[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 16, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2154-2156]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-00539]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The information collection requirements described below will 
be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, 
as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). The FTC seeks public 
comments on its proposal to extend for three years the current PRA 
clearances for information collection requirements contained in the 
Commission's rules and regulations under the Wool Products Labeling Act 
of 1939 (Wool Rules). The clearance expires on April 30, 2018.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before March 19, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comments part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Wool Rules: FTC File 
No. P072108'' on your comment, and file your comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/woolrulespra1 by following the 
instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment 
on paper, mail or deliver your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania 
Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver 
your comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office 
of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW, 5th Floor, 
Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for copies of the collection 
of information and supporting documentation should be addressed to Jock 
K. Chung, Attorney, Division of Enforcement, Bureau of Consumer 
Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Mail Code CC-9528, 600 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-2984.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Proposed Information Collection Activities

    Under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520, 
federal agencies must get OMB approval for each collection of 
information they conduct, sponsor, or require.

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``Collection of information'' means agency requests or requirements to 
submit reports, keep records, or provide information to a third party. 
44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 1320.3(c). As required by section 
3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC is providing this opportunity for 
public comment before requesting that OMB extend the existing PRA 
clearance for the information collection requirements associated with 
the Commission's rules and regulations under the Wool Products Labeling 
Act of 1939 (``Wool Rules''), 16 CFR part 300 (OMB Control Number 3084-
0100).
    The FTC invites comments on: (1) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who 
are to respond. All comments must be received on or before March 19, 
2018.

Burden Estimates

    Staff's burden estimates for the Wool Rules are based on data from 
the Department of Commerce's Bureau of the Census, the International 
Trade Commission, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics 
(BLS), and data or other input from the main industry association, the 
American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), and from SICCode.com, 
which specializes in the business classification of SIC (Standard 
Industrial Classification) and NAICS (North American Industry 
Classification System) codes for business identification, verification, 
and targeting. The AAFA, a national trade association which represents 
U.S. apparel, footwear and other sewn products companies and their 
suppliers, has stated that ``[t]he use of labels on textiles and 
apparels is beneficial to consumers, manufacturers, and business in 
general as it allows for the necessary flow of information along the 
supply chain.'' \1\ The relevant information collection requirements in 
these rules and staff's corresponding burden estimates follow. The 
estimates address the number of hours needed and the labor costs 
incurred to comply with the requirements. Staff believes that a 
significant portion of hours and labor costs currently attributable to 
burden below are time and financial resources usually and customarily 
incurred by persons in the course of their regular activity (e.g., 
industry participants already have and/or would have care labels 
regardless of the rule(s)) and could be excluded from PRA-related 
burden.\2\
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    \1\ Page one from comment by Kevin M. Burke, President and CEO, 
American Apparel & Footwear Association, March 26, 2012, Advance 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Request for Public Comment; Rules and 
Regulations under the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939; 77 FR 4498 
(Jan. 30, 2012).
    \2\ 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(2).
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    The Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939 (``Wool Act'') \3\ prohibits 
the misbranding of wool products. The Wool Rules establish disclosure 
requirements that assist consumers in making informed purchasing 
decisions and recordkeeping requirements that assist the Commission in 
enforcing the Rules.
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    \3\ 15 U.S.C. 68 et seq.
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    Estimated Annual Hours Burden: 1,880,000 hours (160,000 
recordkeeping hours + 1,720,000 disclosure hours).
    Recordkeeping: Staff estimates that approximately 4,000 wool firms 
are subject to the Wool Rules' recordkeeping requirements. Based on an 
average annual burden of 40 hours per firm, the total recordkeeping 
burden is 160,000 hours.
    Disclosure: Approximately 8,000 wool firms, producing or importing 
about 600,000,000 wool products annually, are subject to the Wool 
Rules' disclosure requirements. Staff estimates the burden of 
determining label content to be 30 hours per year per firm, or a total 
of 240,000 hours, and the burden of drafting and ordering labels to be 
60 hours per firm per year, or a total of 480,000 hours. Staff believes 
that the process of attaching labels is now fully automated and 
integrated into other production steps for about 40 percent of all 
affected products. For the remaining 360,000,000 items (60 percent of 
600,000,000), the process is semi-automated and requires an average of 
approximately ten seconds per item, for a total of 1,000,000 hours per 
year. Thus, the total estimated annual burden for all firms is 
1,720,000 hours (240,000 hours for determining label content + 480,000 
hours to draft and order labels + 1,000,000 hours to attach labels). 
Staff believes that any additional burden associated with advertising 
disclosure requirements would be minimal (less than 10,000 hours) and 
can be subsumed within the burden estimates set forth above.
    Estimated Annual Cost Burden: $16,380,000, rounded to the nearest 
thousand (solely relating to labor costs). The chart below summarizes 
the total estimated costs.

