[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 139 (Tuesday, July 21, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43156-43157]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-17772]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


African Growth and Opportunity Act: Notice of Initiation of an 
Out-of-Cycle Review of South Africa Eligibility for Benefits; 
Scheduling of Hearing, and Request for Public Comments

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice of initiation of review; notice of hearing and request 
for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice announces the initiation of an out-of-cycle review 
of the eligibility of the Republic of South Africa to receive the 
benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), as required 
by the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (TPEA). The AGOA 
Implementation Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee 
(Subcommittee) is requesting written public comments for this out-of-
cycle review and will conduct a public hearing on this matter. The 
Subcommittee will consider the written comments, written testimony, and 
oral testimony in developing recommendations for the President on South 
Africa's AGOA eligibility. This notice identifies the eligibility 
criteria under AGOA that will be considered in the review.

DATES: August 5, 2015: Deadline for filing requests to appear at the 
August 7 public hearing, and for filing pre-hearing briefs, statements, 
or comments on the Republic of South Africa's AGOA eligibility.
    August 7, 2015: AGOA Implementation Subcommittee of the TPSC will 
convene a public hearing on the Republic of South Africa's AGOA 
eligibility.
    August 12, 2015: Deadline for filing post-hearing briefs, 
statements, or comments on the Republic of South Africa's AGOA 
eligibility.

ADDRESSES: USTR strongly prefers electronic submissions made at http://www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2015-0009. See ``Requirements 
for Submission,'' below. If you are unable to make a submission at 
www.regulations.gov, please contact Yvonne Jamison, Trade Policy Staff 
Committee, at (202) 395-9666 to make other arrangements.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For procedural questions, please 
contact Yvonne Jamison, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, 600 
17th Street NW., Room F516, Washington, DC, 20508, at (202) 395-9666. 
All other questions should be directed to Alan Treat, Director, Office 
of African Affairs,

[[Page 43157]]

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, at (202) 395-1351.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: AGOA (Title I of the Trade and Development 
Act of 2000, Public Law 106-200) (19 U.S.C. 2466a et seq.), as amended, 
authorizes the President to designate sub-Saharan African countries as 
beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries eligible for duty-free 
treatment for certain additional products not included for duty-free 
treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) (Title V of 
the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461 et seq.) (the ``1974 Act'')), as 
well as for the preferential treatment for certain textile and apparel 
articles.
    The President may designate a country as a beneficiary sub-Saharan 
African country eligible for these benefits of AGOA if he determines 
that the country meets the eligibility criteria set forth in: (1) 
section 104 of AGOA (19 U.S.C. 3703); and (2) section 502 of the 1974 
Act (19 U.S.C. 2462).
    Section 104 of AGOA includes requirements that the country has 
established or is making continual progress toward establishing, inter 
alia: a market-based economy; the rule of law, political pluralism, and 
the right to due process; the elimination of barriers to U.S. trade and 
investment; economic policies to reduce poverty; a system to combat 
corruption and bribery; and the protection of internationally 
recognized worker rights. In addition, the country may not engage in 
activities that undermine U.S. national security or foreign policy 
interests or engage in gross violations of internationally recognized 
human rights. Please see section 104 of AGOA and section 502 of the 
1974 Act for a complete list of the AGOA eligibility criteria.
    Recognizing that concerns have been raised about the compliance 
with section 104 of AGOA of certain beneficiary sub-Saharan African 
countries, Section 105(d)(4)(E) of the TPEA (Pub. L. 114-27) requires 
the President to initiate an out-of-cycle review with respect to 
whether the Republic of South Africa is meeting the eligibility 
requirements set forth in section 104 of AGOA and section 502 of the 
1974 Act, not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of the 
TPEA.
    Section 506A of the 1974 Act requires that, if the President 
determines that a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country is not making 
continual progress in meeting the eligibility requirements, he must 
terminate the designation of the country as a beneficiary sub-Saharan 
African country. As amended by TPEA, the President may withdraw, 
suspend, or limit the application of duty-free treatment with respect 
to articles from the country if he determines that it would be more 
effective in promoting compliance with AGOA-eligibility requirements 
than terminating the designation of the country as a beneficiary sub-
Saharan African country.
    The Subcommittee is seeking public comments in connection with this 
out-of-cycle review of the Republic of South Africa's eligibility for 
AGOA's benefits. The Subcommittee will consider any such comments in 
developing recommendations to the President on the Republic of South 
Africa's eligibility. Comments related to the child labor criteria may 
also be considered by the Secretary of Labor in making the findings 
required under section 504 of the 1974 Act.

Notice of Public Hearing

    In addition to written comments from the public on the matters 
listed above, the Subcommittee of the TPSC will convene a public 
hearing at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, August 7, 2015, to receive testimony 
related to South Africa's eligibility for AGOA's benefits.
    The hearing will be held at 1724 F Street NW., Washington, DC 20508 
and will be open to the public and to the press. 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 present oral testimony 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., Wednesday, August 5, 2015. Requests to present oral testimony 
must be accompanied by a written brief or summary statement and also 
must be received by 5 p.m., Wednesday, August, 5, 2015. Oral testimony 
before the 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, statements, 
or comments will be accepted if they conform with the requirements set 
out below and are submitted by 5 p.m., Tuesday, August 12, 2015. 
Parties not wishing to appear at the public hearing may submit pre-
hearing and post-hearing briefs or comments by the aforementioned 
deadlines.

Requirements for Submissions

    All written requests to appear at the public hearing, briefs, 
statements, or comments submitted in response to this notice must be 
submitted electronically by 5:00 p.m., August 5, 2015, using 
www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2015-0009. Instructions for 
submitting business confidential versions are provided below. Hand-
delivered submissions will not be accepted. All written materials must 
be submitted in English to the Chairman of the AGOA Implementation 
Subcommittee of the TPSC.

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. Such submissions may 
be viewed by entering the country-specific docket number in the search 
field at http://www.regulations.gov.

Edward Gresser,
Acting Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. 2015-17772 Filed 7-20-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3290-F5-P