[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 28 (Monday, February 11, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6273-6275]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-3197]


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INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: U.S. International Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice of proposed collection; comment request.

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SUMMARY: The proposed information collection is a 3-year extension, 
pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-13), of 
the current ``generic clearance'' (approved by the Office of Management 
and Budget under control No. 3117-0016) under which the Commission can 
issue information collections (specifically, producer, importer, 
purchaser, and foreign producer questionnaires and certain institution 
notices) for the following types of import injury investigations: 
countervailing duty, antidumping, escape clause, market disruption, 
NAFTA safeguard, and ``interference with programs of the USDA.'' 
Comments concerning the proposed information collections are requested 
in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d); such comments are described in 
greater detail in the section of this notice entitled supplementary 
information.

DATES: To be assured of consideration, written comments must be 
received not later than April 19, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Signed comments should be submitted to Marilyn Abbott, 
Acting Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street 
SW., Washington, DC 20436.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Copies of the proposed information 
collections (and related instructions) and draft Paperwork Reduction 
Act Submission and Supporting Statement to be submitted to the Office 
of Management and Budget may be obtained from either of the following 
persons: Debra Baker, Office of Investigations, U.S. International 
Trade Commission, telephone 202-205-3180, or Lynn Featherstone, 
Director, Office of Investigations, U.S. International Trade 
Commission, telephone 202-205-3160. The draft Supporting Statement is 
also on the Commission's website 
(at http://info.usitc.gov/OINV/INVEST/OINVINVEST.NSF).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Request for Comments

    Comments are solicited as to (1) whether the proposed information 
collection is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed information collection, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) the quality, utility, and clarity 
of the information to be collected; and (4) minimization of the burden 
of the proposed information collection on those who are to respond 
(including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, 
mechanical, or other technological forms of information technology, 
e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses).

Summary of the Proposed Information Collections

(1) Need for the Proposed Information Collections

    The Commission conducts countervailing duty and antidumping 
investigations under provisions of Title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 
to determine whether domestic industries are being materially injured 
or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of products 
which are subsidized (countervailing duty cases) or sold at less than 
fair value (antidumping cases). Five-year reviews of antidumping and 
countervailing duty orders and suspended investigations are conducted 
to determine whether revocation of the existing orders would be likely 
to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury to the 
domestic industry. The Commission conducts escape-clause investigations 
to determine whether increased imports are a substantial cause of 
serious injury or threat of serious injury to a domestic industry. 
NAFTA safeguard investigations are conducted under the authority of the 
North American Free Trade Agreement and examine whether increased 
imports from Canada or Mexico are a substantial cause of serious injury 
or threat of serious injury to a domestic industry. Market disruption 
investigations are conducted to determine whether imports of an article 
produced in a Communist country are causing material injury to a 
domestic industry. The Commission also conducts investigations to 
determine whether imports are interfering with programs of the 
Department of Agriculture for agricultural commodities or products. 
Specific investigations are almost always instituted in response to 
petitions received from U.S. manufacturers of the product(s) in 
question. Data received in response to the questionnaires 
(specifically, producer, importer, purchaser, and foreign producer 
questionnaires) issued under the terms of the proposed generic 
clearance are consolidated and form much of the statistical base for 
the Commission's determinations in these statutorily-mandated 
investigations.
    Included in the proposed generic clearance are the institution 
notices for the five-year reviews of antidumping and countervailing 
duty orders and suspended investigations. Responses to the institution 
notices will be evaluated by the Commission and form much of the record 
for its determination to conduct either an expedited or full review.

(2) Information Collection Plan

    Using the sample ``generic clearance'' questionnaires as a guide, 
questionnaires for specific investigations are prepared and are sent to 
U.S. producers manufacturing the product(s) in question. Importer and 
purchaser questionnaires are also sent to all significant importers/
purchasers of the product(s). Finally, all foreign manufacturers of the 
product(s) in question that are represented by counsel are sent 
questionnaires, and, in

[[Page 6274]]

addition, the Commission attempts to contact any other foreign 
manufacturers, especially if they export the product(s) in question to 
the United States. Firms receiving questionnaires include businesses, 
farms, and/or other for-profit institutions; responses are mandatory.
    The institution notices for the five-year reviews are published in 
the Federal Register and solicit comment from interested parties (i.e., 
U.S. producers within the industry in question as well as labor unions 
or representative groups of workers, U.S. importers and foreign 
exporters, and involved foreign country governments).