 
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                              Task                                  Hourly rate    Burden hours     Labor cost
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Determine label content.........................................         $ 28.00         240,000      $6,720,000
Draft and order labels..........................................           18.00         480,000       8,640,000
Attach labels...................................................        \4\ 5.50       1,000,000       5,500,000
Recordkeeping...................................................           18.00         160,000       2,880,000
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    Total.......................................................  ..............  ..............      23,740,000
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    Staff believes that there are no current start-up costs or other 
capital costs associated with the Wool Rules. Because the labeling of 
wool products has been an integral part of the manufacturing process 
for decades, manufacturers have

[[Page 2156]]

in place the capital equipment necessary to comply with the Rules. 
Based on knowledge of the industry, staff believes that much of the 
information required by the Wool Act and Rules would be included on the 
product label even absent their requirements. Similarly, recordkeeping 
and advertising disclosures are tasks performed in the ordinary course 
of business so that covered firms would incur no additional capital or 
other non-labor costs as a result of the Rules.
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    \4\ For imported products, the labels generally are attached in 
the country where the products are manufactured. According to 
information compiled by an industry trade association using data 
from the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade 
Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 97.5% of 
apparel used in the United States is imported. With the remaining 
2.5% attributable to U.S. production at an approximate domestic 
hourly wage of $11 to attach labels, staff has calculated a weighted 
average hourly wage of $5.50 per hour attributable to U.S. and 
foreign labor combined. The estimated percentage of imports supplied 
by particular countries is based on trade data for the year ending 
in September 2014 compiled by the Office of Textiles and Apparel, 
International Trade Administration. Wages in major textile exporting 
countries, factored into the above hourly wage estimate, were based 
on 2012 data from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor 
Statistics. See Table 1.1 Indexes of hourly compensation costs in 
manufacturing, U.S. dollar basis, 1996-2012 (Index, U.S. = 100) 
available at: http://www.bls.gov/fls/#compensation.
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Request for Comments

    You can file a comment online or on paper. March 19, 2018. Write 
``Wool Rules: FTC File No. P072108'' on your comment. Your comment--
including your name and your state--will be placed on the public record 
of this proceeding, including, to the extent practicable, on the public 
Commission website, at https://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-comments. 
Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/woolrulespra1 by following the instructions on the web based form. 
If this Notice appears at https://www.regulations.gov, you also may 
file a comment through that website.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Wool Rules: FTC File No. 
P072108'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail your comment to 
the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the 
Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex C), 
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 
400 7th Street SW, 5th Floor, Suite 5610, Washington, DC 20024. If 
possible, submit your paper comment to the Commission by courier or 
overnight service.
    Because your comment will be placed on the publicly accessible FTC 
website at www.ftc.gov, you are solely responsible for making sure that 
your comment does not include any sensitive or confidential 
information. In particular, your comment should not include any 
sensitive personal information, such as your or anyone else's Social 
Security number; date of birth; driver's license number or other state 
identification number, or foreign country equivalent; passport number; 
financial account number; or credit or debit card number. You are also 
solely responsible for making sure that your comment does not include 
any sensitive health information, such as medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, your comment 
should not include any ``trade secret or any commercial or financial 
information which . . . is privileged or confidential''--as provided by 
Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 
16 CFR 4.10(a)(2)--including in particular competitively sensitive 
information such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, 
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
    Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is 
requested must be filed in paper form, must be clearly labeled 
``Confidential,'' and must comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). In particular, 
the written request for confidential treatment that accompanies the 
comment must include the factual and legal basis for the request, and 
must identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from 
the public record. See FTC Rule 4.9(c). Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the General Counsel grants your request in 
accordance with the law and the public interest. Once your comment has 
been posted on the public FTC website--as legally required by FTC Rule 
4.9(b)--we cannot redact or remove your comment from the FTC website, 
unless you submit a confidentiality request that meets the requirements 
for such treatment under FTC Rule 4.9(c), and the General Counsel 
grants that request.
    Visit the Commission website at https://www.ftc.gov to read this 
Notice. The FTC Act and other laws that the Commission administers 
permit the collection of public comments to consider and use in this 
proceeding as appropriate. The Commission will consider all timely and 
responsive public comments that it receives on or before March 19, 
2018. You can find more information, including routine uses permitted 
by the Privacy Act, in the Commission's privacy policy, at https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy.

David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2018-00539 Filed 1-12-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6750-01-P