[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 8 (Monday, January 13, 1997)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 1665-1668]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-743]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of Economic Analysis

15 CFR Part 801

[Docket No. 960918263-6345-02]
RIN 0691-AA27


International Services Surveys: BE-20 Benchmark Survey of 
Selected Services Transactions With Unaffiliated Foreign Persons

AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: These final rules amend the reporting requirements for the BE-
20. Benchmark Survey of Selected Services Transactions with 
Unaffiliated Foreign Persons.
    The BE-20 benchmark survey is conducted by the Bureau of Economic 
Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of Commerce, under the International 
Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act. It is taken once every 
five years. The last survey was conducted for 1991, and the next survey 
will be

[[Page 1666]]

conducted for 1996. The BE-20 is a benchmark survey that is intended to 
cover the universe of selected U.S. services transactions with 
unaffiliated foreign persons. In nonbenchmark years, universe estimates 
of these transactions are derived from reported sample data by 
extrapolating forward the universe data collected in the BE-20 survey. 
The data are needed to support U.S. trade policy initiatives on 
international services and to compile the U.S. balance of payments and 
the national income and product accounts.
    The major change to the BE-20 benchmark survey contained in these 
rules is to expand its coverage to obtain data on additional types of 
services, to fill gaps in Government statistics on transactions in new, 
growing, and volatile international services categories. Transactions 
in the following types of services will be covered on the BE-20 for the 
first time: Merchanting services (sales only), financial services by 
firms that are not financial services providers (purchases only), 
operational leasing services, selling agent services, and ``other'' 
private services. ``Other'' private services consists of transactions 
in satellite photography, security, actuarial, salvage, oil spill and 
toxic waste cleanup, language translation, and account collection 
services. In addition, to reduce burden, BEA is eliminating several 
questions in the respondent identification section of the survey.

DATES: These rules will be effective February 12, 1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
R. David Belli, Assistant Chief, International Investment Division (BE-
50), Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Depart of Commerce, Washington, 
DC 20230; phone (202) 606-9800.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In the October 17, 1996, Federal Register, 
volume 61, No. 202, 61 FR 54109, BEA published a notice of proposed 
rulemaking setting forth revised reporting requirements for the BE-20, 
Benchmark Survey of Selected Services Transactions with Unaffiliated 
Foreign Persons. No comments on the proposed rules were received. As a 
result, the final rules are the same as the proposed rules.
    These final rules amend 15 CFR Part 801 by revising Section 801.10. 
The survey is conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. 
Department of Commerce, under the International Investment and Trade in 
Services Survey Act (Pub. L. 94-472. 90 Stat. 2059, 22 U.S.C. 3101-
3108, as amended). Section 3103(a), of the act provides that ``The 
President shall, to the extent he deems necessary and feasible--* * * 
(4) conduct * * * benchmark surveys with respect to trade in services 
between unaffiliated United States persons and foreign persons * * *'' 
In Section 3 of Executive Order 11961, as amended by Executive Order 
12518, the President delegated the authority under the Act as concerns 
international trade in services to the Secretary of Commerce, who has 
redelegated it to BEA.
    The BE-20 benchmark survey is conducted once every five years. The 
next survey will cover 1996; the last survey was conducted for 1991. 
The survey is intended to cover the universe of selected U.S. services 
transactions with unaffiliated foreign persons. In nonbenchmark years, 
universe estimates of these transactions are derived from reported 
sample data by extrapolating forward the universe data collected in the 
BE-20 benchmark survey. The data are needed to support U.S. trade 
policy initiatives on international services; compile the U.S. balance 
of payments and national income and product accounts; develop U.S. 
international price indexes for services; assess U.S. competitiveness 
in, and promote, international trade in services; and improve the 
ability of U.S. businesses to identify and evaluate market 
opportunities for services trade.
    The major change to the BE-20 benchmark survey contained in these 
final rules is to expand coverage to obtain data on additional types of 
services. The expanded coverage will fill several of the remaining 
major gaps in Government statistics on international services 
transactions in new, growing, and volatile services categories. 
Transactions in the following types of services will be covered on the 
BE-20 for the first time: Merchanting services (sales only), financial 
services by firms that are not financial services providers (purchases 
only), operational leasing services, selling agent services, and 
``other'' private services. ``Other'' private services consist of 
transactions in satellite photography, security, actuarial, salvage, 
oil spill and toxic waste cleanup, language translation, and account 
collection services.
    Reporting in the BE-20 benchmark survey is required from U.S. 
persons with sales to, or purchases from, unaffiliated foreign persons 
in excess of $500,000 in any of the services covered during the 
reporting year. Those meeting this criterion must supply data on the 
amount of their total sales or total purchases of each type of service 
in which their transactions exceeded this threshold amount. Except for 
sales of merchanting services, the data also must be disaggregated by 
country; for sales of merchanting services, data are required to be 
reported only for all foreign countries combined. U.S. persons with 
purchases or sales during the reporting year of $500,000 or less in a 
given type of covered service are asked to provide, on a voluntary 
basis, estimates only of their total purchases or total sales, as 
appropriate, of the given type of service.
    To reduce respondent burden, BEA is eliminating several questions 
in the U.S. reporter identification section of the survey. 
Specifically, a requirement to disaggregate sales or gross operating 
revenues by individual detailed (3-digit) industry has been eliminated, 
and only a single industry for the consolidated enterprise is to be 
reported. In addition, a question on the respondent's total number of 
full-time and part-time U.S. employees at the end of its fiscal year 
has been eliminated.

