[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 11 (Wednesday, January 16, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2958-2959]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-678]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Special 301: Identification of Countries Under Section 182 of the 
Trade Act of 1974: Request for Public Comment

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Request for Written Submissions From the Public.

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SUMMARY: Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Trade Act) (19 U.S.C. 
2242) requires the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to 
identify countries that deny adequate and effective protection of 
intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access 
to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection. (Section 
182 is commonly referred to as the ``Special 301'' provisions of the 
Trade Act.) In addition, the USTR is required to determine which of 
these countries should be identified as Priority Foreign Countries. 
Acts, policies, or practices that are the basis of a country's 
identification as a Priority Foreign Country are normally the subject 
of an investigation under the section 301 provisions of the Trade Act. 
Section 182 of the Trade Act contains a special rule for the 
identification of actions by Canada affecting United States cultural 
industries.
    USTR requests written submissions from the public concerning 
foreign countries' acts, policies, and practices that are relevant to 
the decision whether particular trading partners should be identified 
under section 182 of the Trade Act.

DATES: Submissions from the general public must be received on or 
before 10 a.m. on Monday, February 11, 2008. Foreign governments who 
choose to make written submissions may do so on or before 10 a.m. on 
Friday, February 29, 2008.

ADDRESSES: All comments should be addressed to Jennifer Choe Groves, 
Director for Intellectual Property and Innovation and Chair of the 
Special 301 Committee, Office of the United States Trade 
Representative, and sent (i) electronically, to [email protected] 
(please note, ``FR0606'' consists of the numbers ``zero-six-zero-six'') 
with ``Special 301 Review'' in the subject line, or (ii) by fax, to 
(202) 395-9458, with a confirmation copy sent electronically to the e-
mail address above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Choe Groves, Director for 
Intellectual Property and Innovation and Chair of the Special 301 
Committee, Office of the United States Trade Representative at (202) 
395-4510.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to section 182 of the Trade Act, 
USTR must identify those countries that deny adequate and effective 
protection for intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable 
market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property 
protection. Those countries that have the most onerous or egregious 
acts, policies, or practices and whose acts, policies, or practices 
have the greatest adverse impact (actual or potential) on relevant U.S. 
products are to be identified as Priority Foreign Countries. Acts, 
policies, or practices that are the basis of a country's designation as 
a Priority Foreign Country are normally the subject of an investigation 
under the section 301 provisions of the Trade Act.

[[Page 2959]]

    USTR may not identify a country as a Priority Foreign Country if it 
is entering into good faith negotiations, or making significant 
progress in bilateral or multilateral negotiations, to provide adequate 
and effective protection of intellectual property rights.
    USTR requests that, where relevant, submissions mention particular 
regions, provinces, states, or other subdivisions of a country in which 
an act, policy, or practice deserves special attention in this year's 
report. Such mention may be positive or negative. For example, 
submissions may address China's IPR protection and enforcement at the 
provincial level, including, where relevant, with respect to areas that 
were the focus of the Special Provincial Review of China conducted in 
2007 (2007 Special 301 Report, pp. 42-52).
    Section 182 contains a special rule regarding actions of Canada 
affecting United States cultural industries. The USTR must identify any 
act, policy, or practice of Canada that affects cultural industries, is 
adopted or expanded after December 17, 1992, and is actionable under 
Article 2106 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Any 
act, policy, or practice so identified shall be treated the same as an 
act, policy, or practice which was the basis for a country's 
identification as a Priority Foreign Country under section 182(a)(2) of 
the Trade Act, unless the United States has already taken action 
pursuant to Article 2106 of the NAFTA.
    USTR must make the above-referenced identifications within 30 days 
after publication of the National Trade Estimate (NTE) report, i.e., 
approximately April 30, 2008.
    Requirements for comments: Comments should include a description of 
the problems experienced and the effect of the acts, policies, and 
practices on U.S. industry. Comments should be as detailed as possible 
and should provide all necessary information for assessing the effect 
of the acts, policies, and practices. Any comments that include 
quantitative loss claims should be accompanied by the methodology used 
in calculating such estimated losses.
    Comments must be in English. No submissions will be accepted via 
postal service mail. Documents should be submitted as either 
WordPerfect, MS Word, .pdf, or text (.TXT) files. Supporting 
documentation submitted as spreadsheets are acceptable as Quattro Pro 
or Excel files. A submitter requesting that information contained in a 
comment be treated as confidential business information must certify 
that such information is business confidential and would not 
customarily be released to the public by the submitter. A non-
confidential version of the comment must also be provided. For any 
document containing business confidential information, 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. Submissions should not include separate cover 
letters; information that might appear in a cover letter should be 
included in the submission itself. 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.
    All comments should be addressed to Jennifer Choe Groves, Director 
for Intellectual Property and Innovation and Chair of the Special 301 
Committee, Office of the United States Trade Representative, and sent 
(i) electronically, to [email protected] (please note, ``FR0606'' 
consists of the numbers ``zero-six-zero-six'') with ``Special 301 
Review'' in the subject line, or (ii) by fax, to (202) 395-9458, with a 
confirmation copy sent electronically to the e-mail address above.
    Public inspection of submissions: (1) Within one business day of 
receipt, non-confidential submissions will be placed in a public file 
open for inspection and copying at the USTR reading room, Office of the 
United States Trade Representative, Annex Building, 1724 F Street, NW., 
Room 1, Washington, DC. An appointment to review the file must be 
scheduled at least 48 hours in advance and may be made by calling 
Jacqueline Caldwell at (202) 395-6186. The USTR reading room is open to 
the public from 10 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday 
through Friday; or (2) non-confidential submissions received in 
electronic form may be made available on USTR's Web site at http://www.ustr.gov. Non-confidential written submissions by the general 
public and foreign governments will be made available for copying, 
distribution, or other dissemination to the public.

Stanford McCoy,
Acting Assistant USTR for Intellectual Property and Innovation.
[FR Doc. E8-678 Filed 1-15-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-W8-P