[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 148 (Wednesday, August 2, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39351-39352]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-19027]



 ========================================================================
 Notices
                                                 Federal Register
 ________________________________________________________________________
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules 
 or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings 
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 delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency 
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  Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 148 / Wednesday, August 2, 1995 / 
Notices  


[[Page 39351]]


DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Foreign Agricultural Service


Dairy Tariff-Rate Import Quota Licensing

AGENCY: Foreign Agricultural Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 
notice announces the Department's intention to revise a currently 
approved information collection and currently approved license 
application forms for the purpose of permitting importers, 
manufacturers, and exporters of certain dairy articles subject to 
tariff-rate import quota licensing requirements to apply for such 
licenses in 1996.

DATES: Comments should be submitted on or before August 14, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to the Dairy Import Quota Manager, 
Import Policies and Programs Division, AG BOX 1021, Foreign 
Agricultural Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 
20250-1021. All comments received will be available for public 
inspection in room 5541 South Building at the above address between the 
hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. All 
responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the request 
submitted to the Office of Management and Budget on this matter.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Richard P. Warsack, Dairy Import Quota 
Manager, room 5541 South Building, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D.C. 20250-1021 or telephone (202) 720-2916. Copies of the 
information collection may be obtained from Pamela Hopkins, Information 
Collection Coordinator, room 4957 South Building, U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, AG BOX 1060, Washington, D.C. 20250-1060 or telephone 
(202) 720-6713.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Import Regulation 1, Revision 7 governs the administration of the 
import licensing system for certain dairy articles which were subject 
to quotas proclaimed under section 22 of the Agricultural Adjustment 
Act of 1933, as amended (Section 22). As a result of entry into force 
of the Uruguay Round Trade Agreements, Section 22 quotas on dairy 
articles were replaced by tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on January 1, 1995 
and proclaimed in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTS). TRQs provide for the entry of a specified quantity of an article 
(in-quota quantity) at a reduced tariff rate during a given period. 
There is no limitation on the total amount of an article which may be 
entered, but quantities entered in excess of an in-quota quantity are 
subject to a higher tariff rate. For certain dairy articles subject to 
TRQs, imports may only be entered at the in-quota tariff rate by a 
person or firm to whom the Department has issued an import license. 
Import licenses are valid for a 12-month period from January 1 through 
December 31 of each year.
    For 1995, existing license forms were issued to import that 
quantity of imports which had been subject to absolute quotas and 
licensing requirement when Section 22 quotas were in effect. The 
issuance of licenses for the Uruguay Round in-quota quantity increases 
for certain dairy articles, which became effective on January 1, 1995, 
was effected through an interim rule published in the Federal Register 
on January 6, 1995, which amended Import Regulation 1, Revision 7 for 
this purpose. A subsequent Federal Register  notice, published on May 
2, 1995, further amended Import Regulations 1, Revision 7, to implement 
the issuance of licenses for Uruguay Round in-quota quantity increases 
for cheese imported from certain countries which became effective on 
July 1, 1995. A revision to the approved information collection and 
license application forms was approved by the Office of Management and 
Budget for the Uruguay Round in-quota quantity license application 
forms for 1995. The Department intends to revise the currently approved 
information collection and currently approved applications forms to 
permit importers, manufacturers, and exporters of dairy articles 
subject to TRQ licensing requirements to apply for licenses to import 
in-quota quantities of such dairy articles for 1996. The Department 
intends to request expedited clearance from the Office of Management 
and Budget on the proposed revisions in order to implement the 
application process in the most efficient and timely manner.

Supporting Statement

A. Justification
    1. Circumstances requiring the collection of the information. Dairy 
products which were subject to absolute quotas under section 22 of the 
Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, as amended (7 U.S.C. 624) were 
converted to tariff-rate quotas on January 1, 1995 under Presidential 
Proclamation 6763 of December 23, 1994 which implemented trade 
agreements resulting from the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade 
Negotiations. That Proclamation also implemented the President's 
authority to allocate the in-quota quantities of dairy products subject 
to tariff-rate quotas among supplying countries proclaimed in the 
Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) as a result of the entry into force of 
the Uruguay Round Agreements. Congress approved the Uruguay Round 
Agreements under section 101(a) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act 
(P.L. 103-465, 108 Stat. 4809).
    The importation of most cheese and cheese products and certain non-
cheese dairy articles must be accompanied by a license issued by the 
Department to enter at the TRQ in-quota tariff rate. The import 
licensing system is administered by the Department in accordance with 
Import Regulation 1, Revision 7 (7 CFR part 6). The Department expects 
to publish a revised Import Regulation, as envisioned in the Advanced 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (59 FR 28495), in the near future for the 
1996 quota year. The Department intends to revise the currently 
approved information collection and currently approved application 
forms for 1996 for the purpose of issuing revised and improved license 
application forms permitting importers, manufacturers, and exporters of 
dairy products to apply for import licenses for the 1996 quota year.

