Request for Public Comment With Respect to the Annual National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, 44785-44786 [E8-17573]
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Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 148 / Thursday, July 31, 2008 / Notices
inspection in the USTR Reading Room.
The USTR Reading Room is open to the
public, by appointment only, from 10
a.m. to 12 noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.,
Monday through Friday. An
appointment to review the file may be
made by calling (202) 395–6186.
Appointments must be scheduled at
least 48 hours in advance.
General information concerning USTR
may be obtained by accessing its
Internet Web site (https://www.ustr.gov).
Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chairman, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. E8–17574 Filed 7–30–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190–W8–P
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Request for Public Comment With
Respect to the Annual National Trade
Estimate Report on Foreign Trade
Barriers
Office of the United States
Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice.
jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 303 of the
Trade and Tariff Act of 1984, as
amended, USTR is required to publish
annually the National Trade Estimate
Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE).
With this notice, the Trade Policy Staff
Committee (TPSC) is requesting
interested parties to assist it in
identifying significant barriers to U.S.
exports of goods, services and overseas
direct investment for inclusion in the
NTE. Particularly important are
impediments materially affecting the
actual and potential financial
performance of an industry sector. The
TPSC invites written comments that
provide views relevant to the issues to
be examined in preparing the NTE.
DATES: Public comments are due not
later than Thursday, November 6, 2008.
ADDRESSES: Submissions by electronic
mail: FR0717@USTR.EOP.GOV.
Submissions by facsimile: Gloria Blue,
Executive Secretary, Trade Policy Staff
Committee, Office of the United States
Trade Representative (202–395–6143).
The public is strongly encouraged to
submit documents electronically rather
than by facsimile. (See requirements for
submissions below.)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Questions regarding the report, its
subject matter or procedural questions
concerning submissions should be
directed to Ms. Gloria Blue, Office of
Policy Coordination, Office of the
United States Trade Representative
(202–395–3475).
VerDate Aug<31>2005
15:53 Jul 30, 2008
Jkt 214001
Last year’s
report may be found on USTR’s Internet
Home Page (https://www.ustr.gov) in the
Document Library under the section on
Reports. In order to ensure compliance
with the statutory mandate for reporting
foreign trade barriers that are
significant, we will focus particularly on
those restrictions where there has been
active private sector interest.
The information submitted should
relate to one or more of the following
ten categories of foreign trade barriers:
(1) Import policies (e.g., tariffs and
other import charges, quantitative
restrictions, import licensing, and
customs barriers);
(2) Standards, testing, labeling, and
certification (including unnecessarily
restrictive application of phytosanitary
standards, refusal to accept U.S.
manufacturers’ self-certification of
conformance to foreign product
standards, and environmental
restrictions);
(3) Government procurement (e.g.,
‘‘buy national’’ policies and closed
bidding);
(4) Export subsidies (e.g., export
financing on preferential terms and
agricultural export subsidies that
displace U.S. exports in third country
markets);
(5) Lack of intellectual property
protection (e.g., inadequate patent,
copyright, and trademark regimes);
(6) Services barriers (e.g., limits on the
range of financial services offered by
foreign financial institutions, regulation
of international data flows, restrictions
on the use of data processing, quotas on
imports of foreign films, and barriers to
the provision of services by
professionals (e.g., lawyers, doctors,
accountants, engineers, nurses, etc.);
(7) Investment barriers (e.g.,
limitations on foreign equity
participation and on access to foreign
government-funded R&D consortia, local
content, technology transfer and export
performance requirements, and
restrictions on repatriation of earnings,
capital, fees and royalties);
(8) Anticompetitive practices with
trade effects tolerated by foreign
governments (including anticompetitive
activities of both state-owned and
private firms that apply to services or to
goods and that restrict the sale of U.S.
products to any firm, not just to foreign
firms);
(9) Trade restrictions affecting
electronic commerce (e.g., tariff and
non-tariff measures, burdensome and
discriminatory regulations and
standards, and discriminatory taxation);
and
(10) Other barriers (i.e., barriers that
encompass more than one category, e.g.,
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
PO 00000
Frm 00084
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44785
bribery and corruption, or that affect a
single sector).
As in the case of last year’s NTE, we
are asking that particular emphasis be
placed on any practices that may violate
U.S. trade agreements. We are also
interested in receiving any new or
updated information pertinent to the
barriers covered in last year’s report as
well as new information. Please note
that the information not used in the
NTE will be maintained for use in future
negotiations.
It is most important that your
submission contain estimates of the
potential increase in exports that would
result from the removal of the barrier, as
well as a clear discussion of the
method(s) by which the estimates were
computed. Estimates should fall within
the following value ranges: Less than $5
million; $5 to $25 million; $25 million
to $50 million; $50 million to $100
million; $100 million to $500 million; or
over $500 million. Such assessments
enhance USTR’s ability to conduct
meaningful comparative analyses of a
barrier’s effect over a range of
industries.
Please note that interested parties
discussing barriers in more than one
country should, whenever possible,
provide a separate submission (i.e., one
that is self-contained) for each country
with the country indicated in the
subject line of each submission. If
separate, country-specific submissions
are not feasible, please identify all
countries covered by a submission in
the subject line of that submission.
Requirements for Submissions: In
order to facilitate prompt processing of
submissions, USTR strongly urges and
prefers electronic (e-mail) submissions
in response to this notice. In the event
an e-mail submission is impossible,
submissions should be made by
facsimile. Facsimile submissions should
not exceed a maximum of 20 pages.
E-mail submissions should be single
copy transmissions in English.
