[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 102 (Thursday, May 27, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28857-28860]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-13552]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Request for Petitions To Accelerate Tariff Elimination Under 
Provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notification of an opportunity to file petitions requesting 
accelerated tariff elimination under the North American Free Trade 
Agreement.

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SUMMARY: Section 201(b) of the North American Free Trade Agreement 
Implementation Act of 1993 (``the Act'') grants the President, subject 
to the consultation and lay-over requirements of section 103(a) of the 
Act, the authority to proclaim any accelerated schedule for duty 
elimination that may be agreed to by the United States, Mexico, and 
Canada under Article 302(3) of the North American Free Trade Agreement 
(``the NAFTA''). This notice solicits new petitions requesting 
accelerated tariff elimination under the NAFTA, describes the 
procedures for filing petitions, and sets forth the procedure for 
further consideration of previously filed petitions. Similar notices 
are being published by the Governments of Canada and Mexico.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: North American Affairs, Office of the 
United States Trade Representative, Room 522, 600 17th Street, NW, 
Washington, DC 20508; telephone: (202) 395-3412; fax: (202) 395-9517; 
email:[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Since 1989, five tariff acceleration 
exercises have been completed in North America. The first three were 
conducted under provisions of the United States-Canada Free Trade 
Agreement (USCFTA), and the most recent two, with the addition of 
Mexico, under the NAFTA. In response to the interest of their private 
sectors, the NAFTA governments have been successful in accelerating 
tariff elimination on approximately $4 billion in trade.
    The NAFTA governments have agreed on the amended process outlined 
below for future tariff acceleration activity. These changes expand the 
role of interested parties in the initial petitioning stage, streamline 
the process for consideration of requests, and allow for further 
consideration of petitions filed during the second NAFTA accelerated 
tariff elimination exercise.
    On January 1, 1998, the United States and Canada eliminated all 
remaining tariffs on goods subject to the NAFTA. Tariffs are being 
eliminated between the United States and Mexico and Canada and Mexico 
as set out in the NAFTA, with 6 annual reductions implemented to date. 
Given the tariff reductions and eliminations that have already 
occurred, the scope of potential future accelerated tariff reduction 
activity is more limited than that of prior exercises, and now involves 
only trade between Mexico and the United States and Mexico and Canada.

I. Petition Requirements for New Requests

    (See II below for additional requirements for reconsidering 
requests included in the second NAFTA Accelerated Tariff Elimination 
Exercise).

A. Petitions Must Be Jointly Submitted and Must Be Non-Controversial

    Petitions must be submitted by interested parties in at least two 
of the NAFTA countries to their governments for accelerated duty 
elimination. That is, petitions must cover U.S.-Mexico and/or Canada-
Mexico trade. Governments encourage petitioners to explore submitting 
petitions from all three countries. Documentation must be provided 
demonstrating producers in each of the relevant countries have reached 
a consensus to support mutual accelerated tariff elimination. An 
exception to the requirement for joint submissions can be made in cases 
where the equivalent subheadings are already provided duty-free 
treatment under MFN or NAFTA by one or both of the non-petitioning 
countries. In such cases, documentation is required only from the 
producer industries in those countries which have remaining duties in 
place. The governments will expect the petitioners to have contacted 
all

[[Page 28858]]

producers in the relevant countries and to have received no objections 
to the petitions as it is being submitted. Where industry associations 
exist that represent all producers, petitions or statements of support 
from these organizations are acceptable and in fact preferred. 
Governments will not consider a petition if they have information 
indicating that a consensus view does not exist.

B. Scope and Coverage of Petitions

    Governments encourage interested parties to review the broadest 
appropriate range of tariff headings and to submit petitions that 
reflect a consensus reached after such a broad-based review. A single 
petition can thus include requests covering multiple tariff headings. 
Petitions should cover entire 8-digit tariff subheadings, and may also 
be submitted at the 6 or 4 digit level where the intent is to cover all 
subsidiary duties still in place.

C. Timing

    All requests for accelerated tariff elimination must be received at 
the address below by July 1,1999, for earliest consideration. Requests 
received after that date will be considered annually with a closing 
date of March 1 until full implementation of the NAFTA tariff 
eliminations.

D. Review of Petitions

    After petitions are accepted for consideration, each government 
will conduct the consultation and review process required under its 
domestic procedures. This is done with the expectation that no 
opposition will be found based on the joint nature of the petition 
submissions. The governments will consider and adopt modifications to 
the original petitions throughout this process for technical reasons, 
to consolidate duplicate petitions, to ensure parity of product 
coverage among the countries, or to accommodate minor objections which 
arise during review. However, requests that are controversial will not 
be acted on. When the internal review process is completed, governments 
will finalize an agreed list of articles to be considered for 
accelerated tariff elimination and begin the required domestic 
implementation procedures.