(3) Description of the Information To Be Collected

    Producer questionnaires generally consist of the following four 
parts: (part I) general questions relating to the organization and 
activities of the firm; (part II) data on capacity, production, 
inventories, employment, and the quantity and value of the firm's 
shipments and purchases from various sources; (part III) financial 
data, including income-and-loss data on the production in question, 
data on asset valuation, research and development expenses, and capital 
expenditures; and (part IV) pricing and market factors. (Questionnaires 
may, on occasion, also contain part V, an abbreviated version of the 
above-listed parts, used for gathering data on additional product 
categories.)
    Importer questionnaires generally consist of three parts: (part I) 
general questions relating to the organization and activities of the 
firm; (part II) data on the firm's imports and the shipment and 
inventories of its imports; and (part III) pricing and market factors 
similar to that requested in the producer questionnaire.
    Purchaser questionnaires generally consist of five parts: (part I) 
general questions relating to the organization and activities of the 
firm; (part II) data concerning the purchases of the product by the 
firm; (part III) market characteristics and purchasing practices; (part 
IV) comparisons between imported and U.S.-produced product; and (part 
V) actual purchase prices for specific types of domestic and subject 
imported products and the names of the firm's vendors.
    Foreign producer questionnaires generally consist of (part I) 
general questions relating to the organization and activities of the 
firm; (part II) data concerning the firm's manufacturing operations; 
and set reviews include 11 specific requests for information that firms 
are to provide if their response is to be considered by the Commission.
    The notices of institution for the five-year reviews include 11 
specific requests for information that firms are to provide if their 
response is to be considered by the Commission.
    The Commission solicits input from petitioners and other potential 
recipients when preparing questionnaires for individual investigations. 
Further, the Commission has formalized the process where interested 
parties comment on data collection and draft questionnaires in final 
phase countervailing duty and antidumping investigations (including the 
5-year reviews). Interested parties are provided approximately 2 weeks 
to provide comments to the Commission on the draft questionnaires. All 
efforts are made to minimize burden to the firms that will be receiving 
the questionnaires.

(4) Estimated Burden of the Proposed Information Collection

    The Commission estimates that information collections issued under 
the requested generic clearance will impose an average annual burden of 
143,000 burden hours on 3,500 respondents (i.e., recipients that 
provide a response to the Commission's questionnaires or the notices of 
institution of five-year reviews). Table 1 lists the projected annual 
burden for each type of information collection for the period August 
2002-July 2005. As indicated in table 1, the caseload estimates are 
derived from the current Commission budget estimates. The caseload is, 
however, expected to vary from year to year, with the highest number of 
cases falling into FY 2005 (which roughly corresponds to the August 
2004-July 2005 period). Table 1 also lists projected annual burden 
figures for August 2004-July 2005. It is these figures that are listed 
on the Form 83-I to ensure that the Commission response burden will 
remain below the approved burden total in any one year.

        Table 1.--Projected Annual Burden Data, by Type of Information Collection, August 2002-July 2005
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                                                                                Foreign   Institution
                                               Producer   Importer  Purchaser   producer  notices for
                    Item                      question-  question-  question-  question-     5 year      Total
                                                naires     naires     naires     naires   reviews \5\
-------------------------------------------------\1\--------\2\--------\3\--------\4\---------------------------
                        Estimated burden hours imposed annually for August 2002-July 2005
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Number of respondents.......................        887      1,186        778        639          24       3,514
Frequency of response.......................          1          1          1          1           1           1
Total annual responses......................        887      1,186        778        639          24       3,514
Hours per response..........................       57.5       44.0       28.0       28.0         7.4        40.7
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  Total hours...............................     51,002     52,184     21,784     17,892         178     143,040
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                          Estimated burden hours imposed for August 2004-July 2005 \6\
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Number of respondents.......................      1,278      1,708      1,264        920          46       5,216
Frequency of response.......................          1          1          1          1           1           1
Total annual responses......................      1,278      1,708      1,264        920          46       5,216
Hours per response..........................       57.5       44.0       28.0       28.0         7.4        40.3
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  Total hours...............................     73,485     75,152     35,392     25,760         340     210,129
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\1\ Producer questionnaires.--Estimates based upon the following variables: number of respondents (anticipated
  caseload (x) number of producer respondents per case) and hours per response (responding firm burden (+)
  outside review burden (+) third-party disclosure burden). See definitions below. Responding firm burden
  accounts for 91 percent of the total producer questionnaire burden (52.3 hours per response), outside review
  burden accounts for 6 percent of the total burden, and third-party disclosure burden accounts for the
  remaining 3 percent. (The averages per questionnaire of the outside review and third-party disclosure burdens
  are not listed here since they are incurred only for the questionnaires of parties; such averages for all
  questionnaires are not meaningful.)

