[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 3 (Monday, January 6, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 732-733]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-128]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Export Trade Certificate of Review

ACTION: Notice of application.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Export Trading Company Affairs (``OETCA''), 
International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce, has 
received an application for an Export Trade Certificate of Review. This 
notice summarizes the conduct for which certification is sought and 
requests comments relevant to whether the Certificate should be issued.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: W. Dawn Busby, Director, Office of 
Export Trading Company Affairs, International Trade Administration, 
(202) 482-5131. This is not a toll-free number.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title III of the Export Trading Company Act 
of 1982 (15 U.S.C. 4001-21) authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to 
issue Export Trade Certificates of Review. A Certificate of Review 
protects the holder and the members identified in the Certificate from 
state and federal government antitrust actions and from private, treble 
damage antitrust actions for the export conduct specified in the 
Certificate and carried out in compliance with its terms and 
conditions. Section 302(b)(1) of the Act and 15 CFR 325.6(a) require 
the Secretary to publish a notice in the Federal Register identifying 
the applicant and summarizing its proposed export conduct.

Request for Public Comments

    Interested parties may submit written comments relevant to the 
determination whether a Certificate should be issued, and are 
encouraged to provide a nonconfidential version of their comments. An 
original and five (5) copies, plus two (2) copies of any 
nonconfidential version, should be submitted not later than 20 days 
after the date of this notice to: Office of Export Trading Company 
Affairs, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce, 
Room 1800H, Washington, D.C. 20230. Information submitted by any person 
is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (5 
U.S.C. 552). Comments should refer to this application as ``Export 
Trade Certificate of Review, application number 96-00008.'' A summary 
of the application follows.

Summary of the Application

    Applicant: U.S. Rice Industry Coalition for Exports, Inc. (``US 
RICE''), 1615 L Street, N.W., 7th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036. 
Contact: M. Jean Anderson, counsel, Telephone:(202) 682-7217.
    Application No: 96-00008.
    Date Deemed Submitted: December 20, 1996.
    Members (in addition to applicant): Continental Grain Company, New 
York, New York; Newfield Partners Ltd., Miami, Florida.
    US RICE seeks a Certificate to cover the following specific Export 
Trade, Export Markets and Export Trade Activities and Methods of 
Operation.

Export Trade Products

    Semi-milled and wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or 
glazed (Harmonized Tariff Schedule 1006.30) (``milled rice''), husked 
(brown) rice (Harmonized Tariff Schedule 1006.20), broken rice 
(Harmonized Tariff Schedule 1006.40), and paddy or rough rice 
(Harmonized Tariff Schedule 1006.10).

Export Markets

    For purposes of allocating through an open bidding procedure the 
European Union's tariff rate quota: The countries of the European 
Union.
    For purposes of Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation 
paragraphs 2.-4. below: All parts of the world except the United States 
(the fifty states of the United States, the District of Columbia, the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust 
Territory of the Pacific Islands).

Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation

    1. US RICE will administer a system for managing the U.S. share of 
the European Union (``EU'') tariff-rate quotas (``TRQs'') for milled, 
brown, and broken rice (roughly 38,000 tons of milled rice, 8,000 tons 
of brown rice and 7,000 tons of broken rice annually) agreed to as 
compensation to the United States for the enlargement of the EU to 
include Austria, Finland, and Sweden, as follows:
    a. US RICE will allocate the TRQs exclusively through an open quota 
tender to the highest bidder(s). Any person incorporated or domiciled 
in the United States is eligible to bid. Bidders need not be members of 
US RICE and need not be included in the Certificate.
    b. The quota tender system will be administered by an independent 
third party (``the TRQ Administrator''), who will be retained by US 
RICE. The TRQ Administrator may be an individual, partnership, 
corporation (for profit or non-profit), or any representative thereof 
that is not engaged in the production, milling, distribution, or sale 
of milled, brown, or broken rice.
    c. Normally at least 45 days before the opening of each TRQ 
tranche, as defined by the EU, US RICE will publish notice of the 
bidding process for that tranche, specifying a bid date approximately 
30 days before the opening of the tranche. Bidders will submit bids to 
the TRQ Administrator on the bid date, together with a bid deposit, 
initially set at $25 per metric ton. The TRQ Administrator will retain 
the full bid deposit for tonnage on which bids are successful, and $5 
per metric ton of the deposit for unsuccessful bids, to cover costs of 
administering the TRQ system. The remainder will be refunded to 
unsuccessful bidders.
    d. Following the close of the bidding, the TRQ Administrator will 
disclose the bids received to all bidders, and after further review of 
bids for conformity with bidding procedures, will notify the high 
bidders. High bidders will then have 48 hours to post a five percent 
performance bond. When all bonds have been posted, the TRQ 
Administrator will issue a list of winning bidders to all participants. 
Upon receipt of the full amounts bid, the TRQ Administrator will 
promptly issue Export Certificates of Quota (``ECQs'') to the winning 
bidders. ECQs will be freely tradable. Each performance bond will be 
discharged on submission of export documentation demonstrating that the

[[Page 733]]

