[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 86 (Thursday, May 5, 2005)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 23811-23813]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-8976]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Bureau of Economic Analysis

15 CFR Part 801

RIN 0691-AA59
[Docket No. 050406094-5094-01]


International Services Surveys: Cancellation of Five Annual 
Surveys

AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) plans to amend its 
regulations to remove the reporting requirements for five annual 
surveys covering international trade in services. The five annual 
surveys that would be discontinued are: BE-36, BE-47, BE-48, BE-82, and 
BE-93. BEA proposed to discontinue these surveys because they have been 
replaced by quarterly surveys that collect essentially the same 
information.

DATES: Comments on this proposed rule will receive consideration if 
submitted in writing on or before 5 p.m., July 5, 2005.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by RIN 0691-AA59, and 
referencing the agency name (Bureau of Economic Analysis), by any of 
the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     E-mail: [email protected].
     Fax: Office of the Chief, International Investment 
Division, (202) 606-5318.
     Mail: Office of the Chief, International Investment 
Division (BE-50), Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of 
Commerce, Washington, DC 20230.
     Hand Delivery/Courier: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau 
of Economic Analysis (BE-50), Shipping and Receiving Section, Room M-
100, 1441 L Street, NW., Washington, DC 20005.
    Public Inspection: Comments may be inspected at BEA's offices, 1441 
L Street, NW., Room 7006, between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through 
Friday.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Obie G. Whichard, Chief, International 
Investment Division (BE-50), Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. 
Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230; phone (202) 606-9890.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This proposed rule would amend 15 CFR Part 
801 by revising Section 801.9(b) to remove the reporting requirements 
for five annual surveys that collect data covering international trade 
in services. The five surveys are:
    BE-36, Foreign Airline Operators' Revenues and Expenses in the 
United States.
    BE-47, Annual Survey of Construction, Engineering, Architectural, 
and Mining Services Provided by U.S. Firms to Unaffiliated Foreign 
Persons.
    BE-48, Annual Survey of Reinsurance and Other Insurance 
Transactions by U.S. Insurance Companies with Foreign Persons.
    BE-82, Annual Survey of Financial Services Transactions Between 
U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated Foreign Persons.
    BE-93, Annual Survey of Royalties, License Fees, and Other Receipts 
and Payments for Intangible Rights Between U.S. and Unaffiliated 
Foreign Persons.
    The Department of Commerce invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies to comment on the cancellation of the reporting 
requirements for these surveys.
    The Department is proposing to remove the reporting requirements 
for these five annual surveys because the information collected is now 
being collected on four separate quarterly surveys. Specifically, the 
BE-9, Quarterly Survey of Foreign Airline Operators' Revenues and 
Expenses in the United States, replaces the BE-36 survey; the BE-25, 
Quarterly Survey of Transactions Between U.S. and Unaffiliated Foreign 
Persons in Selected Services and in Intangible Assets, replaces the BE-
47 and BE-93 surveys; the BE-45, Quarterly Survey of Insurance 
Transactions by U.S. Insurance Companies with Foreign Persons, replaces 
the BE-48 survey; and the BE-85, Quarterly Survey of Financial Services 
Transactions Between U.S. Financial Services Providers and Unaffiliated 
Foreign Persons, replaces the BE-82 survey. BEA began collecting data 
on these quarterly surveys in 2004.

Executive Order 12866

    This proposed rule has been determined to be not significant for 
purposes of E.O. 12866.

