[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 36 (Thursday, February 22, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6892-6893]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-3903]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Customs Service
[T.D. 96-19]


Request for Public Comments Concerning Dissemination of Existing 
Information Product and Elimination of Microfiche

AGENCY: U.S. Customs Service, Department of the Treasury.

ACTION: General notice, request for public comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Customs Service provides rulings and publications on 
a variety of subjects for the guidance of the importing public. The 
rulings have been available in the past in a variety of formats, 
including printed media, diskette and microfiche. The Customs Service 
would like to provide these rulings, future publications and additional 
information in two new formats (CD-ROM and the Internet) with built-in 
search capabilities and ``hypertext'' links. In addition, the Customs 
Service would like to receive public comments on the elimination of one 
format used to supply rulings to the public by subscription 
(microfiche). This document invites public comment on the various 
proposals.

DATES: Comments must be submitted by March 25, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Written comments (preferably in triplicate) may be addressed 
to the Regulations Branch, U.S. Customs, Franklin Court, 1301 
Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20229. Comments submitted may 
be inspected at the Regulations Branch, Office of Regulations & 
Rulings, Franklin Court, 1099 14th Street NW., Suite 4000W, Washington, 
DC.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
For contents and technical aspects of the CD-ROM: Howard Plofker, 202-
482-7077
For the Internet: Kathy Davis, 202-927-0255
For the microfiche: Thomas Budnik, 202-482-6909

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with OMB Circular A-130 and 
Section 2 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub.L. 104-13, 44 
U.S.C. 3506(d)), Customs is soliciting comments from the public on the 
dissemination of Customs information by CD-ROM (Compact Disc-read only 
memory) and the Internet and the elimination of microfiche rulings. In 
the past, the U.S. Customs Service has, pursuant to section 103.4, 
Customs Regulations (19 CFR 103.4), made its rulings available to the 
importing community. These rulings have been available in microfiche 
format, and in ASCII text format on 3.5 and 
5.25 diskettes, on an annual subscription basis. They 
have also been available through a variety of private subscription 
services, which obtain the rulings from Customs.

CD-ROM

    The New York and Headquarters rulings available in an electronic 
format now number approximately 23,000 rulings and take up a 
considerable amount of hard disk drive space when loaded on a PC or 
network. Over the past two years, Customs Office of Regulations & 
Rulings converted its internal electronic rulings (which had been 
distributed to the public on diskette, by subscription) into the Folio 
VIEWS Infobase format. This format compresses the file size 
and indexes the records in a file. It has extensive search and query 
capabilities and is frequently used to disseminate legal and government 
publications. Customs has also converted the Harmonized Tariff 
Schedules, Title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 19 of the 
U.S. Code, the Valuation Encyclopedia and other documents into this 
format for internal use.
    Last July, the Office of Finance, in partnership with the Offices 
of Regulations & Rulings and Strategic Trade, began producing an in-
house CD-ROM for Customs officers which contained those infobases 
together with other material. Since that time, material from other 
Customs offices has been added. This CD-ROM is prepared monthly for 
dissemination to Customs field offices. The internal CD-ROM utilizes 
the Windows version of Folio VIEWS 3.1. Each CD-ROM disk can 
hold approximately 650 MB of material. The infobases contain 
``hypertext'' jump links so that a researcher who sees a reference to 
another ruling, a regulation or statute cited within a ruling may 
``double-click'' on the reference and bring up the referenced document, 
if it is on the CD-ROM. Documents or portions of documents may be cut, 
copied and pasted to other Windows applications, such as word 
processors, or printed. Many members of the public who have seen the 
system in use have recommended that it be made available to the public. 
Because some of the material on the Customs internal CD-ROM is 
copyrighted, proprietary or for internal use, that material cannot be 
distributed to the public.
    The Customs Service agrees that in accordance with the ``informed 
compliance'' mandate contained in the legislative history of the 
Customs Modernization Act (Title VI, Public Law 103-182) the broadest 
dissemination possible should be made of this material. Customs seeks 
public comment on dissemination of the rulings and related material in 
a CD-ROM format. Customs would like to offer the CD-ROM in the Folio 
Views format, since that format is being used for internal 
dissemination and minimal additional costs would be incurred in 
preparing a public version. Customs would include the licensing fee for 
the program in the price of the CD-ROM. It is expected that CD-ROMs 
would be offered on an annual subscription basis with an estimated cost 
of approximately $240-300 per year for 10-12 CD-ROMs.
    It is anticipated that the initial CD-ROMs would contain all the 
rulings available in electronic format (including all Headquarters 
Rulings and New York Rulings previously available on diskette). The 
rulings on CD-ROMs will be cumulative, unlike the current diskette 
services. In addition the initial CD-ROM will contain 19 CFR, 19 
U.S.C., the Harmonized Tariff Schedules of the U.S., and the Valuation 
Encyclopedia. It is hoped that future CD-ROMs will contain various 

