[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 4 (Thursday, January 6, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 760-761]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-262]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
Export Trade Certificate of Review
ACTION: Notice of issuance of an Export Trade Certificate of Review,
Application No. 99-00005.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce has issued an Export Trade
Certificate of Review to California Almond Export Association, LLC
(``CAEA''). This notice summarizes the conduct for which certification
has been granted.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Morton Schnabel, 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. Sections 400l-21) authorizes the Secretary of
Commerce to issue Export Trade Certificates of Review. The regulations
implementing Title III are found at 15 CFR part 325 (1999).
The Office of Export Trading Company Affairs (``OETCA'') is issuing
this notice pursuant to 15 CFR 325.6(b), which requires the Department
of Commerce to publish a summary of a Certificate in the Federal
Register. Under Section 305(a) of the Act and 15 CFR 325.11(a), any
person aggrieved by the Secretary's determination may, within 30 days
of the date of this notice, bring an action in any appropriate district
court of the United States to set aside the determination on the ground
that the determination is erroneous.
Description of Certified Conduct
Export Trade
1. Products
California almonds in processed and unprocessed form.
2. Export Trade Facilitation Services (as They Relate to the Export of
Products)
All export trade-related facilitation services, including but not
limited to: development of trade strategy; sales, marketing, and
distribution; foreign market development; promotion; and all aspects of
foreign sales transactions, including export brokerage, freight
forwarding, transportation, insurance, billing, collection, trade
documentation, and foreign exchange; customs, duties, and taxes; and
inspection and quality control.
Export Markets
The Export Markets include 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 Territories of the Pacific Islands).
Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation
1. CAEA, on its own behalf or on behalf of all or less than all of
its Members, through CAEA or through Export Intermediaries (to the
extent provided in section 1.g) may:
a. Sales Prices. Establish sale prices, minimum sale prices, target
sale prices and/or minimum target sale prices, and other terms of sale;
b. Marketing and Distribution. Conduct marketing and distribution
of Products;
c. Promotion. Conduct promotion of Products;
d. Quantities. Agree on quantities of Products to be sold, provided
each Member shall be required to dedicate only such quantity or
quantities as each such Member shall independently determine. CAEA
shall not require any Member to export a minimum quantity;
e. Market and Customer Allocation. Allocate geographic areas or
countries in the Export Markets and/or customers in the Export Markets
among Members;
f. Refusals to Deal. Refuse to quote prices for Products, or to
market or sell Products, to or for any customers in the Export Markets,
or any countries or geographical areas in the Export Markets;
g. Exclusive and Nonexclusive Export Intermediaries. Enter into
exclusive and nonexclusive agreements appointing one or more Export
Intermediaries (as defined under ``Definitions'' paragraph 1) for the
sale of Products with price, quantity, territorial and/or customer
restrictions as provided in sections 1.a through 1.f, inclusive, above;
and
h. Non-Member Activities. Purchase Products from non-Members to
fulfill specific sales obligations, provided that CAEA and/or its
Members shall make such purchases only on a transaction-by-transaction
basis and when the Members are unable to supply, in a timely manner,
the requisite Products at a price competitive under the circumstances.
In no event shall a non-Member be included in any deliberations
concerning any Export Trade Activities.
2. CAEA and its Members may exchange and discuss the following
information:
a. Information about sale and marketing efforts for the Export
Markets, activities and opportunities for sales of Products in the
Export Markets, selling strategies for the Export Markets, sales for
the Export Markets, contract and spot pricing in the Export Markets,
projected demands in the Export Markets for Products, customary terms
of sale in the Export Markets, prices and availability of Products from
competitors for sale in the Export Markets, and specifications for
Products by customers in the Export Markets;
b. Information about the price, quality, quantity, source, and
delivery dates of Products available from the Members to export;
c. Information about terms and conditions of contracts for sale in
the Export Markets to be considered and/or bid on by CAEA and its
Members;
d. Information about joint bidding or selling arrangements for the
Export Markets and allocations of sales resulting from such
arrangements among the Members;
e. Information about expenses specific to exporting to and within
the Export Markets, including without limitation, transportation,
trans- or intermodal shipments, insurance, inland freights to port,
port storage, commissions, export sales, documentation, financing,
customs, duties, and taxes;
f. Information about U.S. and foreign legislation and regulations,
including federal marketing order programs, affecting sales for the
Export Markets;
g. Information about CAEA's or its Members' export operations,
including without limitation, sales and distribution networks
established by CAEA or its Members in the Export Markets, and prior
export sales by Members (including export price information); and
h. Information about export customer credit terms and credit
history.
