[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 93 (Wednesday, May 13, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28695-28697]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10218]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

[Docket Number USTR-2020-0020]


Annual Review of Country Eligibility for Benefits Under the 
African Growth and Opportunity Act

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice of initiation of review and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is 
announcing the initiation of 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 Committee (AGOA Subcommittee) is 
developing recommendations for the President on AGOA country 
eligibility for calendar year 2021. The AGOA Subcommittee requests 
comments for this review. Due to COVID-19, the AGOA Subcommittee will 
foster public participation via written submissions rather than an in-
person hearing. This notice includes the schedule for submission of 
comments and responses to questions from the AGOA Subcommittee related 
to this review.

DATES: 
    June 24, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of written 
comments on the eligibility of sub-Saharan African countries to receive 
the benefits of AGOA.
    July 7, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for the AGOA Subcommittee 
to pose any questions on written comments.
    July 16, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of 
commenters' responses to questions from the AGOA Subcommittee.
    July 25, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for replies from other 
interested parties to the written comments and responses to questions.
    August 4, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for the AGOA 
Subcommittee to pose any additional questions on written comments.
    August 13, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of 
responses to any additional questions from the AGOA Subcommittee.

ADDRESSES: USTR strongly prefers electronic submissions made through 
the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov 
(Regulations.gov), using Docket Number USTR-2020-0020. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments in ``Requirements

[[Page 28696]]

for Submissions'' below. For alternatives to on-line submissions, 
please contact Bennett Harman, Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade 
Representative for Africa, in advance of the relevant deadline at 
[email protected] or (202) 395-9612.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please contact Bennett Harman, Deputy 
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa, at [email protected] 
or (202) 395-9612.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    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 beneficiaries 
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.) (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 AGOA benefits if 
he determines that the country meets the eligibility criteria set forth 
in section 104 of AGOA (19 U.S.C. 3703) and 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, among 
other things:

 A market-based economy
 the rule of law
 political pluralism
 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
 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. Section 
502 of the 1974 Act provides for country eligibility criteria under 
GSP. For a complete list of the AGOA eligibility criteria and more 
information on the GSP criteria, see section 104 of the AGOA and 
section 502 of the 1974 Act.
    Section 506A of the 1974 Act requires the President to monitor and 
annually review the progress of each sub-Saharan African country in 
meeting the foregoing eligibility criteria in order to determine if a 
beneficiary sub-Saharan African country should continue to be eligible, 
and if a sub-Saharan African country that currently is not a 
beneficiary, should be designated as a beneficiary. If the President 
determines that a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country is not making 
continual progress in meeting the eligibility requirements, the 
President must terminate the designation of the country as a 
beneficiary sub-Saharan African country. The President also may 
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 2020, the President designated the following 38 countries as 
beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries:

1. Angola
2. Benin
3. Botswana
4. Burkina Faso
5. Cabo Verde
6. Central African Republic
7. Chad
8. Comoros
9. Republic of Congo
10. Cote d'Ivoire
11. Djibouti
12. Eswatini
13. Ethiopia
14. Gabon
15. The Gambia
16. Ghana
17. Guinea
18. Guinea-Bissau
19. Kenya
20. Lesotho
21. Liberia
22. Madagascar
23. Malawi
24. Mali
25. Mauritius
26. Mozambique
27. Namibia
28. Niger
29. Nigeria
30. Rwanda (AGOA apparel benefits suspended effective July 31, 2018)
31. Sao Tome & Principe
32. Senegal
33. Sierra Leone
34. South Africa
35. Tanzania
36. Togo
37. Uganda
38. Zambia

    The President did not designate the following sub-Saharan African 
countries as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries for 2020:

1. Burundi
2. Cameroon
3. Democratic Republic of Congo
4. Equatorial Guinea (graduated from GSP)
5. Eritrea
6. Mauritania
7. Seychelles (graduated from GSP)
8. Somalia
9. South Sudan
10. Sudan
11. Zimbabwe

    The AGOA Subcommittee is seeking public comments to develop 
recommendations to the President in connection with the annual review 
of sub-Saharan African countries' eligibility for AGOA benefits. The 
Secretary of Labor may consider comments related to the child labor 
criteria to prepare the U.S. Department of Labor's report on child 
labor as required under section 504 of the 1974 Act.

