[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 26 (Friday, February 7, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6529-6530]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-2971]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Trade Policy Staff Committee; Request for Public Comment on 
Review of Employment Impact of United States--Morocco Free Trade 
Agreement

AGENCIES: Office of the United States Trade Representative and 
Department of Labor.

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) gives notice that the 
Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the 
Department of Labor (Labor) are initiating a review of the impact of 
the proposed U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on United States 
employment, including labor markets. This notice seeks written public 
comment on potentially significant sectoral or regional employment 
impacts (both positive and negative) in the United States as well as 
other likely labor market impacts of the FTA.

DATES: USTR and Labor will accept any comments received during the 
course of the negotiations of the FTA. However, comments should be 
received by noon, March 28, 2003, to be assured of timely consideration 
in the preparation of the report.

ADDRESSES: Submissions by electronic mail: [email protected]. Submissions 
by facsimile: Gloria Blue, Executive Secretary, Trade Policy Staff 
Committee, at (202) 395-6143.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For procedural questions concerning 
public comments, contact Gloria Blue, Executive Secretary, TPSC, Office 
of the USTR, 1724 F Street, NW., Washington, DC 20508, telephone (202) 
395-3475. Substantive questions concerning the employment impact review 
should be

[[Page 6530]]

addressed to Jorge Perez-Lopez, Director, Office of International 
Economic Affairs, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. 
Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20210, telephone (202) 693-4883; or William Clatanoff, Assistant U.S. 
Trade Representative for Labor, telephone (202) 395-6120.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

1. Background Information

    On October 1, 2002, in accordance with section 2104(a)(1) of the 
Trade Act of 2002, the United States Trade Representative notified the 
Congress of the President's intent to enter into trade negotiations 
with Morocco. The notification letters to the Congress can be found on 
the USTR Web site at http://www.ustr.gov/releases/2002/2002-10-01-morocco-house.PDF and http://www. ustr.gov/releases/2002/2002-10-01-morocco-senate.PDF, respectively. The TPSC received written submissions 
and, on November 21, 2003, conducted a public hearing to assist USTR in 
formulating positions and proposals with respect to all aspects of the 
negotiations (67 FR 63187) (Oct. 10, 2002). The first round of the 
U.S.-Morocco FTA negotiations took place January 21-24 in Washington, 
DC. The next round is scheduled for March 24 in Morocco and 
negotiations are expected to be completed before the end of 2003.
    The U.S.-Morocco FTA will build on the bilateral work that began in 
1995 under the U.S.-Morocco Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. 
The U.S.-Morocco FTA will seek to eliminate duties and unjustified 
barriers to trade for both U.S.- and Moroccan-origin goods and also 
address trade in services, trade in agricultural products, trade-
related aspects of intellectual property rights, government 
procurement, trade-related environmental and labor matters, and other 
issues. The FTA is expected to contribute to stronger economies, the 
rule of law, sustainable development, and more accountable institutions 
of governance. The FTA will also help to support and accelerate 
economic and political reforms already underway in Morocco.
    Section 2102(c)(5) of the Bipartisan Trade Promotion Act of 2002, 
19 U.S.C. 3805(c)(5), directs the President to ``review the impact of 
future trade agreements on United States employment, including labor 
markets, modeled after Executive Order 13141 to the extent appropriate 
in establishing procedures and criteria, report to the Committee on 
Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Finance of the Senate on such review, and make that report public.'' 
USTR and the Department of Labor will be conducting the employment 
reviews through the interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC). 
The employment impact review will be based on the following elements, 
which are modeled, to the extent appropriate, after those in EO 13141. 
The review will be: (1) Written; (2) initiated through a Federal 
Register notice soliciting public comment and information on the 
employment impact of the FTA in the United States; (3) made available 
to the public in draft form for public comment, to the extent 
practicable; and (4) made available to the public in final form.
    Comments may be submitted on potentially significant sectoral or 
regional employment impacts (both positive and negative) in the United 
States as well as other likely labor market impacts of the FTA. Persons 
submitting comments should provide as much detail as possible in 
support of their submissions.

2. Requirements for Submissions

    To ensure prompt and full consideration of responses, the TPSC 
strongly recommends that interested persons submit comments by 
electronic mail to the following e-mail address: [email protected]. 
Persons making submissions by e-mail should use the following subject 
line: a Morocco Employment Review.'' Documents should be submitted in 
WordPerfect, MSWord, or text (.TXT) format. Supporting documentation 
submitted as spreadsheets is acceptable in Quattro Pro or Excel format. 
For any document containing business confidential information submitted 
electronically, 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 character ``P-''. The ``P-'' or 
``BC-'' should be followed by the name of the submitter. Persons who 
make submissions by e-mail should not provide separate cover letters; 
information that might appear in 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.
    Written comments will be placed in a file open to public inspection 
pursuant to 15 CFR 2003.5, except confidential business information 
exempt from public inspection in accordance with 15 CFR 2003.6. 
Confidential business information submitted in accordance with 15 CFR 
2003.6 must be clearly marked ``Business Confidential'' at the top of 
each page, including any cover letter or cover page, and must be 
accompanied by a non-confidential summary of the confidential 
information. All public documents and non-confidential summaries shall 
be available for public inspection in the USTR Reading Room in Room 3 
of the annex of the Office of the USTR, 1724 F Street, NW., Washington, 
DC 20508. An appointment to review the file may be made by calling 
(202) 395-6186. The USTR Reading Room is generally open to the public 
from 10 a.m.-12 noon and 1-4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Appointments 
must be scheduled at least 48 hours in advance.

Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chairman, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. 03-2971 Filed 2-6-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-01-P