[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 223 (Tuesday, November 19, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69802-69804]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-29292]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Procedures for Further Consideration of Requests (Anniversary) 
for Exclusion of Particular Products From Actions With Regard to 
Certain Steel Products Under Section 203 of the Trade Act of 1974, as 
Established in Presidential Proclamation 7529 of March 5, 2002

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In a notice published on October 26, 2001 (66 FR 54321) 
(Notice), the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) established 
procedures for interested persons to request the exclusion of 
particular products from any action the President might take under 
section 203 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, (19 U.S.C. 2253) 
(Trade Act) with regard to certain steel products. Presidential 
Proclamation 7529 of March 5, 2002, established such actions with 
regard to certain steel products (safeguard measures), but excluded 
some of the particular products identified in requests for exclusion 
made in response to the Notice. See 67 FR 10553 (March 7, 2002). 
Proclamation 7529 authorized the United States Trade Representative 
(USTR) in March of each year in which any of the safeguard measure 
remains in effect to further exclude particular products from the 
pertinent safeguard measure established by the proclamation. The USTR 
is modifying procedures established on April 18, 2002 (67 FR 19307) for 
further consideration of such exclusion requests.

DATES: The USTR and the Department of Commerce will hold a public 
information session to review the anniversary exclusion filing 
procedures on Thursday, November 21, 2002, at 4 p.m. in room 3407 of 
the Department of Commerce, 14th and Constitution Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC. Information will available on the USTR website at 
www.ustr.gov/sectors/industry/steel.shtml indicating how interested 
persons may participate in this public information session by 
teleconference. Persons submitting requests for the exclusion of 
certain steel products from the safeguard measures must file completed 
questionnaires by December 3, 2002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please send inquiries regarding the 
exclusion process by e-mail simultaneously to: [email protected] and [email protected]. You may also contact the Office 
of Industry, Office of the United States Trade Representative, 600 17th 
Street, NW., Room 501, Washington DC, 20508. Telephone (202) 395-5656.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On March 5, 2002, pursuant to section 203 of 
the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (the ``Trade Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2253), 
the President issued Proclamation 7529 (67 FR 10553), which imposed 
tariffs and a tariff-rate quota on (a) certain flat steel, consisting 
of: Slabs, plate, hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel, and coated 
steel;

[[Page 69803]]