Executive Order 13132

    This proposed rule does not contain policies with Federalism 
implications as that term is defined in E.O. 13132.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The five annual surveys referenced above currently do not have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 
Although the number of small entities that are affected by this 
rulemaking is unknown because this type of information is not tracked 
by BEA, the five surveys that BEA proposes to remove excludes most 
small entities from mandatory reporting. Most small entities would not 
be required to report the information collected in these surveys 
because they do not meet the reporting threshold. The BE-36 is required 
to be filed by U.S. offices, agents, or other representatives of

[[Page 23812]]

foreign airlines operating in the United States with total annual 
covered revenues or total annual covered expenses incurred in the 
United States of $500,000 or more. The BE-47 survey is required to be 
filed by each U.S. person (other than U.S. Government agencies) if, for 
all countries and all projects combined, the gross value of new 
contracts received or gross operating revenues with unaffiliated 
foreign persons is $1 million or more. The BE-48 annual survey is 
required to be filed by U.S. persons who have engaged in reinsurance 
transactions with foreign persons, or who have received premiums from, 
or paid losses to, foreign persons in the capacity of primary insurers, 
in excess of $2 million. The BE-82 survey is required to be filed by 
U.S. persons who are financial services providers or intermediaries, or 
whose consolidated U.S. enterprise includes a separately organized 
subsidiary or part that is a financial services provider or 
intermediary and who had transactions (either sales or purchases) 
directly with unaffiliated foreign persons in all financial services 
combined in excess of $10 million during the fiscal year covered by the 
survey. The BE-93 is required to be filed by U.S. persons who have 
entered into agreements with unaffiliated foreign persons to buy, sell, 
or use intangible assets or proprietary rights, excluding oil royalties 
and other natural resources (mining) royalties. A U.S. person is 
required to report if total receipts or total payments for these 
agreements are in excess of $2 million in the reporting year.
    Since few small businesses are subject to mandatory reporting, the 
elimination of the five annual surveys should have a negligible impact 
on those businesses. Therefore, the Chief Counsel for Regulation 
certified that this proposed rule will not have a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The surveys that would be discontinued by this rule have been 
approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the 
Paperwork Reduction Act under the following OMB control numbers: 0608-
0013 (BE-36 survey), 0608-0015 (BE-47 survey), 0608-0016 (BE-48 
survey), 0608-0017 (BE-93 survey), and 0608-0063 (BE-82 survey). OMB 
approved the quarterly surveys under the following OMB control numbers: 
0608-0068 (BE-9 survey); 0608-0067 (BE-25 survey); 0608-0066 (BE-45 
survey); and 0608-0065 (BE-85 survey).

List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 801

    International transactions, Economic statistics, Foreign trade, 
Penalties, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

    Dated: March 30, 2005.
Rosemary D. Marcuss,
Acting Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, BEA proposes to amend 15 
CFR Part 801, as follows:

PART 801--SURVEY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN SERVICES BETWEEN U.S. 
AND FOREIGN PERSONS

    1. The authority citation for 15 CFR Part 801 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 15 U.S.C. 4908; 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108; 
and E.O. 11961, 3 CFR, 1977 Comp., p. 86, as amended by E.O. 12318, 
3 CFR, 1981 Comp., p. 173, and E.O. 12518, 3 CFR, 1985 Comp., p. 
348.

    2. Section 801.9(b)is revised to read as follows:


Sec.  801.9  Reports required.