[[Page 39352]]

    2. Purpose of information to be used. The basic information 
regarding the purpose of the information to be used in the collection, 
provided in the current supporting statement is applicable with the 
following changes.
    In addition to information requested in the application forms in 
1995, the revised forms require that applicants for all lottery 
licenses rank order their requests in order of preference (most 
desirable to least desirable) as was required of applicants for Uruguay 
Round in-quota quantities of non-cheese dairy articles in the 1995 
quota year. The purpose of applicants rank ordering their requests for 
licenses is to establish a rank order lottery system which is intended 
to provide a better alignment between importers' requirements and 
licenses obtained. In addition, the revised forms will add EC Uruguay 
Round in-quota quantities of cheese to the license application form for 
designated licenses. This is being done to implement the U.S. Uruguay 
Round commitment to the EC permitting the EC to designate importers for 
such cheese. Information which will no longer be required on a revised 
form is that applicants for historical licenses list each historical 
license allocated to that person or firm. This information is now 
considered redundant based on its availability in the computer data 
bank.
    3. Use of improved information technology. The information provided 
in the supporting statement for the currently approved collection of 
information is applicable. In recent years, a system was developed 
under which basic applications could be read by an optical scanner. To 
further increase the ease of processing, and to reflect the proposed 
revised forms have been simplified and redesigned into an enhanced 
machine-readable format. The simplified forms require applicants to 
fill in a circle opposite the articles that they are applying for a 
license to import. The importer's control number will also be entered 
by filing in circles opposite the appropriate digit numbers.
    4. Efforts to identify duplication. Not applicable.
    5. Methods to minimize burdens of small business entities. The 
information provided in the supporting statement for the currently 
approved collection of information is applicable.
    6. Consequences if information collection were less frequent. The 
information provided in the supporting statement for the currently 
approved collection of information is applicable.
    7. Inconsistency with guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6. The information 
provided in the supporting statement for the currently approved 
collection of information is applicable.
    8. Consultations with persons outside the agency. The information 
provided in the supporting statement for the currently approved 
collection of information is applicable.
    9. Confidentiality provided to respondents. The information 
provided in the supporting statement for the currently approved 
collection of information is applicable.
    10. Questions of a sensitive nature. Not applicable.
    11. Annual cost to Government and respondents. The information 
provided in the supporting statement for the currently approved 
collection of information is applicable, but the estimated costs for 
1994 need to be updated. For 1995, the salaries and other 
administrative costs are estimated to be $322,681. The fee for 1995 was 
$89 for each import license issued. The cost to the respondents is 
included in item 12 below.
    12. Estimate of burden. The information provided in the supporting 
statement for the currently approved collection of information is 
applicable for licenses issued in 1995. The estimate of the burden for 
1996 is indicated in the following table.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                    No. of                              
                         No. of   responses    Total      Hours         
       Form No.        responses     per       annual      per     Total
                                  applicant  responses  response        
------------------------------------------------------------------------
922..................       500          1        500     0.025      125
923..................       600          1        600     0.050      300
923A.................  .........  .........  .........  ........  ......
923B *...............  .........  .........  .........  ........  ......
                      --------------------------------------------------
      Total..........     1,100   .........     1,100   ........     425
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*923, 923A and 923B constitute one form.                                

    13. Reasons for the change in burden. There is a reduction of 429 
hours in the estimate of the burden of information collection between 
1995 and 1996 which is based mainly on the elimination of forms 924 and 
924A which were needed to conduct the separate application procedures 
under which licenses for the Uruguay Round in-quota increases where 
issued for January and July of that year. The elimination of these 
forms is estimated to reduce the total number of estimated responses 
for all types of licenses from 1,560 to 1,100. The estimated burden is 
also being reduced based on the use of the revised and improved 
application forms. The result is an estimated reduction in the total 
annual average hours used in preparing responses from 920 hours to 425 
hours. There is no data with respect to the annual cost incurred by 
each respondent (person or firm) based on the amount of time used in 
filling out the application forms and the average hourly salary of such 
respondents. It is extremely difficult to calculate this cost because 
the executive or administrative level of the individual responsible for 
filling out the forms tends to vary depending on the size and location 
of the person or firm, the size of the license portfolio, and 
experience of the person or firm in importing licensed dairy products. 
Based on our research, the estimated total annual cost associated with 
the estimated total burden of 425 hours is $12,750.
    14. Tabulation, analysis and publication plans. Not applicable.

    Signed at Washington, D.C., July 28, 1995.
Timothy J. Galvin,
Acting Administrator, Foreign Agricultural Service and Vice President, 
Commodity Credit Corporation.
[FR Doc. 95-19027 Filed 8-1-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-10-M