70.24, requires the Department to provide notice and an opportunity to a submitter of such information to object to and contest such a requested disclosure.

The Department's TAA certification regulation on confidential business information, 29 CFR 90.33, incorporates the FOIA and the Department's FOIA regulations. Applying paragraph (b) of this regulation, the Department does not disclose "confidential business information" provided by companies on OMB-approved forms designated "Business Confidential" except as required by applicable law or court order, unless the company gives its written consent to disclosure.