(b) hot-rolled bar; (c) cold-finished bar; (d) rebar; (e) certain 
tubular products; (f) carbon and alloy fittings; (g) stainless steel 
bar; (h) stainless steel rod; (i) tin mill products; and (j) stainless 
steel wire, as provided for in subheadings 9903.72.30 through 
9903.74.24 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(``HTS'') (``safeguard measures'') for a period of three years plus 1 
day.
    Within 120 days after the date of that proclamation, the USTR was 
authorized to further consider any request for exclusion from the 
section 201 measures of a particular product submitted in accordance 
with the procedures set out in 66 FR 54321, 54322-54323 (October 26, 
2001) and, upon publication in the Federal Register of a notice of his 
finding that a particular product should be excluded, to modify the HTS 
provisions created by the annex to the proclamation to exclude such 
particular product from the pertinent safeguard measure established by 
the proclamation.
    Proclamation 7529 also delegated to the USTR the authority, in 
March of each year in which any safeguard measure established by this 
proclamation remains in effect, upon publication in the Federal 
Register of a notice of his finding that a particular product should be 
excluded, to modify the HTS provisions created by the annex to this 
proclamation to exclude such particular product from the pertinent 
safeguard measure established by this proclamation. This Federal 
Register notice provides notice of the procedures for the consideration 
of these anniversary exclusion requests.
    To facilitate the consideration of new exclusion requests, USTR 
requests persons interested in obtaining an exclusion from the 
safeguard measures of a particular product to send an e-mail to 
[email protected] to request an identifying ``A'' number. 
The ``Subject'' line of the e-mail must give the name of the requesting 
party and the words ``A-number Request'' as in the following example: 
XYZSteelCo--A-number Request. Each submitting party will be assigned 
only one identifying A number, regardless of the number of total 
exclusion requests a submitting party may ultimately file. That party's 
individual product requests will then be differentiated using the 
``decimal point'' numbers. Further instructions about decimal numbers 
will be provided to the submitting party in the e-mail which supplies 
the submitting party with its A-number.
    USTR, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Commerce, has 
developed a series of questions designed to elicit information that 
clearly identifies the product under consideration, and provides 
detailed information on the requester's situation. These questions, 
presented in the form of a requester questionnaire, are available on 
the USTR website at http://www.ustr.gov/sectors/industry/steel.shtml. 
The questionnaire contains detailed filing instructions. Interested 
parties must submit a complete questionnaire by December 3, 2002.
    In addition to the instructions contained in the questionnaire, 
USTR has developed guidelines in response to frequently asked questions 
to assist a requester in preparing a response to the questionnaire. The 
Guidelines further elaborate upon the questionnaire and provide sample 
responses to selected questions within the questionnaire. The 
Guidelines will be available on the USTR website at http://www.ustr.gov/sectors/industry/steel.shtml.
    USTR and the Commerce Department will review each exclusion request 
for the minimum level of sufficiency necessary to initiate each 
exclusion request. In the case of a deficient exclusion request, USTR 
or Commerce will transmit by e-mail a notice to the submitting party 
that briefly summarizes the nature of the deficiency and/or requests 
supplemental information. By providing a deficiency notice, USTR and 
the Commerce Department will otherwise make no comment on the merits of 
an exclusion request. Exclusion requesters will have 10 days from the 
date of transmission of the deficiency notice to remedy and file a 
correction or submit requested supplemental information to its 
exclusion request.
    Short descriptions of the particular products covered by complete 
questionnaire responses will be posted in groups on the USTR website, 
and the requester questionnaires will be made available to the public 
in the Commerce Department Central Records Unit. The timing and size of 
the posting of such groups will be determined and announced at a future 
date by USTR and will depend on the volume and nature of exclusion 
requests received by USTR.
    USTR, in conjunction with the Commerce Department, has developed a 
series of questions designed to substantiate any objections. These 
questions, presented in the form of an objector questionnaire, will be 
available on the USTR website at http://www.ustr.gov/sectors/industry/steel.shtml. The filing deadlines of such objector questionnaires will 
be determined and announced at a future date in accord with the above-
referenced public posting process.
    If a complete response to the requester questionnaire with regard 
to a particular product has not been received by December 3, 2002, USTR 
may disregard the exclusion request for that product. If a complete 
response to the objector questionnaire with regard to a particular 
product has not been received by the date that will be established by 
USTR, USTR will assume that the domestic industry does not object to 
the exclusion of that particular product.
    USTR and the Commerce Department will make time available to meet 
with interested persons in the latter half of January 2003 to review 
the submissions related to exclusion requests. USTR will publish 
instructions on the USTR website in December for requesting meetings 
with the exclusion analysis team, and will notify the parties of the 
meeting schedule in the first half of January 2003. If the number of 
meetings requested exceeds the time available for such meetings, 
priority will be given to those meetings that discuss exclusion 
requests that, in the opinion of USTR and Commerce, require further 
inquiry.
    Each exclusion request will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. 
USTR will grant only those exclusions that do not undermine the 
objectives of the safeguard measures. In analyzing the requests, USTR 
will consider whether the product is currently being produced in the 
United States, whether substitution of the product is possible, whether 
qualification requirements affect the requester's ability to use 
domestic products, current inventory levels, whether the requested 
product is under development by a U.S. producer who will imminently be 
able to produce it in marketable quantities, and any other relevant 
factors.

Submission of Requests for Exclusion and Opposition to Requests for 
Exclusion

    Parties who wish to place an exclusion request on the record will 
be required to submit paper copies of each questionnaire response to 
the Department of Commerce Central Records Unit (B099) via Room 1870. 
Four paper copies of a public version of an exclusion request must be 
filed. Parties who wish to file business proprietary versions must 
submit four paper copies of the business proprietary version and two 
paper copies of the public version. In addition to paper copies, 
interested parties must also file an electronic version via e-mail in a 
WordPerfect or Microsoft Word format to [email protected] 
and [email protected]. Detailed filing instructions are contained in both 
the requester and objector questionnaires

[[Page 69804]]

located in the aforementioned USTR website address.
    Any long description of the product subject to an exclusion request 
must include only publicly available information, in text form (no 
tables or graphs), with all units of measurement converted to metric 
equivalents. The description must be sufficient to differentiate the 
product from other products, and to allow for enforcement of the 
exclusion, if granted, by the U.S. Customs Service.
    We strongly discourage the submission of business proprietary 
information. Any questionnaire response that contains business 
proprietary information must be accompanied by two paper copies of a 
public summary that do not contain business proprietary information and 
four paper copies that do contain business proprietary information.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    This notice contains a collection of information provision subject 
to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) that the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) has approved. 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 PRA unless that collection of information 
displays a currently valid OMB number. This notice's collection of 
information burden is only for those persons who wish voluntarily to 
request the exclusion of a product from the safeguard measures. It is 
expected that the collection of information burden will be no more than 
20 hours. This collection of information contains no annual reporting 
or record keeping burden. OMB approved this collection of information 
under OMB control number 0350-0011. Please send comments regarding the 
collection of information burden or any other aspect of the information 
collection to USTR at the address above.

Robert B. Zoellick,
United States Trade Representative.
[FR Doc. 02-29292 Filed 11-18-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-01-P