[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 91 (Wednesday, May 11, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28856-28858]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-10082]


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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE

[Docket Number USTR-2022-0004]


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

AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Office of the United States 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 TPSC 
Subcommittee) is developing recommendations for the President on AGOA 
country eligibility for calendar year 2023 and requests comments for 
this review. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AGOA TPSC 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 TPSC Subcommittee 
related to this review.

DATES: 
    June 23, 2022 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, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for the AGOA TPSC 
Subcommittee to pose any questions on written comments.
    July 15, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of 
commenters' responses to questions from the AGOA TPSC Subcommittee.
    July 22, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for replies from other 
interested parties to the written comments and responses to the AGOA 
TPSC Subcommittee questions.
    August 3, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee to 
pose any additional questions on written comments.
    August 12, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of 
responses to any additional questions from the AGOA TPSC Subcommittee.

ADDRESSES: USTR strongly prefers electronic submissions made through 
the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov 
(Regulations.gov), using Docket Number USTR-2022-0004. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments in `Requirements for Submissions' 
below. For alternatives to on-line submissions, please contact Jeremy 
Streatfeild, Director of African Affairs, Office of African Affairs, in 
advance of the relevant deadline at [email protected] 
or (202) 395-8642.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jeremy Streatfeild, Director of 
African Affairs, Office of African Affairs, at 
[email protected] or (202) 395-8642.

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

[[Page 28857]]

 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 they determine 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 2022 the President designated the following 36 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. Democratic Republic of Congo (re-instated in 2021)
10. Republic of Congo
11. Cote d'Ivoire
12. Djibouti
13. Eswatini
14. Gabon
15. The Gambia
16. Ghana
17. Guinea-Bissau
18. Kenya
19. Lesotho
20. Liberia
21. Madagascar
22. Malawi
23. Mauritius
24. Mozambique
25. Namibia
26. Niger
27. Nigeria
28. Rwanda (AGOA apparel benefits suspended effective July 31, 2018)
29. Sao Tome & Principe
30. Senegal
31. Sierra Leone
32. South Africa
33. Tanzania
34. Togo
35. Uganda
36. Zambia
    The President did not designate the following sub-Saharan African 
countries as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries for 2022:

1. Burundi
2. Cameroon
3. Equatorial Guinea (graduated from GSP)
4. Eritrea
5. Ethiopia (terminated in 2022)
6. Guinea (terminated in 2022)
7. Mali (terminated in 2022)
8. Mauritania
9. Seychelles (graduated from GSP)
10. Somalia
11. South Sudan
12. Sudan
13. Zimbabwe

    The AGOA TPSC 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 the COVID-19 pandemic, the AGOA TPSC Subcommittee will 
foster public participation via written submissions rather than an in-
person hearing for the 2023 AGOA Eligibility Review. USTR invites 
public comment according to the schedule set out in the Dates section 
above. The AGOA TPSC 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 TPSC 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 
TPSC Subcommittee by the applicable deadlines set forth in this notice. 
You must make all submissions in English via Regulations.gov, using 
Docket Number USTR-2022-0004. USTR will not accept hand-delivered 
submissions. To make a submission using Regulations.gov, enter Docket 
Number USTR-2022-0004 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 `refine documents 
results' section on the left side of the screen and click on the link 
entitled `comment.' The Regulations.gov website offers the option of 
providing comments by filling in a `comment' field or by attaching a 
document using the `attach files' field. The AGOA TPSC Subcommittee 
prefers that you provide submissions in an attached document and note 
`see attached' in the `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) 
``2023 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 that 
you do not submit in accordance with these instructions. If you are 
unable to provide submissions as requested, please contact Jeremy 
Streatfeild, Director of African, Office of African Affairs, in advance 
of the relevant

[[Page 28858]]

deadline at [email protected] or (202) 395-8642, 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 note that 
the submission contains information that is business confidential by 
including `Business Confidential' in the `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-2022-0004 on Regulations.gov, upon completion of 
processing. This usually is 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 Regulations.gov, under Docket Number USTR-2022-0004.

William Shpiece,
Chair of the Trade Policy Staff Committee, Office of the United States 
Trade Representative.
[FR Doc. 2022-10082 Filed 5-10-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3290-F2-P