ECQ was used to export U.S. rice to the EU.
    2. The bid proceeds will be distributed and otherwise used as 
follows:
    a. All bid proceeds will be deposited in a trust fund. Each year, 
the TRQ Administrator will distribute funds from the preceding year's 
tenders to qualifying members of US RICE in proportion to each such 
member's percentage share by volume of total exports of U.S. rice to 
all destinations in the year preceding the tender (and for 1996 TRQs, 
1995). No US RICE member may receive a distribution in excess of that 
amount.
    b. Any person incorporated or domiciled in the United States that 
has exported U.S. rice in the current or preceding calendar year or is 
actively engaged in rice milling in the United States may join US RICE 
by executing the US RICE Operating Agreement and paying the dues of 
$5,000 per quota year. A member of US RICE will qualify for a 
particular distribution by (i) joining US RICE by January 31 of the 
quota year (e.g., for the distribution of proceeds from 1998 TRQs, by 
January 31, 1998), and in the case of distributions of proceeds from 
the 1996 and 1997 TRQs, by February 28, 1997; and (ii) documenting its 
share of U.S. rice exports for the relevant year to the TRQ 
Administrator.
    c. Funds remaining in the trust fund after a distribution will be 
used as necessary to cover operating expenses, and thereafter for 
promotion of U.S. rice exports worldwide through activities generally 
comparable to those funded by the USDA's market access program.
    3. The TRQ Administrator may receive confidential information and 
documentation of rice exports from members and prospective members of 
US RICE in connection with membership applications and distributions. 
The TRQ Administrator will maintain the confidentiality of such 
information and will not disclose it to any other member or any other 
person except to another neutral third party as necessary to process 
membership applications and distributions of bid proceeds.
    4. US RICE and/or its Members may also:
    a. exchange and discuss information regarding the structure and 
operation of the US RICE TRQ management system, including the types of 
information regarding past transactions and exports that are necessary 
for implementing the system;
    b. assess the operation of the system and consider and implement 
modifications to improve the system's workability;
    c. exchange and discuss information concerning U.S. and foreign 
agreements, legislation, and regulations affecting the US RICE TRQ 
management system;
    d. discuss and modify association dues, bid deposit fees, and 
performance bonds;
    e. discuss, decide on, and implement export promotion activities to 
be undertaken with post-distribution funds in the trust fund;
    f. otherwise exchange and discuss information as necessary to 
implement the foregoing activities and take the necessary action to 
implement the US RICE TRQ management system, relating to the U.S.-EU 
Enlargement Agreement and any successor or related agreements, and 
related EU regulations;
    g. provide nonconfidential information to, and consult as 
appropriate with, officials of the U.S. Government and the European 
Commission concerning the operation of the US RICE TRQ management 
system; and
    h. meet to engage in the activities described above.

Abbreviated Amendment Procedure

    New US RICE members may be included in the Certificate through an 
abbreviated amendment procedure. Under the procedure, US RICE will 
notify the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General, in writing, 
of those members of US RICE that wish to be included in the 
Certificate. If the Department so requests, the notification will 
include a certification from each such member of its domestic and 
export sales of rice in its preceding fiscal year. Notice of the 
members so identified shall be published in the Federal Register. If 30 
days or more following publication in the Federal Register, the 
Secretary of Commerce, with the concurrence of the Attorney General, 
determines that the incorporation in the Certificate of these members 
through the abbreviated amendment procedure is consistent with the 
standards of the Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall amend the 
Certificate to incorporate such members, effective as of the date on 
which the application for amendment was deemed submitted. If the 
Secretary of Commerce does not so amend the Certificate within 60 days 
of publication in the Federal Register, such amendment must be sought 
through the normal amendment procedure.

Terms and Conditions of Certificate

    1. Except as expressly authorized in Export Trade Activity and 
Method of Operation 4(a), in engaging in Export Trade Activities and 
Methods of Operation, neither US RICE nor any Member shall 
intentionally disclose, directly or indirectly, to any other Member 
(including parent companies, subsidiaries, or other entities related to 
any Member not named as a Member) any information regarding its or any 
other Member's costs, production, inventories, domestic prices, 
domestic sales, capacity to produce products for domestic sales, 
domestic orders, terms of domestic marketing or sale, or U.S. business 
plans, strategies, or methods, unless (1) such information is already 
generally available to the trade or public; or (2) the information 
disclosed is a necessary term or condition (e.g., price, time required 
to fill an order, etc.) of an actual or potential bona fide export sale 
and the disclosure is limited to the prospective purchaser.
    2. US RICE and its Members will comply with requests made by the 
Secretary of Commerce on behalf of the Secretary or the Attorney 
General for information or documents relevant to conduct under the 
Certificate. The Secretary of Commerce will request such information or 
documents when either the Attorney General or the Secretary of Commerce 
believes that the information or documents are required to determine 
that the Export Trade, Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation 
of a person protected by this Certificate of Review continue to comply 
with the standards of section 303 (a) of the Act.

Definitions

    ``Member'' means a member of US RICE who has been certified as a 
``Member'' within the meaning of Section 325.2(l) of the regulations. A 
US RICE member that is not a Member may join the US RICE export trade 
certificate of review by requesting that US RICE file for an amended 
certificate. A Member may withdraw from coverage under this certificate 
at any time by giving written notice to US RICE, a copy of which US 
RICE will promptly transmit to the Secretary of Commerce and the 
Attorney General.

    Dated: December 30, 1996.
W. Dawn Busby,
Director, Office of Export Trading Company Affairs.
[FR Doc. 97-128 Filed 1-3-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DR-P