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    (b) Annual surveys. (1) BE-29, Foreign Ocean Carriers' Expenses in 
the United States:
    (i) Who must report. A BE-29 report is required from U.S. agents on 
behalf of foreign ocean carriers transporting freight or passengers to 
or from the United States. U.S. agents are steamship agents and other 
persons representing foreign carriers in arranging ocean transportation 
of freight and cargo between U.S. and foreign ports and in arranging 
port services in the United States. Foreign carriers are foreign 
persons that own or operate ocean going vessels calling at U.S. ports, 
including VLCC tankers discharging petroleum offshore to pipelines and 
lighter vessels destined for U.S. ports. They include carriers who own 
or who operate their own or chartered (United States or foreign-flag) 
vessels. They also include foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies 
operating their own or chartered vessels as carriers for their own 
accounts. Where the vessels under foreign registry are operated 
directly by a U.S. carrier for its own account, the operations of such 
vessels should be reported on Form BE-30, Ocean Freight Revenues and 
Foreign Expenses of United States Carriers. The Bureau of Economic 
Analysis may, in lieu of BE-29 reports required from foreign carriers' 
U.S. agents, accept consolidated reports from foreign governments 
covering the operations of their national shipping concerns when, in 
the Bureau's discretion, such consolidated reports would provide the 
required information. Where such reports are accepted, the individual 
reports from foreign carriers' U.S. agents will not be required.
    (ii) Exemption. Any U.S. person otherwise required to report is 
exempted from reporting if the total number of port calls by foreign 
vessels handled in the reporting period is less than forty or total 
covered expenses are less than $250,000. For example, if an agent 
handled less than 40 port calls in a calendar year, the agent is 
exempted from reporting. If the agent handled 40 or more calls, the 
agent must report unless covered expenses for all foreign carriers 
handled by the agent were less than $250,000. The determination of 
whether a U.S. person is exempt may be based on the judgment of 
knowledgeable persons who can identify reportable transactions without 
conducting a detailed manual records search.
    (2) BE-22, Annual Survey of Selected Services Transactions With 
Unaffiliated Foreign Persons:
    (i) Who must report--(A) Mandatory reporting. A BE-22 report is 
required from each U.S. person who had transactions (either sales or 
purchases) in excess of $1,000,000 with unaffiliated foreign persons in 
any of the covered services during the U.S. person's fiscal year. The 
determination of whether a U.S. person is subject to this mandatory 
reporting requirement may be judgmental, that is, based on the judgment 
of knowledgeable persons in a company who can identify reportable 
transactions on a recall basis, with a reasonable degree of certainty 
without conducting a detailed manual records search.
    (B) Voluntary reporting. If, during the U.S. person's fiscal year, 
the U.S. person's total transactions (either sales or purchases) in any 
of the covered services is $1,000,000 or less, the U.S. person is 
requested to provide an estimate of the total for each type of service. 
Provision of this information is voluntary. The estimates may be 
judgmental, that is, based on recall, without conducting a detailed 
manual records search.
    (C) Any U.S. person receiving a BE-22 survey form from BEA must 
complete all relevant parts of the form and return the form to BEA. A 
person that is not subject to the mandatory reporting requirement in 
paragraph (b)(2)(i)(A) of this section and is not filing information on 
a voluntary basis must only complete the ``Determination of reporting 
status'' and the ``Certification'' sections of the survey. This 
requirement is necessary to ensure

[[Page 23813]]

compliance with the reporting requirements and efficient administration 
of the survey by eliminating unnecessary followup contact.
    (ii) Covered services. The covered services are: Advertising 
services; auxiliary insurance services (by non-insurance companies 
only); educational and training services; financial services (purchases 
only by non-financial services providers); medical services, inpatient 
(receipts only); medical services, other than inpatient (receipts 
only); merchanting services (receipts only); mining services; 
disbursements to fund news-gathering costs of broadcasters; 
disbursements to fund news-gathering costs of print media; 
disbursements to fund production costs of motion pictures; 
disbursements to fund production costs of broadcast program material 
other than news; disbursements to maintain government tourism and 
business promotion offices; disbursements for sales promotion and 
representation; disbursements to participate in foreign trade shows 
(purchases only); other trade-related services; performing arts, 
sports, and other live performances, presentations, and events; primary 
insurance premiums (payments only); primary insurance losses recovered; 
sale or purchase of rights to natural resources, and lease bonus 
payments; use or lease of rights to natural resources, excluding lease 
bonus payments; waste treatment and depollution services; and other 
private services (language translation services; salvage services; 
security services; account collection services; satellite photography 
and remote sensing/satellite imagery services; space transport 
(includes satellite launches, transport of goods and people for 
scientific experiments, and space passenger transport); and 
transcription services).
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[FR Doc. 05-8976 Filed 5-4-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-06-P