[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 136 (Wednesday, July 16, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42156-42157]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-17995]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Generalized System of Preferences (GSP); Extension of Deadline 
for Submission of Petitions for the 2003 Annual GSP Product and Country 
Eligibility Practices Review

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice extends the deadline for the submission of 
petitions for the 2003 Annual GSP Product and Country Eligibility 
Practices Review to September 2, 2003. Notification of which petitions 
are accepted for the 2003 Annual GSP Review and of other relevant dates 
will be published in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: Submit petitions by electronic mail (e-mail) to 
[email protected]. If unable to submit petitions by e-mail, contact the 
GSP Subcommittee, Office of the United States Trade Representative 
(USTR), 1724 F Street, NW., Room F-220, Washington, DC 20508, at (202) 
395-6971.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The GSP Subcommittee, Office of the 
United States Trade Representative (USTR), 1724 F Street, NW., Room F-
220, Washington, DC 20508. The telephone number is (202) 395-6971 and 
the facsimile number is (202) 395-9481.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The GSP provides for the duty-free 
importation of designated articles when imported from beneficiary 
developing countries. The GSP is authorized by Title V of the Trade Act 
of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461, et seq.), as amended (the ``Trade Act''), and 
is implemented in accordance with Executive Order 11888 of November 24, 
1975, as modified by subsequent Executive Orders and Presidential 
Proclamations.

2003 Annual GSP Review

    The GSP regulations (15 CFR part 2007) provide the schedule of 
dates for conducting an annual review, unless otherwise specified by 
Federal Register notice. Notice is hereby given that, in order to be 
considered in the 2003 Annual GSP Product and Country Eligibility 
Practices Review, all petitions to modify the list of articles eligible 
for duty-free treatment under GSP or to review the GSP status of any 
beneficiary developing country must be received by the GSP Subcommittee 
of the Trade Policy Staff Committee no later than 5 p.m. on September 
2, 2003. Petitions submitted after the extended deadline will not be 
considered for review.
    Interested parties, including foreign governments, may submit 
petitions to: (1) Designate additional articles as eligible for GSP 
benefits, including to designate articles as eligible for GSP benefits 
only for countries designated as least-developed beneficiary developing 
countries, or only for countries designated as beneficiary sub-Saharan 
African countries under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA); 
(2) withdraw, suspend or limit the application of duty-free treatment 
accorded under the GSP with respect to any article, either for all 
beneficiary developing countries, least-developed beneficiary 
developing countries or beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries, or 
for any of these countries individually; (3) waive the ``competitive 
need limitations'' for individual beneficiary developing countries with 
respect to specific GSP-eligible articles (these limits do not apply to 
either least-developed beneficiary developing countries or beneficiary 
sub-Saharan African countries); and (4) otherwise modify GSP coverage. 
As specified in 15 CFR 2007.1, all product petitions must include a 
detailed description of the product and the subheading of the 
Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) of the United States under which the 
product is classified.
    Any person may also submit petitions to review the designation of 
any beneficiary developing country, including any least-developed 
beneficiary developing country, with respect to any of the designation 
criteria listed in sections 502(b) or 502(c) of the Trade Act (19 
U.S.C. 2462(b) and (c)) (petitions to review the designation of 
beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries are considered in the Annual 
Review of the AGOA, a separate administrative process not governed by 
the GSP regulations). Such petitions must comply with the requirements 
of 15 CFR 2007.0(b).

Requirements for Submissions

    All such submissions must conform to the GSP regulations set forth 
at 15 CFR part 2007, except as modified below. These regulations are 
reprinted in ``A Guide to the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences 
(GSP)'' (August 1991) (``GSP Guidebook''), available at http://www.ustr.gov. Any person or party making a submission is strongly 
advised to review the GSP regulations. Submissions that do not provide 
the information required by sections 2007.0 and 2007.1 of the GSP 
regulations will not be accepted for review, except upon a detailed 
showing in the submission that the petitioner made a good faith effort 
to obtain the information required. Petitions with respect to waivers 
of the ``competitive need limitations'' must meet the information 
requirements for product addition requests in section 2007.1(c) of the 
GSP regulations. A model petition format is available from the GSP 
Subcommittee and is included in the GSP Guidebook. Petitioners are 
requested to use this model petition format so as to ensure that all 
information requirements are met. Furthermore, interested parties 
submitting petitions that request action with respect to specific 
products should list on the first page of the petition the following 
information after typing ``2003 Annual GSP Review'': (1) The requested 
action; (2) the HTS subheading in which the product is classified; and 
(3) if applicable, the beneficiary developing country.
    Petitions and requests must be submitted, in English, to the 
Chairman of the GSP Subcommittee, Trade Policy Staff Committee, and 
must be received no later than September 2, 2003. Submissions in 
response to this notice will be available for public inspection by 
appointment with the staff of the USTR Public Reading Room, except for 
information granted ``business confidential'' status pursuant to 15 CFR 
2003.6. If the submission contains business confidential information, a 
non-confidential version of the submission must also be submitted that 
indicates where confidential information was redacted by inserting 
asterisks where material was deleted. In addition, the confidential 
submission must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL'' in large, 
bold letters at the top and bottom of each and every page of the 
document. The public version that does not contain business 
confidential information must also be clearly marked in large, bold 
letters at the top and bottom of each and every page (either ``PUBLIC 
VERSION'' or ``NON-CONFIDENTIAL'').
    In order to facilitate prompt consideration of submissions, USTR 
strongly urges and prefers electronic mail (e-mail) submissions in 
response to this notice. Hand-delivered submissions will not be 
accepted. E-mail submissions should be single copy transmissions in 
English with the total submission including attachments not to exceed 
50 pages in 12-point type and 3 megabytes as a digital file attached to

[[Page 42157]]

an e-mail transmission. E-mail submissions should use the following 
subject line: ``2003 Annual GSP Review-Petition.'' Documents must be 
submitted as either WordPerfect (``.WPD''), MSWord (``.DOC''), or text 
(``.TXT'') file. Documents should not be submitted as electronic image 
files or contain imbedded images (for example, ``.JPG'', ``PDF'', 
``.BMP'', or ``.GIF'') as these type files are generally excessively 
large. E-mail submissions containing such files may not be accepted. 
Supporting documentation submitted as spreadsheets are acceptable as 
Quattro Pro or Excel, pre-formatted for printing on 8\1/2\ x 11 inch 
paper. 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.
    For any document containing business confidential information 
submitted as an electronic attached file to an e-mail transmission, in 
addition to the proper marking at the top and bottom of each page as 
previously specified, 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 person or party 
(government, company, union, association, etc.) submitting the 
petition. Submissions by e-mail should not include separate cover 
letters or messages in the message area of the e-mail; information that 
might appear in any cover letter should be included directly in the 
attached file containing the submission itself. The electronic mail 
address for these submissions is [email protected]. Documents not 
submitted in accordance with the GSP regulations as modified by these 
instructions might not be considered in this review.
    Public versions of all documents relating to this review will be 
available for review approximately 30 days after the due date by 
appointment in the USTR Public Reading Room, 1724 F Street NW., 
Washington, DC. Availability of documents may be ascertained, and 
appointments may be made from 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, by calling (202) 395-6186.

Steven Falken,
Executive Director for GSP Program, Chairman, GSP Subcommittee.
[FR Doc. 03-17995 Filed 7-15-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-01-P