II. Petition Requirements for Further Consideration of Requests 
Submitted During the Second NAFTA Accelerated Tariff Elimination 
Exercise

    Tariff subheadings that were published by the respective 
governments in 1997 for consideration and for which no agreement to 
accelerate duty elimination has yet been reached can be further 
considered where there is interest in doing so, as indicated by a 
petition filed pursuant to this notice. For the United States, the 
relevant headings are those that were published in the Federal Register 
of October 21, 1997, page 54671, and which were not included in the 
list of tariffs eliminated in the Federal Register notice of August 5, 
1998, page 41951. The notices for Canadian subheadings appeared in the 
Gazette on October 18, 1997, and July 31, 1998, respectively, and for 
Mexico, the Diario notices of November 3, 1997, and June 26, 1998.
    Petitions requesting further consideration for these subheadings 
must be submitted using the form in the annex, and the documentation 
showing the requests to be non-controversial in all the relevant NAFTA 
countries must be included. Such petitions must specifically address 
the opposition that arose that prevented a decision to implement 
accelerated duty elimination at that time.

III. Format of Petitions

    A model petition format and the information requested is shown in 
the annex to this notice. In order to be considered, petitions for 
accelerated tariff elimination must conform to the model format and 
contain all essential data elements.
    If a submission contains business confidential material, the 
specific material must be so identified in order to receive 
confidential treatment. In such cases, both a non-confidential and a 
business confidential version of the petition, each clearly marked as 
to its status, must be submitted. None of the information provided in 
sections A, B, and C of the petition may be designated business 
confidential.
    A copy of the petition format and this notice can be obtained from 
North American Affairs staff, Office of the United States Trade 
Representative (USTR), 600 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20508, 
telephone (202) 395-3412. Petitioners are encouraged to submit requests 
to USTR via the Internet or on a properly formatted computer disk. The 
form and instructions for electronic submissions can be obtained, 
beginning June 1, 1999, from the USTR Internet home page: www.ustr.gov 
under the ``What's New'' heading.

IV. General Instructions

    Numbered paragraphs below refer to fields in the model petition 
provided in the annex.

Section A. Scope and Petitioner Identification

    1. Note format of submission--hard copy, computer disk, or via 
Internet e-mail.
    2. Identify the countries that would be accelerating tariff 
elimination as a result of this petition. This must include at least 
two countries, except in cases where one or two parties have already 
eliminated all corresponding duties. All petitions should be fully 
reciprocal, that is, each participating country would be expected to 
accelerate duty elimination to the same degree.
    3.-17. Contact Information. The petitioner contact will be the 
single entity notified by the United States government in cases where 
information beyond that required by the petition is needed. The contact 
need not be a producer organization. The petitioner contact would be 
responsible for disseminating information among participating 
organizations in that country. A private-sector producer organization 
contact should also be provided for each participating country.

Section B. Tariff Heading Information

    18.-19. The petition should provide a concordance for the two or 
three relevant countries indicating the respective tariff 
classifications of all products of interest. Petitions should indicate 
those headings which will already be duty free on or before January 1, 
2000, and those items which, while necessary to show a full 
concordance, are not being requested for accelerated tariff 
elimination. Requests for accelerated tariff elimination should be 
listed at the 8-digit subheading level or above (i.e., 6- or 4-digit 
level). Requests at the 4- or 6-digit level can be considered, as long 
as the petitioners have agreed and are in fact proposing that all 
remaining tariffs contained within those classifications are being 
proposed for accelerated tariff elimination. The NAFTA governments will 
consider requests for immediate tariff elimination. Requests for tariff 
elimination on another accelerated timetable will only be considered in 
extraordinary circumstances and only when the additional administrative 
burdens and benefits associated with such action can be justified. To 
simplify petitions, if a large majority of tariff subheadings in a 
specific product category are proposed for accelerated tariff 
elimination with very few exceptions, the exceptions should be listed 
under 19.

[[Page 28859]]

Section C. Supporting Producer Organizations in Each Country

    20. To be acted on, petitions must represent a consensus agreement 
among the producers of the relevant products in all participating 
countries. To be considered, petitions submitted by other than producer 
organizations must list in this section the individual producing firms 
or the industry associations representing such firms. Firms or 
associations which do not include producing firms must not be listed in 
this section, but can be included in Section D. This information will 
be used to verify petition support, as necessary.