Executive Order 12612

    These final rules do not contain policies with Federalism 
implications sufficient to warrant preparation of a Federalism 
assessment under E.O. 12612.

Executive Order 12866

    These final rules have been determined to be not significant for 
purposes of E.O. 12866.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The collection of information requirement in these final rules has 
been approved by OMB.
    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person is required 
to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure 
to comply with, a collection of information subject to the requirements 
of the Paperwork Reduction Act unless that collection displays a 
currently valid OMB Control Number; such a Control Number (0608-0058) 
has been displayed.
    Public reporting burden for this collection of information is 
estimated to vary from 4 to 500 hours, with an overall average burden 
of 12 hours. This includes time for reviewing the instructions, 
searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data 
needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. 
Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of 
this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this 
burden, to: Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BE-1), U.S. 
Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230; and to the Office of 
Management and Budget, O.I.R.A., Paperwork Reduction Project 0608-0058, 
Washington, DC 20503.

[[Page 1667]]

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulation, 
Department of Commerce, has certified to the Chief Counsel for 
Advocacy, Small Business Administration, under the provisions of the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 605(b)), that these final rules 
will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of 
small entities. The exemption level for the survey excludes most small 
businesses from mandatory reporting. Reporting is required only if 
total sales or total purchases transactions with unaffiliated foreign 
persons in a covered type of service exceed $500,000 during the year. 
Of those smaller businesses that must report, most will tend to have 
specialized operations and activities and will likely report only one 
type of service; therefore, the burden on them should be small.

List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 801

    Balance of payments, Economic statistics, Foreign trade, Penalties, 
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: January 3, 1997.
J. Steven Landefeld,
Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, BEA amends 15 CFR part 
801, as follows:

PART 801--[AMENDED]

    1. The authority citation for 15 CFR part 801 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301, 15 U.S.C. 4908, 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108, 
and E.O. 11961 (3 CFR, 1977 Comp., p. 86) as amended by E.O. 12013 
(3 CFR, 1977 Comp., p. 147), E.O. 12318 (3 CFR, 1981 Comp., p. 173), 
and E.O. 12518 (3 CFR, 1985 Comp., p. 348).

    2. Section 801.10 is revised to read as follows:


Sec. 801.10  Rules and regulations for the BE-20, Benchmark Survey of 
Selected Services Transactions with Unaffiliated Foreign Persons.

