[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 157 (Friday, August 14, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48951-48953]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-20142]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE


African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): Request for Public 
Comments on Annual Review of Country Eligibility for Benefits Under 
AGOA in Calendar Year 2016; Scheduling of Hearing, and Request for 
Public Comments

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

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

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SUMMARY: This notice announces the initiation the annual review of the 
eligibility of the sub-Saharan African countries to receive the 
benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The AGOA 
Implementation Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff

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Committee (Subcommittee) is developing recommendations for the 
President on AGOA country eligibility for calendar year 2016. The 
Subcommittee is requesting written public comments for this 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. Comments received related 
to the child labor criteria may also be considered by the Secretary of 
Labor in the preparation of the Department of Labor's report on child 
labor as required under section 412(c) of the Trade and Development Act 
of 2000. This notice identifies the eligibility criteria under AGOA 
that must be considered under AGOA, and lists those sub-Saharan African 
countries that are currently eligible for the benefits of AGOA and 
those that were ineligible for such benefits in 2015. Pursuant to the 
Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (TPEA), this year's review of 
the Republic of South Africa's eligibility is being considered in a 
separate out of cycle review (see 80 FR 43156).

DATES: 
    September 3, 2015: Deadline for filing requests to appear at the 
September 10, 2015 public hearing, and for filing pre-hearing briefs, 
statements, or comments on sub-Saharan African countries' AGOA 
eligibility.
    September 10, 2015: AGOA Implementation Subcommittee of the TPSC 
will convene a public hearing on AGOA eligibility.
    September 16, 2015: Deadline for filing post-hearing briefs, 
statements, or comments on this matter.

ADDRESSES: USTR strongly prefers electronic submissions made at 
www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2015-0011. See ``Requirements 
for Submission,'' below. If you are unable to make a submission at 
www.regulations.gov, please contact Yvonne Jamison, Office of the U.S. 
Trade Representative, at (202) 395-3475 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) 395-3475. 
All other questions should be directed to Constance Hamilton, Deputy 
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa, Office of the U.S. 
Trade Representative, at (202) 395-9514.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: AGOA (Title I of the Trade and Development 
Act of 2000, Pub. L. 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 not later than 30 days 
after the date of the enactment of the TPEA 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. The 
Subcommittee is therefore conducting this year's review of South 
Africa's eligibility under a separate process (see 80 FR 43156).
    Section 506A of the 1974 Act provides that the President shall 
monitor and review annually the progress of each sub-Saharan African 
country in meeting the foregoing eligibility criteria in order to 
determine whether each beneficiary sub-Saharan African country should 
continue to be eligible, and whether each sub-Saharan African country 
that is currently not a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country, should 
be designated as such a country. 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. Pursuant to the TPEA, however, the President may also 
withdraw, suspend, or limit the application of duty-free treatment with 
respect to specific articles from a 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.
    For 2015, 39 countries were designated as beneficiary sub-Saharan 
African countries. These countries, as well as the countries currently 
designated as ineligible, are listed below. The Subcommittee is seeking 
public comments in connection with the annual review of sub-Saharan 
African countries' eligibility for AGOA's benefits. The Subcommittee 
will consider any such comments in developing recommendations to the 
President related to this review. 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.
    The following sub-Saharan African countries were designated as 
beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries in 2015:

Angola
Republic of Benin
Republic of Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Republic of Cabo Verde
Republic of Cameroon
Republic of Chad
Federal Islamic Republic of Comoros
Republic of Congo
Republic of Cote d'Ivoire
Republic of Djibouti
Ethiopia
Gabonese Republic
Republic of Ghana
Republic of Guinea
Republic of Guinea-Bissau
Republic of Kenya
Kingdom of Lesotho
Republic of Liberia
Republic of Madagascar
Republic of Malawi
Republic of Mali
Islamic Republic of Mauritania
Republic of Mauritius
Republic of Mozambique
Republic of Namibia

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Republic of Niger
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Republic of Rwanda
Sao Tome & Principe
Republic of Senegal
Republic of Seychelles
Republic of Sierra Leone
Republic of South Africa
United Republic of Tanzania
Republic of Togo
Republic of Uganda
Republic of Zambia

    The following sub-Saharan African countries were not designated as 
beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries in 2015:

Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of Congo
The Gambia
Republic of Equatorial Guinea
State of Eritrea
Somalia
Republic of South Sudan
Republic of Sudan
Kingdom of Swaziland
Republic of Zimbabwe

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 Thursday, September 10, 2015, to receive 
testimony related to sub-Saharan African countries' eligibility for 
AGOA's benefits. Requests to present oral testimony at the hearing and 
pre-hearing briefs, statements, or comments must be received by 
September 3, 2015.
    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 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., Thursday, September 3, 2015. The intent to testify notification 
must be made in the ``Type Comment'' field under docket number USTR-
2015-0011 on the regulations.gov Web site and should include the name, 
address, and telephone number of the person presenting the testimony. A 
summary of the testimony should be attached by using the ``Upload 
File'' field. The name of the file should also include who will be 
presenting the testimony. Remarks at the hearing should be limited to 
no more than five minutes to allow for possible questions from the 
TPSC.
    All documents should be submitted in accordance with the 
instructions below.

Requirements for Submissions

    Persons submitting a notification of intent to testify and/or 
written comments must do so electronically by 5:00 p.m., Thursday, 
September 3, 2015, using www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2015-
0011. 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 
www.regulations.gov upon completion of processing. Such submissions may 
be viewed by entering the country-specific docket number in the search 
field at www.regulations.gov.

Edward Gresser,
Acting Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. 2015-20142 Filed 8-13-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3290-F5-P