[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 36 (Friday, February 22, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12412-12413]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-04039]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


Generalized System of Preferences (GSP): Notice of Status of 
Certain Pending Country Practice Petitions; Notice of Schedule for 
Public Comments and a Hearing on Certain Country Practice Reviews

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice and request for submissions.

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SUMMARY: This notice announces (1) the status of pending country 
practice petitions submitted as part of previous GSP Annual Reviews, 
and (2) the schedule for public comments and a public hearing on the 
ongoing GSP country practice reviews regarding worker rights and/or 
child labor in Bangladesh, Georgia, Niger, the Philippines, and 
Uzbekistan, and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in 
Russia and Uzbekistan.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tameka Cooper, GSP Program, Office of 
the United States Trade Representative, 600 17th Street NW., Room 422, 
Washington, DC 20508. The telephone number is (202) 395-6971, the fax 
number is (202) 395-9674, and the email address is [email protected].

DATES: The GSP regulations (15 CFR Part 2007) provide the schedule of 
dates for conducting an annual review unless otherwise specified in a 
Federal Register notice. The schedule for the review of the country 
practice petitions cited above follows.
    March 14, 2013: Deadline for submission of pre-hearing briefs and 
requests to appear at the March 28, 2013 public hearing; submissions 
must be received by 5:00 p.m.
    March 28, 2013: The GSP Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff 
Committee (TPSC) will convene a public hearing on the country practice 
petitions cited above at 1724 F Street NW., Washington, DC 20508, 
beginning at 9:30 a.m.
    April 18, 2013: Deadline for submission of post-hearing briefs, 
which must be received by 5:00 p.m.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The GSP program provides for the duty-free 
treatment of designated articles when imported from beneficiary 
developing countries. The GSP program is authorized by Title V of the 
Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461, et seq.), as amended.

Country Practice Petitions

    The status of country practice petitions considered in the 2012 GSP 
Annual Review is described in the list of Active and Pending Country 
Practices Reviews, which is available on the USTR GSP Web site at 
http://www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/trade-development/preference-programs/generalized-system-preference-gsp/gsp-program-inf. This list includes 
petitions accepted as part of annual reviews from previous years.
    The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), drawing on the advice of the 
TPSC, has deferred a decision on acceptance of a country practice 
petition on Russia regarding expropriation. In addition, the USTR, 
drawing on the advice of the TPSC, has decided to close the country 
practice review of case 007-CP-08 regarding IPR protection in Lebanon 
in view of (1) progress made by the government of Lebanon in addressing 
IPR issues in that country and (2) a request by the petitioner, the 
International Intellectual Property Alliance, that the petition be 
withdrawn in view of progress in addressing the issues cited in the 
petition.

Notice of Public Hearing

    A hearing will be held by the GSP Subcommittee of the TPSC on 
Thursday, March 28, 2013, beginning at 9:30 a.m., to receive 
information regarding recent developments pertinent to the ongoing 
country practice reviews regarding worker rights and/or child labor in 
Bangladesh, Georgia, Niger, the Philippines, and Uzbekistan, and 
protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in Russia and 
Uzbekistan.
    The hearing will be held at 1724 F Street NW., Washington, DC 20508 
and will be open to the public. A transcript of the hearing will be 
made available on http://www.regulations.gov within approximately two 
weeks of the hearing.
    All interested parties wishing to make an oral presentation at the 
hearing must submit, following the ``Requirements for Submissions'' set 
out below, the name, address, telephone number, and email address, if 
available, of the witness(es) representing their organization by 5 
p.m., March 14, 2013. Requests to

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present oral testimony must be accompanied by a written brief or 
summary statement, in English, and also must be received by 5 p.m., 
March 14, 2013. Oral testimony before the GSP Subcommittee will be 
limited to five-minute presentations that summarize or supplement 
information contained in briefs or statements submitted for the record. 
Post-hearing briefs or statements will be accepted if they conform with 
the regulations cited below and are submitted, in English, by 5 p.m., 
April 18, 2013. Parties not wishing to appear at the public hearing may 
submit pre-hearing and post-hearing briefs or comments by the 
aforementioned deadlines.
    The GSP Subcommittee strongly encourages submission of all post-
hearing briefs or statements by the April 18, 2013 deadline in order to 
receive timely consideration in the GSP Subcommittee's review of the 
subject petitions. However, if there are new developments or 
information that parties wish to share with the GSP Subcommittee after 
this date, the regulations.gov dockets will remain open. Comments, 
letters, or other submissions related to the subject country practice 
reviews must be posted to the http://regulations.gov docket in order to 
be considered by the GSP Subcommittee.

