[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 191 (Tuesday, October 4, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60118-60120]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-21418]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration


Draft Harmonized System (HS) Code List of Critical Supply Chains

AGENCY: International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of opportunity for public comment.

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SUMMARY: ``Executive Order on America's Supply Chains'', issued on 
February 24, 2021, outlines U.S. policy objectives with respect to 
strengthening the resilience of America's supply chains. The Executive 
Order directed relevant Secretaries to prepare reports on the supply 
chains for critical sectors and subsectors within either 100 days or 1 
year of the Order. Through this

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Request for Comment (RFC), the Department of Commerce (Commerce) is 
requesting input from the public on a draft list of critical goods and 
materials within four of the supply chains assessed under the Order: 
public health and biological preparedness, information and 
communications technology (ICT), energy, and critical minerals. The 
draft list, defined by 8- and 10-digit tariff lines of the Harmonized 
Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS), is set out online at 
https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/draft-list-critical-supply-chains. The list of critical goods and materials will serve as a tool 
to facilitate ongoing targeted analysis of trade data and the 
evaluation of policies to strengthen these supply chains. This RFC is a 
part of the government's ongoing work to identify risks, address 
vulnerabilities, and develop a strategy to promote American supply 
chains resiliency in accordance with the Order.

DATES: To ensure consideration, written comments must be submitted on 
or before November 3, 2022.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted in response to this 
document by comment through https://www.regulations.gov for Docket ID 
ITA-2022-0010.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please direct questions regarding this 
notice to Tobias Reynolds, International Economist, at (202) 482-6374 
or [email protected], with the subject line ``Notice and Request 
for Comment''. Please direct media inquiries to ITA's Office of Public 
Affairs, [email protected] or (202) 482-3809.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    Executive Order 14017 of February 24, 2021, ``Executive Order on 
America's Supply Chains'' (hereafter ``Executive Order'' or ``Order'') 
(86 FR 11849; February 24, 2021), outlines U.S. policy objectives with 
respect to strengthening the resilience of America's supply chains. The 
Executive Order directed various agencies to submit supply chain 
assessments, including a review of ``the critical goods and materials, 
as defined by section 6(b) of this order, underlying the supply chain 
in question.'' Relevant reports were released in June 2021 and February 
2022.
    Section 6(b) of the Order defines critical goods and materials as 
``goods and raw materials currently defined under statute or regulation 
as `critical' materials, technologies, or infrastructure.'' For the 
purposes of better analyzing trade data and policies, Commerce has 
identified HTSUS codes that match to critical goods and materials in 
four of these supply chains, drawing upon the expertise of industry 
analysts. Each product is identified as either an input, capital good, 
or final good. The draft list of HTSUS codes, defined at the 8 and 10-
digit level, is set out online at https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/draft-list-critical-supply-chains.

II. Objective of This RFC

    This RFC offers an opportunity for all interested parties to 
provide relevant input and recommendations for consideration with 
respect to the draft list of critical goods and materials. Commerce is 
also interested in how products are used within a supply chain.

III. Request for Comments

    Please submit written comments on this draft list on or before 
November 3, 2022 to facilitate consideration. Commerce is requesting 
comments addressing the make-up of the draft list, including any 
recommended product additions or subtractions. For any product noted, 
please include:

 The 8- or 10-digit HTSUS code(s) for the product. The U.S. 
International Trade Commission's HTS Online Reference Tool (https://hts.usitc.gov/) is a useful tool for helping to determine the U.S. 
tariff classification of a product.
 Product description (e.g., physical characteristics, function, 
application, principal or end use within the critical sector, etc.)
 What is the relevant supply chain sector
 What is the relevant supply chain subsector (if any)

