[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 12, 2005)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 2072-2074]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-597]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of the Census

15 CFR Part 30

[Docket Number 041029301-4301-01]
RIN 0607-AA44


Requirement for Reporting the Kimberley Process Certificate 
Number for Exports (Reexports) of Rough Diamonds

AGENCY: Bureau of the Census, Commerce Department.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau) proposes to amend the 
Foreign Trade Statistics Regulations (FTSR) to incorporate the 
requirement for reporting the Kimberley Process Certificate (KPC) 
number for the exports (reexports) of rough diamonds filed through the 
Automated Export System (AES) in accordance with the Clean Diamond 
Trade Act. This rule would serve to carry out the purposes of Executive 
Order 13312 of July 29, 2003, which implemented the Clean Diamond Trade 
Act and the Kimberley Process

[[Page 2073]]

Certification Scheme in the United States.

DATES: Submit written comments on or before February 11, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Please direct all written comments on this proposed rule to 
the Director, U.S. Census Bureau, Room 2049, Federal Building 3, 
Washington, DC 20233. You may also submit comments, identified by RIN 
number, to the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Please follow the instructions at that site for submitting comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: C. Harvey Monk, Jr., Chief, Foreign 
Trade Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Room 2104, Federal Building 3, 
Washington, DC 20233-6700, by phone at (301) 763-2255, by fax at (301) 
457-2645, or by e-mail: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On July 29, 2003, the President issued Executive Order 13312, which 
implemented Public Law 108-19, known as the Clean Diamond Trade Act 
(the Act). The Act implemented the Kimberley Process in the United 
States by authorizing the President to prohibit the importation into or 
the exportation from the United States of any rough diamond, from 
whatever source, unless the rough diamond is controlled through the 
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, as defined in the Act. This 
means shipments of rough diamonds between the United States and 
nonparticipants in the Kimberley Process are prohibited, and shipments 
between the United States and participants are permitted only if they 
are handled in accordance with the standards, practices, and procedures 
of the Kimberley Process set forth in the Rough Diamonds Control 
Regulations, 31 CFR part 592, promulgated by the Department of the 
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) (see 69 FR 56936 
dated September 23, 2004).
    Section 6 of the Act names the Census Bureau as the exporting 
authority for the United States. This requires the Census Bureau to 
validate the KPC for exports of rough diamonds. The KPC is a forgery-
resistant document of a participant nation or entity that demonstrates 
that an exportation of rough diamonds has been controlled through the 
Kimberley Process and contains the minimum elements required by OFAC 
regulations (31 CFR part 592). Each KPC is assigned an identification 
number called the KPC number.
    To comply with the requirements of the Act, the Census Bureau 
amended the FTSR on October 20, 2003, to incorporate requirements for 
the mandatory electronic filing via the AES of exports of rough 
diamonds. The Census Bureau proposes to amend the FTSR to require the 
reporting through AES of the KPC number found on the KPC for all 
exports of rough diamonds classified under Harmonized System 
subheadings 7102.10, 7102.21, and 7102.31. This requirement will not 
affect filers of Shipper's Export Declarations since all exports of 
rough diamonds are required to be filed through the AES.
    Shipments of rough diamonds from the United States must also meet 
additional Department of the Treasury requirements identified in the 
Office of Foreign Assets Control's Rough Diamonds Control Regulations, 
Title 31, CFR, Part 592.
    To further the implementation of the Clean Diamonds Trade Act and 
Executive Order 13312, which implements the Act, the Census Bureau 
proposes to amend Sec.  30.63 of the FTSR to specify the requirement 
for reporting the KPC number via the AES for exports of rough diamonds.
    The Departments of State, the Treasury, and Homeland Security 
concur with the provisions contained in this notice of proposed 
rulemaking.

Rulemaking Requirements

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The Chief Counsel for Regulation of the Department of Commerce 
certified to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business 
Administration (SBA) that this rule will not have significant impact on 
a substantial number of small entities. This action would require that 
U.S. Principal Parties in Interest (USPPIs) or authorized agents in the 
United States report the KPC number along with current data filing 
requirement to the AES. Only those USPPIs or agents filing information 
on exports of rough diamonds would be required to report the KPC 
number. The SBA's table of size standards indicates that businesses 
that are the USPPI or authorized agent and file export information are 
considered small businesses if they employ less than 500 people.
    The Census Bureau estimates that approximately 1,600 shipments of 
rough diamonds classified under Harmonized System subheadings 7102.10, 
7102.21, and 7102.31 were exported from the United States in 2003. 
There were on average 47 exporters exporting rough diamonds each month 
during 2003. This number of exporters reflects those companies that 
actually exported rough diamonds. We do not know the total population 
of exporters of rough diamonds. Of the total number of rough diamond 
exporters, the number that are small entities also is unknown. The 
Census Bureau estimates that it will take 7 seconds to report the KPC 
number in AES, which is 10 total burden hours on all exporters. Because 
the new requirement imposes only a small burden on affected entities, 
this rule would not have a significant economic impact on a substantial 
number of small entities. Accordingly, a regulatory flexibility 
analysis is not required and has not been prepared.

Executive Orders

    This rule has been determined to be not significant for purposes of 
Executive Order 12806. It has been determined that this rule does not 
contain policies with Federalism implications as that term is defined 
under Executive Order 13132.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    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 Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), unless that collection of 
information displays a current, valid Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) control number. This rule contains a collection-of-information 
subject to the requirements of the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) and 
that has been approved under OMB control number 0607-0152. Since the 
KPC number is readily available to the exporting company and the number 
of exporting companies affected by this revision is small, there will 
only be a minimal net increase (estimated at 10 total burden hours) in 
respondent burden. We will request OMB to approve this respondent 
burden increase.

List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 30

    Economic statistics, Foreign trade, Exports, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements.
    For the reasons set out in the preamble, Title 15 CFR part 30, is 
proposed to be amended as follows:

PART 30--FOREIGN TRADE STATISTICS

    1. The authority citation for part 30 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 13 U.S.C. 301-307; 19 U.S.C. 3901-3913; 
Reorganization Plan 5 of 1950 (3 CFR 1949-1953 Comp., 1004); E.O. 
13312; and Department of Commerce Organization Order No. 35-2A,

[[Page 2074]]

July 22, 1987, as amended, and No. 35-2B, December 20, 1996, as 
amended.

Subpart E--Electronic Filing Requirements--Shipper's Export 
Information

    2. In Sec.  30.63, add a paragraph (b)(22) to read as follows:


Sec.  30.63  Information required to be reported electronically through 
AES (data elements).

* * * * *
    (b) * * *
    (22) Kimberley Process Certificate (KPC) number. The unique 
identifying number of the KPC issued by the United States Kimberley 
Process Authority that must accompany any export shipment of rough 
diamonds. Rough diamonds are classified under 6-digit Harmonized System 
subheadings 7102.10, 7102.21, and 7102.31. Enter the KPC number in the 
license number field excluding the 2-digit U.S. ISO country code.
* * * * *

    Dated: January 7, 2005.
Charles Louis Kincannon,
Director, Bureau of the Census.
[FR Doc. 05-597 Filed 1-11-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P