Requirements for Submissions

    All submissions in response to this notice must be submitted in 
English by the applicable deadlines set forth in this notice and 
conform to the GSP regulations set forth at 15 CFR part 2007, except as 
modified below. These regulations are available on the USTR Web site at 
http://www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/trade-development/preference-programs/generalized-system-preference-gsp/gsp-program-inf.
    To ensure their timely and expeditious receipt and consideration, 
submissions in response to this notice must be submitted electronically 
via http://www.regulations.gov using the appropriate country-specific 
docket number(s) listed below.
    Bangladesh (worker rights): USTR-2012-0036;
    Georgia (worker rights): USTR-2013-0009;
    Niger (worker rights): USTR-2013-0005;
    Philippines (worker rights): USTR-2013-0006;
    Uzbekistan (worker rights): USTR-2013-0007;
    Russia (IPR): USTR-2013-0008; and
    Uzbekistan (IPR): USTR-2013-0014.

Hand-delivered submissions will not be accepted.
    To make a submission using http://www.regulations.gov, enter the 
country-specific docket number in the ``Search for'' field on the home 
page and click ``Search.'' The site will provide a search-results page 
listing all documents associated with this docket. Find a reference to 
this notice by selecting ``Notice'' under ``Document Type'' in the 
``Filter Results by'' section on the left side of the screen and click 
on the link entitled ``Comment Now.'' The http://www.regulations.gov 
Web site offers the option of providing comments by filling in a ``Type 
Comment'' field or by attaching a document using the ``Upload file(s)'' 
field. The GSP Subcommittee prefers that submissions be provided in an 
attached document. At the beginning of the submission, or on the first 
page (if an attachment), please note that the submission is in response 
to this Federal Register notice and provides comments on the GSP 
country practice review regarding [relevant country]. Submissions 
should not exceed 30 single-spaced, standard letter-size pages in 12-
point type, including attachments. Any data attachments to the 
submission should be included in the same file as the submission 
itself, and not as separate files.
    Each submitter will receive a submission tracking number upon 
completion of the submissions procedure at http://www.regulations.gov. 
The tracking number will be the submitter's confirmation that the 
submission was received into http://www.regulations.gov. The 
confirmation should be kept for the submitter's records. USTR is not 
able to provide technical assistance for the Web site. Documents not 
submitted in accordance with these instructions may not be considered 
in this review. If an interested party is unable to provide submissions 
as requested, please contact the GSP Program at USTR to arrange for an 
alternative method of transmission.

Business Confidential Submissions

    An interested party requesting that information contained in a 
submission be treated as business confidential information must certify 
that such information is business confidential and would not 
customarily be released to the public by the submitter. Confidential 
business information must be clearly designated as such. The submission 
must be marked ``BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL'' at the top and bottom of the 
cover page and each succeeding page, and the submission should 
indicate, via brackets, the specific information that is confidential. 
Additionally, ``Business Confidential'' must be included in the ``Type 
Comment'' field. For any submission containing business confidential 
information, a non-confidential version must be submitted separately 
(i.e., not as part of the same submission with the confidential 
version), indicating where confidential information has been redacted. 
The non-confidential version will be placed in the docket and open to 
public inspection.

Public Viewing of Review Submissions

    Submissions in response to this notice, except for information 
granted ``business confidential'' status under 15 CFR 2003.6, will be 
available for public viewing pursuant to 15 CFR 2007.6 at http://www.regulations.gov upon completion of processing, usually within two 
weeks of the relevant due date or date of the submission. Such 
submissions may be viewed by entering the country-specific docket 
number in the search field at: http://www.regulations.gov.

William D. Jackson,
Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Generalized System 
of Preferences, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
[FR Doc. 2013-04039 Filed 2-21-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3290-F3-P