IV. Submission Instructions

    Commenters should include the name of the person or organization 
filing the comment. All personal identifying information (for example, 
phone number and email) voluntarily submitted in any attachments by the 
commenter will be publicly accessible unless marked as Business 
Confidential Information (BCI). Instructions on business confidential 
submissions can be found below.
    Commerce strongly prefers comments submitted using the public 
comment submission form posted on https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/draft-list-critical-supply-chains and in the ``Supporting 
& Related Material'' section on https://www.regulations.gov in Docket 
ID ITA-2022-0010. Click on the top tab titled ``View More Documents'' 
of the docket to find the ``Supporting & Related Material'' section. In 
order to facilitate preparation of comments, a facsimile of the form is 
attached as an annex to this notice.
    If you do not use the form, Commerce prefers submissions made in 
Microsoft Word (.doc) or searchable Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). If you use an 
application other than those two, please indicate the name of the 
application in the `comment' field. If you attach a document, it is 
sufficient to type ``see attached'' in the ``comment'' field.
    Please do not attach separate cover letters to electronic 
submissions; rather, include any information that might appear in a 
cover letter in the comments themselves. Similarly, to the extent 
possible, please include any exhibits, annexes, or other attachments in 
the same file as the comment itself, rather than submitting them as 
separate files.
    For any documents submitted electronically containing Business 
Confidential Information (BCI), the file name of the business 
confidential version should end with the characters ``BC''. Any page 
containing BCI must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL'' on the 
top of that page and the submission should clearly indicate, via 
brackets, highlighting, or other means, the specific information that 
is business confidential. Filers of submissions containing BCI also 
must submit a public version of their submissions. The file name of the 
public version should end with the character ``P''. The ``BC'' and 
``P'' should follow the rest of the file name. If these procedures are 
not sufficient to protect BCI or otherwise protect business interests, 
please contact Tobias Reynolds, International Economist, at (202) 482-
6374 or [email protected] to discuss whether alternative 
arrangements are possible.
    Commerce will post submissions in the docket for public inspection, 
except BCI. You can view submissions on the https://www.regulations.gov 
by entering Docket ID ITA-2022-0010 in the search field on the home 
page.

Jessica Huang,
International Economist, Office of Trade Negotiations and Analysis.
OMB Control No.: 0625-0143
Expiration Date: 01-31-2024
Public Comment Submission Form
    Please note: If you wish to recommend the addition or removal of 
multiple products at once, please attach a copy of this form for each 
product in your submission.

1. Submitter Information

[[Page 60120]]

    a. Full Organization Legal Name:
    b. Submitter First Name:
    c. Submitter Last Name:
    d. Submitter City:
    e. Submitter State:
    f. Submitter Phone Number (optional, submitter determines BCl or 
Public):
    g. Submitter Email (optional, submitter determines BCl or Public):
2. If applicable, please provide contact information of third-party 
representative
    a. Third Party Firm/Association Name:
    b. Third Party First Name:
    c. Third Party Last Name:
    d. Third Party City:
    e. Third Party State:
    f. Third Party Phone Number (optional, can be submitted as CBI):
    g. Third Party Email (optional, can be submitted as CBI):
3. 8- or 10-digit HTSUS item number- Use numerical characters only with 
no special characters (Example: 12345678). The U.S. International Trade 
Commission's HTS Online Reference Tool (https://hts.usitc.gov/) is a 
useful tool for helping to determine the U.S. tariff classification of 
your product.
4. Product Description (e.g., product characteristics, function, 
application, principal or end use within the critical sector, etc.)
5. What is the relevant supply chain sector
6. Provide relevant industrial economic subsector (if any)

    Commerce is particularly interested in how products are used within 
a supply chain.
    Please refer back to the Federal Register notice associated with 
Docket ID ITA-2022-0010 on https://www.regulations.gov for additional 
submission information.
    A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not 
required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for 
failure to comply with an information collection subject to the 
requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the 
information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number. The 
approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 0625-
0143. Without this approval, we could not conduct this information 
collection. Public reporting for this information collection is 
estimated to be approximately 30 minutes per response, including the 
time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, 
gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing 
the information collection. All responses to this information 
collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate 
or any other aspect of this information collection, including 
suggestions for reducing this burden to the International Trade 
Administration, Attn: Tobias Reynolds at [email protected].

[FR Doc. 2022-21418 Filed 10-3-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DR-P