3. CAEA and its Members may prescribe the following conditions for
admission of Members to CAEA and termination of membership in CAEA:
a. Membership shall be limited to Handlers as defined under
``Definitions'' paragraph 2.
b. Membership shall terminate on the occurrence of one or more of
the following events:
i. withdrawal or resignation of a Member;
ii. Expulsion approved by a majority of all Members for a material
violation of CAEA's Operating Agreement, after prior written notice to
the Member proposed to be expelled and an opportunity of such Member to
appear and be heard before a meeting of the Members;
[[Page 761]]
iii. Death or permanent disability of a Member who is an individual
or the dissolution of a Member other than an individual; and
iv. The bankruptcy of a Member as provided in CAEA's Operating
Agreement.
4. CAEA and its Members may meet to engage in the activities
described in paragraphs 1 through 3 above.
Definitions
1. ``Export Intermediary'' means a person (including a Member) who
acts as a distributor, sales representative, sales or marketing agent,
or broker, or who performs similar functions, including providing, or
arranging for the provision of, Export Trade Facilitation Services.
2. ``Handler'' means a person who handles almonds grown in
California as defined in 7 CFR Section 981.13, under the Order
Regulating Handling of Almonds Grown in California.
3. ``Member,'' within the meaning of section 325.2(1) of the
Regulations, means the members of CAEA as set out in Attachment A and
incorporated by reference.
Terms and Conditions of Certificate
1. Except as provided in paragraph 2(b) and (e) of the Export Trade
Activities and Methods of Operation above, CAEA and its Members shall
not intentionally disclose, directly or indirectly, to any Handler
(including Members) any information about its or any other Handler's
costs, production, capacity, inventories, domestic prices, 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; (2) such disclosure
is a necessary term or condition of an actual or potential bona fide
sale or purchase of Products and the disclosure is limited to that
prospective purchaser or seller; or (3) such disclosure is made in
connection with the administration of the United States Department of
Agriculture marketing order for almonds grown in California.
2. Each Member shall determine independently of other Members the
quantity of Products the Member will make available for export or sell
through CAEA. CAEA may not solicit from any Member specific quantities
for export or require any Member to export any minimum quantity of
Products.
3. Meetings at which CAEA allocates export sales among Members and
establishes export prices shall not be open to the public.
4. Participation by a Member in any Export Trade Activity or Method
of Operation under this Certificate shall be entirely voluntary as to
that Member, subject to the honoring of contractual commitments for
sales of Products in specific export transactions. A Member may
withdraw from coverage under this Certificate at any time by giving a
written notice to CAEA, a copy of which CAEA shall promptly transmit to
the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General.
5. Any agreements, discussions, or exchanges of information under
this Certificate relating to quantities of Products available for
Export Markets, Product specifications or standards, export prices,
Product quality or other terms and conditions of export sales (other
than export financing) shall be in connection only with actual or
potential bona fide export transactions or opportunities and shall
include only those Members participating or having a genuine interest
in participating in such transactions or opportunities, provided that
CAEA and/or the Members may discuss standardization of Products for
purposes of making bona fide recommendations to foreign governmental or
private standard-setting organizations.
6. CAEA 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 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.
Protection Provided by Certificate
The Certificate protects CAEA, its Members, and their directors,
officers, and employees acting on their behalf, from private treble
damage actions and government criminal and civil suits under U.S.
federal and state antitrust laws for the export conduct specified in
this Certificate and carried out during its effective period in
compliance with its terms and conditions.
A copy of this Certificate will be kept in the International Trade
Administration's Freedom of Information Records Inspection Facility
Room 4102, U.S. Department of Commerce, l4th Street and Constitution
Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20230.
Dated: December 27, 1999.
Morton Schnabel,
Director, Office of Export Trading, Company Affairs.
Attachment A
Members (Within the meaning of Section 325.2(1) of the Regulations)
A & P Growers Cooperative, Inc., Tulare, CA
Almonds California Pride, Inc., Caruthers, CA
Baldwin-Minkler Farms, Orland, CA
Blue Diamond Growers, Sacramento, CA
Calcot, Ltd., Bakersfield, CA
California Independent Almond Growers, Ballico, CA
Campos Brothers, Caruthers, CA
Chico Nut Company, Chico, CA
Del Rio Nut Company, Livingston, CA
Dole Nut Company, Bakersfield, CA
Fair Trade Corner, Inc., Chico, CA
Gold Hills Nut Co., Inc., Ballico, CA
Golden West Nuts, Inc., Ripon, CA
Harris Woolf California Almonds, Huron, CA
Hilltop Ranch, Ballico, CA
Hughson Nut Company, Hughson, CA
Kindle Nut Company, Denair, CA
Paramount Farms, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
P-R Farms, Inc., Clovis, CA
Santa Fe Nut Company, Ballico, CA
South Valley Farms, Wasco, CA
Western Nut Company, Chico, CA
[FR Doc. 00-262 Filed 1-5-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DR-P