[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5970-5971]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-2706]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

[Docket No. WTO/DS-275]


WTO Consultations Regarding Venezuela--Import Licensing Measures 
on Certain Agricultural Products

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is 
providing notice that on November 7, 2002, the United States requested 
consultations with Venezuela under the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing 
the World Trade Organization (WTO), regarding Venezuela's import 
licensing measures on certain agricultural products. These measures 
appear to be inconsistent with the Venezuela's obligations under the 
provisions of the GATT 1994, of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, the 
TRIMs Agreement and the Import Licensing Agreement and, in particular, 
Articles III, X, XI, and XII of the GATT 1994, Article 4.2 of the 
Agreement on Agriculture, Article 2.1 of the TRIMs Agreement, and 
Articles 1.4, 3.2, 3.5, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3 of the Import Licensing 
Agreement. Pursuant to Article 4.3 of the WTO Dispute Settlement 
Understanding (DSU), Venezuela met with the United States within a 
period of 30 days from the date of the request, on November 26, 2002. 
USTR invites written comments from the public concerning the issues 
raised in this dispute.

DATES: Although the USTR will accept any comments received during the 
course of the dispute settlement proceedings, comments should be 
submitted on or before March 21, 2002, to be assured of timely 
consideration by USTR.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to [email protected], or to Sandy McKinzy, 
Monitoring and Enforcement Unit, Office of the General Counsel, fax 
(202) 395-3640. For assistance, contact Ms. McKinzy at (202) 395-3581.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Katharine J. Mueller, Assistant 
General Counsel, Office of the United States Trade Representative, at 
(202) 395-3581.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 127(b) of the Uruguay Round 
Agreements Act (URAA) (19 U.S.C. 3537(b)(1)) requires that notice and 
opportunity for comment be provided after the United States submits or 
receives a request for the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement 
panel. Consistent with this obligation, but in an effort to provide 
additional opportunity for comment, USTR is providing notice that 
consultations have been requested pursuant to the WTO Dispute 
Settlement Understanding. If such consultations should fail to resolve 
the matter and a dispute settlement panel is established pursuant to 
the DSU, such panel, which would hold its meetings in Geneva, 
Switzerland, would be expected to issue a report on its findings and 
recommendations within six to nine months after it is established.

Major Issues Raised by the United States

    Venezuela has established import licensing requirements for 
numerous agricultural products, including corn, sorghum, dairy products 
(for example, cheese, whey, whole milk powder, and non-fat dry milk), 
grapes, yellow grease, poultry, beef, pork, and soybean meal. Thus, to 
import any of these products, an importer must obtain a license in 
accordance with Venezuelan procedures. Venezuela maintains these import 
licensing systems and practices through numerous measures.
    Venezuela requires import licenses for other agricultural products, 
including poultry, beef, pork, and grapes (Decreto No. 989, Gaceta 
Official No. 5,039 Extraordinaria (February 9, 1996)), but does not 
appear to have published any resolutions, decrees, official notices, or 
any other measures establishing applicable import licensing procedures.
    Venezuela's import licensing system for all of these agricultural 
products appears to establish a discretionary import licensing regime. 
Through its import licensing practices, Venezuela has also failed to 
establish a transparent and predictable system for issuing import 
licenses and has severely restricted and distorted trade in these 
goods. Such practices include Venezuela's failure to publish rules and 
information concerning its licensing procedures, its failure to process 
applications in a timely fashion, its failure to make licenses valid 
for a period of reasonable duration, and its administration of tariff-
rate quotas so as to discourage their full utilization. In addition, in 
several cases Venezuela has tied the issuance of licenses to the 
purchase, consumption, or use of domestic products or investment in 
domestic production. At least twice Venezuela has explicitly banned the 
importation of corn by suspending the granting of import license until 
domestic production has been removed from the market.
    Venezuela's import licensing systems and practices thus appear to 
be inconsistent with numerous WTO obligations. Specifically, 
Venezuela's measures appear inconsistent with Article 4.2 of the 
Agreement on Agriculture, Articles II, X, XI, and XIII of GATT 1994, 
Article 2.1 of the TRIMs Agreement, and Articles 1.4, 3.2, 3.5, 5.1, 
5.2, and 5.3 of the Import Licensing Agreement. Venezuela's measures 
also appear to nullify or impair the benefits accruing to the United 
States directly under the cited agreements.

Public Comment: Requirements for Submissions

    Interested persons are invited to submit written comments 
concerning the issues raised in the dispute. Comments must be in 
English. In order to facilitate prompt consideration of submissions, 
USTR strongly urges and prefers electronic e-mail submissions to the 
address [email protected], in response to this notice. In the 
event that an e-mail submission is impossible, submissions should be 
made by facsimile to Sandy McKinzy at the number given above. It is 
preferred that documents be submitted as either WordPerfect (``.WPD''), 
MSWord (``.DOC''), or text (``.TXT'') files. To the extent possible, 
any data attachments to the submission should be included in the same 
file as the submission itself, and not as separate files. Facsimile 
submissions should include the following information at the top of the 
first page, and e-mail submissions should include the following 
information in the subject line: ``Venezuela Import Licensing 
Dispute.''
    A person requesting that information contained in a comment 
submitted by that person be treated as confidential business 
information must certify that such information is business confidential 
and would not customarily be released to the public by the commenter. 
Confidential business information must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS 
CONFIDENTIAL'' (if possible in a contrasting color ink) at the top of 
each page of each copy. For any document containing business 
confidential information submitted by electronic transmission, the file 
name of the business confidential version should begin with the 
characters ``BC'', and the file name of the public version should begin 
with the characters ``P''. The ``P'' or ``BC'' should be followed by 
the name of the commenter. Interested persons who make submissions by 
electronic mail should not provide separate cover letters; information 
that might appear in

[[Page 5971]]

a cover letter should be included in the submission itself. Similarly, 
to the extent possible, any attachments to the submission should be 
included in the same file as the submission itself, and not as separate 
files.
    Information or advice contained in a comment submitted, other than 
business confidential information, may be determined by USTR to be 
confidential in accordance with section 135(g)(2) of the Trade Act of 
1974 (19 U.S.C. 2155(g)(2)). If the submitter believes that information 
or advice may qualify as such, the submitter--
    (1) Must so designate the information or advice;
    (2) Must clearly mark the material as ``SUBMITTED IN CONFIDENCE'' 
in a contrasting color ink at the top of each page of each copy, or 
appropriately name the electronic file submitted containing such 
material; and
    (3) Is encouraged to provide a non-confidential summary of the 
information or advice.
    Pursuant to section 127(e) of the URAA (19 U.S.C. 3537(e)), USTR 
will maintain a file on this dispute settlement proceeding, accessible 
to the public, in the USTR Reading Room, which is located at 1724 F 
Street, NW., Washington, DC 20508. The public file will include non-
confidential comments received by USTR from the public with respect to 
the dispute; if a dispute settlement panel is convened, the U.S. 
submissions to that panel, the submissions, or non-confidential 
summaries of submissions, to the panel received from other participants 
in the dispute, as well as the report of the panel; and, if applicable, 
the report of the Appellate Body. An appointment to review the public 
file (Docket WTO/DS-275, Venezuela Import Licensing Dispute) may be 
made by calling the USTR Reading Room at (202) 395-6186. The USTR 
Reading Room is open to the public from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon and 1 p.m. 
to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Daniel Brinza,
Assistant United States Trade Representative for Monitoring and 
Enforcement.
[FR Doc. 03-2706 Filed 2-4-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-01-M