[[Page 6275]]

 
\2\ Importer questionnaires.--Estimates based upon the following variables: number of respondents (anticipated
  caseload (x) number of importer respondents per case) and hours per response (responding firm burden (+)
  outside review burden (+) third-party disclosure burden). See definitions below. Responding firm burden
  accounts for 98 percent of the total importer questionnaire burden (43.1 hours per response), outside review
  burden and third-party disclosure burden each account for about 1 percent of the total burden. (The averages
  per questionnaire of the outside review and third-party disclosure burdens are not listed here since they are
  incurred only for the questionnaires of parties; such averages for all questionnaires are not meaningful.)
\3\ Purchaser questionnaires.--Estimates based upon the following variables: number of respondents (anticipated
  caseload (x) number of purchaser respondents per case) and hours per response (responding firm burden). See
  definitions below. Purchasers are not interested parties to investigations by statute and rarely engage
  outside counsel. Therefore, there is no measurable outside review burden nor third-party disclosure burden for
  purchasers.
\4\ Foreign producer questionnaires.--Estimates based upon the following variables: number of respondents
  (anticipated caseload (x) number of foreign producer respondents per case) and hours per response(responding
  firm burden (+) outside review burden (+) third-party disclosure burden). See definitions below. Responding
  firm burden accounts for 34 percent of the total foreign producer questionnaire burden (35.9 hours per
  response), outside review burden accounts for another 34 percent, and third-party disclosure burden accounts
  for 32 percent of the total burden.
\5\ Institution notices for 5-year reviews.--Estimates based upon the following variables: anticipated five-year
  review caseload, number of respondents to each notice, and responding firm burden. The Commission based its
  estimate of the number of respondents upon the number of responses per review received to date. Responding
  firm burden is estimated based on a comparison of the amount of information contained in notices received to
  date to completed producer questionnaires.
\6\ Twelve-month period during which the greatest response burden is anticipated.
Note.--Above estimates include questionnaires for specific investigations where the mailing list consists of
  fewer than 10 firms. In such instances the majority or all firms within the industry under investigation may
  be said to receive questionnaires. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, ``(a)ny collection of
  information addressed to all or a substantial majority of an industry is presumed to involve ten or more
  persons.''
 
DEFINITIONS AND METHODOLOGY
 
Anticipated caseload.--Derived from current Commission budget estimates.
Number of respondents per case.--Defined as the number of firms which return completed (see note 3 to table 3)
  questionnaires to the Commission. Current estimates of ``number of respondents per case'' for the
  questionnaires were derived, in part, from the number of respondents to Commission questionnaires that were
  issued under the current generic clearance.
Responding firm burden.--Defined as the time required by the firm which received the questionnaire to review
  instructions, search data sources, and complete and review its response. Commission questionnaires do not
  impose the burden of developing, acquiring, installing and utilizing technology and systems, nor require
  adjusting existing methodology or training personnel. Current estimates of ``responding firm burden'' for the
  questionnaires were derived from the actual burden reported by firms that responded to Commission
  questionnaires issued under the current generic clearance.
Outside review burden.--Time devoted by outside legal and financial advisors to reviewing questionnaires
  completed by the responding firms who are their clients prior to submitting them to the Commission. Commission
  staff conducted a survey of fewer than 10 law firms which have appeared before the Commission to derive a
  ``petitioner'' review burden estimate per party questionnaire and a ``respondent'' review burden estimate.
  Staff also reviewed a number of past investigations (33) to determine the average number of ``parties'' (i.e.,
  respondent interested parties who were represented by outside counsel) per investigation and calculated the
  total number of review burden hours that would be incurred annually. The ``petitioner/producer'' review burden
  was applied to the producer questionnaire burden figures and the ``respondent'' review burden was divided
  among the importer and foreign producer questionnaires.
Third-party disclosure burden.--Time required for outside legal advisors to serve their clients' questionnaires
  on other parties to the investigation or review under an administrative protective order. Commission staff
  included in its survey of law firms a request for the average third-party disclosure burden and using the same
  methodology described above for outside review burden applied the third-party disclosure burden to the hours
  per response figures for the producer, importer, and foreign producer questionnaires.

    The Commission further estimates that it costs responding firms 
$79.94 per burden hour to complete a specific questionnaire issued 
under the generic clearance. (This estimate is based upon actual costs 
reported by respondents to questionnaires issued under the current 
generic clearance.) More complete information concerning costs to 
respondents, including costs incurred for the purchase of services, and 
estimates of the annualized cost to the Commission are presented in the 
draft Supporting Statement available from the Commission. There is no 
known capital and start-up cost component imposed by the proposed 
information collections.

(5) Information Technology

    The Commission's collection of data through its questionnaires does 
not currently involve the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or 
other technological collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology. Completed questionnaires are almost always returned to the 
Commission in paper-form. While the Commission has explored the use of 
alternative methods of submission, it has proved most expedient to 
receive paper copies for a number of reasons. (The draft Supporting 
Statement available from the Commission addresses this issue in greater 
detail.) However, while there are certain impediments to the easy 
receipt of data in electronic form, the Commission will, and has in the 
past, accept electronic submissions when large amounts of 
``repetitive'' data are being requested. Further, the Commission now 
makes the questionnaires used in specific investigations available to 
firms on its website in both Word Perfect and pdf formats. Likewise, it 
is the Commission's experience that it is most expedient that the 
information provided in response to its notices of institution for the 
five-year reviews be submitted in document form directly to its Office 
of the Secretary.

    By order of the Commission.

    Issued: February 5, 2002.
Marilyn R. Abbott,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 02-3197 Filed 2-8-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7020-02-P