[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 211 (Friday, October 31, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62159-62160]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-27496]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Request for Public Comment With Respect to the Annual National 
Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 303 of the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984, 
as amended, USTR is required to publish annually the National Trade 
Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE). With this notice, the 
Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) is requesting interested parties to 
assist it in identifying significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods, 
services and overseas direct investment for inclusion in the NTE. 
Particularly important are impediments materially affecting the actual 
and potential financial performance of an industry sector. The TPSC 
invites written comments that provide views relevant to the issues to 
be examined in preparing the NTE. In order to ensure the most timely 
processing of submissions, the Department of Commerce will receive 
comments in response to this Notice.

DATES: Public comments are due not later than Friday, December 12, 
2003. This deadline is firm. No submissions will be accepted after 
December 12.

ADDRESSES: Paper submissions: NTE Comments, Office of Trade and 
Economic Analysis, Room H-2815, U.S. Department of Commerce, 
Washington, DC, 20230.
    Submissions by electronic mail: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Procedural questions about 
transmitting comments or viewing public submissions should be directed 
to Ms. Marva Thompson, (202) 482-2185, or Mr. Howard Schreier, (202) 
482-4180, U.S. Department of Commerce. Questions regarding the report 
or its subject matter should be directed to Ms. Gloria Blue, Office of 
Policy Coordination, Office of the United States Trade Representative 
(202) 395-3475.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Last year's report may be found on USTR's 
Internet Home Page (http://www.ustr.gov) under the section on Reports. 
In order to ensure compliance with the statutory mandate for reporting 
foreign trade barriers that are significant, we will focus particularly 
on those restrictions where there has been active private sector 
interest.
    The information submitted should relate to one or more of the 
following ten categories of foreign trade barriers:
    (1) import policies (e.g., tariffs and other import charges, 
quantitative restrictions, import licensing, and customs barriers);
    (2) standards, testing, labeling, and certification (including 
unnecessarily restrictive application of phytosanitary standards, 
refusal to accept U.S. manufacturers' self-certification of conformance 
to foreign product standards, and environmental restrictions);
    (3) government procurement (e.g., ``buy national'' policies and 
closed bidding);
    (4) export subsidies (e.g., export financing on preferential terms 
and agricultural export subsidies that displace U.S. exports in third 
country markets);
    (5) lack of intellectual property protection (e.g., inadequate 
patent, copyright, and trademark regimes);
    (6) services barriers (e.g., limits on the range of financial 
services offered by foreign financial institutions, regulation of 
international data flows, restrictions on the use of data processing, 
quotas on imports of foreign films, and barriers to the provision of 
services by professionals (e.g., lawyers, doctors, accountants, 
engineers, nurses, etc.);
    (7) investment barriers (e.g., limitations on foreign equity 
participation and on access to foreign government-funded R&D consortia, 
local content, technology transfer and export

[[Page 62160]]

performance requirements, and restrictions on repatriation of earnings, 
capital, fees and royalties);
    (8) anticompetitive practices with trade effects tolerated by 
foreign governments (including anticompetitve activities of both state-
owned and private firms that apply to services or to goods and that 
restrict the sale of U.S. products to any firm, not just to foreign 
firms that perpetuate the practices);
    (9) trade restrictions affecting electronic commerce (e.g., tariff 
and non-tariff measures, burdensome and discriminatory regulations and 
standards, and discriminatory taxation); and
    (10) other barriers (i.e., barriers that encompass more than one 
category, e.g, bribery and corruption, or that affect a single sector).
    As in the case of last year's NTE, we are asking that particular 
emphasis be placed on any practices that may violate U.S. trade 
agreements. We are also interested in receiving any new or updated 
information pertinent to the barriers covered in last year's report as 
well as new information. Please note that the information not used in 
the NTE will be maintained for use in future negotiations.
    It is most important that your submission contain estimates of the 
potential increase in exports that would result from the removal of the 
barrier, as well as a clear discussion of the method(s) by which the 
estimates were computed. Estimates should fall within the following 
value ranges: Less than $5 million; $5 to $25 million; $25 million to 
$50 million; $50 million to $100 million; $100 million to $500 million; 
or over $500 million. Such assessments enhance USTR's ability to 
conduct meaningful comparative analyses of a barrier's effect over a 
range of industries.
    Please note that interested parties discussing barriers in more 
than one country should provide a separate submission (i.e., one that 
is self-contained) for each country.
    Written Comments: In order to ensure the most timely receipt and 
consideration of comments submitted in response to this notice, the 
following guidelines and special procedures have been established:
    (1) All comments will be received at the U.S. Department of 
Commerce rather than the Office of the United States Trade 
Representative;
    (2) The Department of Commerce has arranged to accept non-
confidential, public submissions by electronic mail (e-mail). An 
automatic reply confirming receipt of e-mail submissions will be sent. 
E-mail submissions in Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect are 
preferred. If a word processing application other than those two is 
used, please advise us in your submission of the specific application 
used;
    (3) In order to facilitate prompt processing of submissions, the 
Department of Commerce strongly urges and prefers e-mail submission of 
non-confidential, public comments;
    (4) To ensure security, submissions containing business 
confidential information should not be sent by e-mail, but via the U.S. 
Postal Service or commercial express delivery (see paragraph 6 and 7 
below for special requirements applying to such submissions). If a 
submission contains business confidential information, a non-
confidential public version must also be submitted along with the 
business confidential version.
    (5) Business-confidential submissions must be accompanied by a 
justification as to why the information contained in the submission 
should be treated confidentially. In addition, any submissions 
containing business confidential information must be clearly marked 
``Confidential'' at the top and bottom of the cover page (or letter) 
and of each succeeding page of the submission. The version that does 
not contain confidential information should also be clearly marked, at 
the top and bottom of each page, ``public version'' or ``non-
confidential'.
    (6) When comments are submitted using the U.S. Postal Service or 
commercial couriers, it is strongly recommended that submitters notify 
the Department of Commerce by e-mail ([email protected]) as to 
the date of transmittal and method of delivery (U.S. Postal Service or 
name of courier company).
    (7) All submissions must be in English and should conform to the 
information requirements of 15 CFR 2003. If submissions are made via 
U.S. Postal Service or commercial express delivery, the submission 
should be accompanied by a computer disk containing a machine-readable 
version. The disk should have a label identifying the software used, 
the submitter and the title of the submission. In addition, business 
confidential and public or non-confidential submissions should be 
submitted on separate disks which are clearly marked ``business 
confidential'' or ``non-confidential'', as appropriate.
    Submissions must be received at the Department of Commerce no later 
than Friday, December 12, 2003.
    After the filing deadline, written comments submitted in connection 
with this request, except for information granted ``business 
confidential'' status pursuant to 15 CFR 2003.6, will be available for 
review on the web at: http://web.ita.doc.gov/otea/ntecomments.nsf. 
Arrangements can also be made to view these non-proprietary public 
comments in the Foreign Trade Reference Room (Room 2233) in the U.S. 
Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce is located at 14th 
St. and Constitution Ave., NW in Washington, DC. Customary hours of 
operation for the Foreign Trade Reference Room are from 9 am to 4 pm, 
Monday through Friday. Call (202) 482-2185 to confirm. Questions 
regarding the operation of the Reference Room should be directed to Ms. 
Marva Thompson at (202) 482-2185.

Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chairman, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. 03-27496 Filed 10-30-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-W3-P