    The BE-20, Benchmark Survey of Selected Services Transactions with 
Unaffiliated Foreign Persons, will be conducted covering companies' 
1996 fiscal year and every fifth year thereafter. All legal 
authorities, provisions, definitions, and requirements contained in 
Secs. 801.1 through 801.9(a) are applicable to this survey. Additional 
rules and regulations for the BE-20 survey are given in this section. 
More detailed instructions and descriptions of the individual types of 
services covered are given on the report form itself.
    (a) The BE-20 survey consists of two parts and eight schedules. 
Part I requests information needed to determine whether a report is 
required and which schedules apply. Part II requests information about 
the reporting entity. Each of the eight schedules covers one or more 
types of services and is to be completed only if the U.S. Reporter has 
transactions of the type(s) covered by the particular schedule.
    (b) Who must report--(1) Mandatory reporting. A BE-20 report is 
required from each U.S. person who had transactions (either sales or 
purchases) in excess of $500,000 with unaffiliated foreign persons in 
any of the services listed in paragraph (c) of this section during its 
fiscal year covered by the survey.
    (i) The determination of whether a U.S. person is subject to this 
mandatory reporting requirement may be judgmental, that is, based on 
the judgment of knowledgeable persons in a company who can identify 
reportable transactions on a recall basis, with a reasonable degree of 
certainty, without conducting a detailed manual records search. Because 
the $500,000 threshold applies separately to sales and purchases, the 
mandatory reporting requirement may apply only to sales, only to 
purchases, or to both sales and purchases.
    (ii) Reporters who file pursuant to this mandatory reporting 
requirement must complete Parts I and II of Form BE-20 and all 
applicable schedules. The total amounts of transactions applicable to a 
particular schedule are to be entered in the appropriate column(s) on 
line 1 of the schedule. In addition, except for sales of merchanting 
services, these amounts must be distributed below line 1 to the 
country(ies) involved in the transaction(s). For sales of merchanting 
services, the data by individual foreign country are not required to be 
reported, although these data may be reported voluntarily.
    (iii) Application of the $500,000 exemption level to each covered 
service is indicated on the schedule for that particular service. It 
should be noted that an item other than sales or purchases may be used 
as the measure of a given service for purposes of determining whether 
the threshold for mandatory reporting of the service is exceeded.
    (2) Voluntary reporting. If, during the fiscal year covered, the 
U.S. person's total transactions (either sales or purchases) in any of 
the types of services listed in paragraph (c) of this section are 
$500,000 or less, the U.S. person is requested to provide an estimate 
of the total for each type of service.
    (i) Provision of this information is voluntary. The estimates may 
be judgmental, that is, based on recall, without conducting a detailed 
manual records search. Because the $500,000 threshold applies 
separately to sales and purchases, the voluntary reporting option may 
apply only to sales, only to purchases, or to both sales and purchases.
    (ii) The amounts of transactions reportable on a particular 
schedule are to be entered in the appropriate column(s) in the 
voluntary reporting section of the schedule; they are not required to 
be disaggregated by country. Reporters filing voluntary information 
only should also complete Parts I and II of the form.
    (3) Any U.S. person that receives the BE-20 survey form from BEA, 
but is not reporting data in either the mandatory or voluntary section 
of the form, must nevertheless complete and return the Exemption Claim 
included with the form to BEA. This requirement is necessary to ensure 
compliance with reporting requirements and efficient administration of 
the Act by eliminating unnecessary followup contact.
    (c) Covered types of services. Only the services listed in this 
paragraph are covered by the BE-20 survey. Other services, such as 
transportation and reinsurance, are not covered. Covered services are: 
Agricultural services; research, development, and testing services; 
management, consulting, and public relations services; management of 
health care facilities; accounting, auditing, and bookkeeping services; 
legal services; educational and training services; mailing, 
reproduction, and commercial art; employment agencies and temporary 
help supply services; industrial engineering services; industrial-type 
maintenance, installation, alteration, and training services; 
performing arts, sports, and other live performances, presentations, 
and events; sale or purchase of rights to natural resources, and lease 
bonus payments; use or lease of rights to natural resources, excluding 
lease bonus payments; disbursements to fund news-gathering costs of 
broadcasters; disbursements to fund news-gathering costs of print 
media; disbursements to fund production costs of motion pictures; 
disbursements to fund production costs of broadcast program material 
other than news; disbursements to maintain government tourism and 
business promotion offices; disbursements for sales promotion and 
representation; disbursements to participate in foreign trade shows

[[Page 1668]]

(purchases only); premiums paid on purchases of primary insurance; 
losses recovered on purchases of primary insurance; construction, 
engineering, architectural, and mining services (purchases only); 
merchanting services (sales only); financial services (purchases only, 
by companies or parts of companies that are not financial services 
providers); advertising services; computer and data processing 
services; data base and other information services; telecommunications 
services; operational leasing services; and ``other'' private services. 
``Other'' private services covers transactions in the following types 
of services: Satellite photography services, security services, 
actuarial services, salvage services, oil spill and toxic waste cleanup 
services, language translation services, and account collection 
services.

[FR Doc. 97-743 Filed 1-10-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-EA-M