[[Page 6893]]
Informed Compliance publications and other material of interest to the 
importing and exporting community. The CD-ROMs would contain a small 
``Infobase Manager'' program which would be installed on the PC's hard 
drive. The infobases themselves would remain on the CD-ROM, thereby 
conserving hard drive space. When a new CD-ROM is issued, the old one 
could be removed, since the CD-ROMs are cumulative. If this proposal is 
adopted, the first CD-ROMs would be available for the public in the 
Spring. An alternative to the above would be to provide the infobases 
on the CD-ROM without a program to run them. This would require the 
subscriber to purchase Folio Views 3.1 from the Folio 
Corporation or an authorized reseller. A second alternative would be to 
put the ASCII (plain, un-indexed text) files containing the rulings and 
some other material or WordPerfect files on a CD-ROM without any 
indexing or hypertext program. Customs does not believe that this 
alternative will be as useful to the vast majority of users since the 
files will be uncompressed and unindexed and a search program will have 
to be purchased from another supplier.
    Customs would encourage the broadest possible dissemination of the 
material contained on the CD-ROM infobases and would invite electronic 
publishers to add material on any commercial redistribution of the 
infobases. Customs also invites the public to identify the type of 
materials it would like to see on the CD-ROM.

Internet

    Customs also proposes placing publications and other information of 
interest to the public on the Internet. Customs is considering 
including the CD-ROM infobases described above on the Internet where 
users could access, and search the material without charge. The public 
is invited to comment on these proposals and identify other documents 
and material which the public believes should be made available on the 
Internet. Public accessibility to the Customs material on the Internet 
is anticipated for late Spring, 1996.

Microfiche

    For many years, Customs made microfiche copies of rulings available 
to the public by annual subscription. The production of microfiche is 
an expensive and time consuming process compared to the preparation and 
production of electronic rulings, which is a by-product of writing the 
ruling itself. The number of microfiche subscribers has been declining 
since the diskette subscription services were introduced. Customs 
expects to eliminate the microfiche service effective October, 1996, 
the beginning of the fiscal year. However, if sufficient public 
interest exists in continuing the microfiche rulings, Customs may 
reconsider this decision. However, it is anticipated that subscription 
prices will have to be increased dramatically to continue the 
microfiche.

Comments

    Customs requests comments on implementation of the CD-ROM project 
and the Internet project and elimination of the microfiche rulings. 
Persons wishing to comment on any of these projects should send their 
comments to the Regulations Branch, Office of Regulations & Rulings, 
U.S. Customs Service, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 
20229. Comments may be reviewed at the Regulations Branch, Office of 
Regulations and Rulings, Suite 4000W, 1099 14th Street, Washington, DC 
20005 during the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

    Dated: February 14, 1996.
Stuart P. Seidel,
Assistant Commissioner, Office of Regulations and Rulings.
[FR Doc. 96-3903 Filed 2-21-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4820-02-P