Section D. Supplemental Information

    21.-22. This section of the petition should be used to provide 
information supplementing that provided in numbers 1 through 20 
(specify the relevant number(s) being supplemented), or any other 
relevant information that may assist in consideration of the petition. 
Petitions for further consideration must note here the opposition that 
arose during the prior exercise which prevented a decision to 
accelerate duty elimination at that time, and must provide information 
showing such opposition no longer exists.

V. Submission of Petitions

    1. Electronic submissions: USTR prefers that petitions be submitted 
in electronic form, either interactively via the Internet, or by 
submission of computer disk. If disks are being submitted, only one 
hard copy of each petition should be enclosed, and this copy must 
indicate that an electronic version is being submitted. If multiple 
requests are being filed, they may be submitted on a single disk, with 
a hard copy list of all the covered HTS numbers. The form and 
instructions for electronic submissions can be obtained, beginning June 
1, 1999, from the USTR Internet home page: www.ustr.gov under the 
``What's New'' heading. Technical questions regarding electronic 
submission may be made by contacting the USTR computer operations 
office at (202) 395-3417 during business hours.
    2. Paper submissions: Petitions must be type-written and submitted 
in 10 copies, in English, to: North American Affairs, Office of the 
United States Trade Representative, Room 522, 600 17th Street, NW, 
Washington, DC 20508, Attention: NAFTA Tariff Acceleration desk.
    3. Petitions may submit hard copies in order to confirm receipt of 
electronic submissions. However, such hard copies must be marked to 
indicate an electronic version is also being filed.

VI. Consideration of Petitions

    All petitions received by July 1, 1999, and containing complete and 
correct information as required in this notice will be reviewed and a 
decision made as to which articles will be proposed to the Government 
of Mexico for possible accelerated tariff elimination. As noted above, 
petitions for articles on which the duty is currently scheduled for 
elimination on or before January 1, 2000, in Annex 302.2 of the NAFTA, 
as modified, cannot be considered. Requests received after July 1, 
1999, will be considered annually each March 1 until full 
implementation of the NAFTA tariff eliminations.
    Petitions not containing complete and accurate information required 
cannot be considered.
Jon Huenemann,
Assistant United States Trade Representative for North American 
Affairs.

Annex--1999 Model Petition To Accelerate the Removal of Tariffs 
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement

Section A. Scope and Contact Identification

(A contact point should be provided as indicated below for each of 
the countries involved)

1. This petition is being submitted via: {time}  Internet e-mail 
{time}  Computer Disk {time}  Paper Original
2. Accelerated duty elimination is requested for: {time}  United 
States {time}  Mexico {time}  Canada
3. U.S. Petitioner Contact:--------------------------------------------
4. Address:------------------------------------------------------------
5. U.S. Private-Sector Contact:----------------------------------------
6. Telephone: (  )-----------------------------------------------------
7. E-mail address:-----------------------------------------------------
8. Mexico Petitioner Contact:------------------------------------------
9. Address:------------------------------------------------------------
10. Mexican Private-Sector Contact:------------------------------------
11. Telephone: (  )----------------------------------------------------
12. E-mail address:----------------------------------------------------
13. Canada Petitioner Contact:-----------------------------------------
14. Address:-----------------------------------------------------------
15. Canadian Private-Sector Contact:-----------------------------------
16. Telephone: (____)--------------------------------------------------
17. E-mail address:----------------------------------------------------

                                      Section B. Tariff Heading Information
 
18. The product[s] are classified in the following 1999 tariff headings or subheadings:
 
                    United States                    Mexico                                Canada
 
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
 
[List each tariff subheading and its equivalent in the relevant country or countries on a separate line.
 Indicate those already duty free with an asterisk [*] and those not being requested with brackets [].]
 
19. As an alternative to completing question 18, list in 18 the items produced by the petitioning industry at a
 6- or 4-digit level and list in 19 the 8-digit items not being included in this request:
 
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
 
                          Section C. Supporting producer organizations in each country
 
The following producing firms and/or industry associations have been contacted and agreed to support or not
 oppose this request (copy this page as necessary to list additional organizations):
 
                Name                             Contact Person                      Phone/Fax & e-mail
 

[[Page 28860]]

 
20.a. In the United States:
 
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
 
20.b. In Mexico:
 
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
 
20.c In Canada:
 
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
     (__________________________)          (__________________________)          (__________________________)
 
                                       Section D. Supplemental Information
 
21. Information regarding further
 consideration of requests published
 in 1997:
22. Other supplemental information:
Signature of person filing the petition: (__________________________) Date: (__________________________)
Organization: (__________________________) Title or position: (__________________________)
 

[FR Doc. 99-13552 Filed 5-26-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-01-P