[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]


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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.

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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