II. Public Participation

    Due to COVID-19, the AGOA Subcommittee will foster public 
participation via written submissions rather than an in-person hearing 
for the 2020 AGOA Eligibility Review. USTR invites public comment 
according to the schedule set out in the Dates section above. The AGOA 
Subcommittee will review comments and replies to comments, if any, and 
may ask clarifying questions to commenters according to the schedule 
set out above. The AGOA Subcommittee will post the questions it asks on 
the public docket, other than questions that include properly 
designated business confidential information (BCI). Any questions that 
include properly designated BCI will not be posted on the docket for 
public viewing, but rather will be sent via email to the relevant 
commenters. Replies to these questions that also contain BCI must 
follow procedures laid out in section IV.

III. Requirements for Submissions

    You must submit comments and answers to questions from the AGOA 
Subcommittee by the applicable deadlines set forth in this notice. You 
must make all submissions in English via Regulations.gov, using Docket 
Number USTR-2012-0020. USTR will not accept hand-delivered submissions. 
To make a submission using Regulations.gov, enter Docket Number USTR-
2012-0020 in the `search for' field on the home page and click 
`search.' The site will provide a search-results page listing all 
documents

[[Page 28697]]

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 Regulations.gov website 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 AGOA Subcommittee 
prefers that you provide submissions in an attached document and note 
`see attached' in the `type comment' field on the online submission 
form. At the beginning of the submission, or on the first page (if an 
attachment) include the following text (in bold and underlined): (1) 
``2020 AGOA Eligibility Review''; (2) the relevant country or 
countries; and (3) whether the document is a comment, a reply to a 
comment, or an answer to an AGOA Subcommittee question. Submissions 
should not exceed 30 single-spaced, standard letter-size pages in 12-
point type, including attachments. Include any data attachments to the 
submission in the same file as the submission itself, and not as 
separate files.
    You will receive a tracking number upon completion of the 
submission procedure at Regulations.gov. The tracking number is 
confirmation that Regulations.gov received the submission. Keep the 
confirmation for your records. USTR is not able to provide technical 
assistance for Regulations.gov. USTR may not consider documents you do 
not submit in accordance with these instructions. If you are unable to 
provide submissions as requested, please contact Bennett Harman, Deputy 
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa, at [email protected] 
or (202) 395-9612, in advance of the relevant deadline to arrange for 
an alternative method of transmission. General information concerning 
USTR is available at www.ustr.gov.

IV. Business Confidential Submissions

    If you ask USTR to treat information you submitted as BCI, you must 
certify that the information is business confidential and you would not 
customarily release it to the public. You must clearly designate BCI by 
marking the submission ``BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL'' at the top and bottom 
of the cover page and each succeeding page, and indicating, via 
brackets, the specific information that is BCI. Additionally, you must 
include `Business Confidential' in the `type comment' field. For any 
submission containing BCI, you must separately submit a non-
confidential version, i.e., not as part of the same submission with the 
confidential version, indicating where BCI has been redacted. USTR will 
post the non-confidential version in the docket and it will be open to 
public inspection.

V. Public Viewing of Review Submissions

    USTR will make public versions of all documents relating to these 
reviews available for public viewing pursuant to 15 CFR 2017.4, in 
Docket Number USTR-2020-0020 on Regulations.gov, upon completion of 
processing, usually within two weeks of the relevant due date or date 
of the submission.

VI. Petitions

    At any time, any interested party may submit a petition to USTR 
with respect to whether a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country is 
meeting the AGOA eligibility requirements. An interested party may file 
a petition through www.regulations.gov, under docket number USTR-2020-
0020.

Edward Gresser,
Chair of the Trade Policy Staff Committee, Office of the United States 
Trade Representative.
[FR Doc. 2020-10218 Filed 5-12-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3290-F0-P