Submissions should use the following
subject line: ‘‘2009 National Trade
Estimate Report—Submission by (sector,
company, association). Documents must
be submitted as either WordPerfect
(‘‘WPD’’), MSWord (‘‘DOC’’), or text
(‘‘TXT’’) file. Documents should not be
submitted as electronic image files or
contain imbedded images (for example,
‘‘JPG’’, ‘‘BMP’’, or ‘‘GIF’’), as these types
of files are generally excessively large.
Supporting Documentation submitted as
spreadsheets is acceptable as Quattro
Pro or Excel, pre-formatted for printing
on 81⁄2 x 11 inch paper. To the extent
possible, any data attachments to the
submission should be included in the
E:\FR\FM\31JYN1.SGM
31JYN1
44786
Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 148 / Thursday, July 31, 2008 / Notices
same file as the submission itself, and
not as separate files.
Petitions will be available for public
inspection by appointment with the
staff of the USTR Public Reading Room,
except for information granted
‘‘business confidential’’ status pursuant
to 15 CFR 2003.6. If the submission
contains business confidential
information, a non-confidential version
of the submission must also be
submitted that indicates where
confidential information was redacted
by inserting asterisks where material
was deleted. In addition, the
confidential submission must be clearly
marked ‘‘BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL’’
in large, bold letters at the top and
bottom of every page of the documents.
The public version that does not contain
business confidential information must
be clearly marked either ‘‘PUBLIC
VERSION’’ or ‘‘NON-CONFIDENTIAL’’
in large, bold letters at the top and
bottom of every page. The file name of
any documents containing business
confidential information attached to an
e-mail transmission should begin with
the characters ‘‘BC-’’, and the file name
of the public version should begin with
the characters ‘‘P-’’. The ‘‘P-’’ or ‘‘BC-’’
should be followed by the name of the
person or party submitting the petition.
Submissions by e-mail should not
include separate cover letters or
messages in the message area of the email; information that might appear in
any cover letter should be included
directly in the submission. The e-mail
address for submissions is
FR0717@ustr.eop.gov. Public versions of
all documents relating to this review
will be available for review shortly after
the due date by appointment in the
USTR Public Reading Room, 1724 F
Street, NW., Washington, DC.
Availability of documents may be
ascertained and appointments may be
made from 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m.
to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, by
calling (202–395–6186).
Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. E8–17573 Filed 7–30–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190–W8–P
jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
OFFICE OF PERSONNEL
MANAGEMENT
Personnel Demonstration Project; Pay
Banding and Performance-Based Pay
Adjustments in the National Nuclear
Security Administration; Correction
Notice of approval of a
demonstration project final plan;
correction.
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
SUMMARY: The U.S. Office of Personnel
Management published a document in
the Federal Register on December 21,
2007, announcing the final approval of
a demonstration project plan for the
U.S. Department of Energy’s National
Nuclear Security Administration. The
document contained three errors.
Notice of Applications for
Deregistration Under Section 8(f) of the
Investment Company Act of 1940
ACTION:
U.S.
Office of Personnel Management: Patsy
Stevens, Systems Innovation Group
Manager, U.S. Office of Personnel
Management, (202) 606–1574.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Correction
In FR Doc. 07–6144 published on
December 21, 2007 (72 FR 72776), make
the following corrections. On page
72792, in the second column, in the
second paragraph under the heading
‘‘Other Pay Administration Provisions,’’
the parenthetical clause in the sixth and
seventh line should read, ‘‘(except as
otherwise provided in this plan).’’
On page 72800, in the third column,
the second paragraph under the section
‘‘X. Waiver of Laws and Regulations’’
should read as follows:
Chapter 51: Classification (except that
(1) section 5103 is retained and
modified after ‘‘finally’’ to read ‘‘the
coverage of positions and employees
under this modified classification
system,’’ (2) sections 5111 and 5112 are
retained with ‘‘grade’’ replaced by ‘‘pay
bands,’’ and (3) for the purpose of
applying any other laws, regulations, or
policies that refer to GS employees or to
chapter 51 of title 5, United States Code,
the modified classification system
established under this plan must be
considered to be a GS classification
system under chapter 51; this includes,
but is not limited to, the reference to the
General Schedule in section 5545(d)
(relating to hazard pay)).
On page 72801, in the second column,
the third paragraph should read as
follows:
Chapter 75, section 7512(3): Adverse
actions (only to the extent necessary to
replace ‘‘grade’’ with ‘‘band’’).
Linda M. Springer,
Director.
[FR Doc. E8–17581 Filed 7–30–08; 8:45 am]
U.S. Office of Personnel
Management.
15:53 Jul 30, 2008
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PO 00000
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July 25, 2008.
The following is a notice of
applications for deregistration under
section 8(f) of the Investment Company
Act of 1940 for the month of July, 2008.
A copy of each application may be
obtained for a fee at the SEC’s Public
Reference Branch (tel. 202–551–5850).
An order granting each application will
be issued unless the SEC orders a
hearing. Interested persons may request
a hearing on any application by writing
to the SEC’s Secretary at the address
below and serving the relevant
applicant with a copy of the request,
personally or by mail. Hearing requests
should be received by the SEC by 5:30
p.m. on August 19, 2008, and should be
accompanied by proof of service on the
applicant, in the form of an affidavit or,
for lawyers, a certificate of service.
Hearing requests should state the nature
of the writer’s interest, the reason for the
request, and the issues contested.
Persons who wish to be notified of a
hearing may request notification by
writing to the Secretary, U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission, 100 F
Street, NE., Washington, DC 20549–
1090.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Diane L. Titus at (202) 551–6810, SEC,
Division of Investment Management,
Office of Investment Company
Regulation, 100 F Street, NE.,
Washington, DC 20549–4041.
Legg Mason Partners Investment Funds,
Inc. [File No. 811–3275]
Summary: Applicant seeks an order
declaring that it has ceased to be an
investment company. On April 16,
2007, each series of applicant
transferred its assets to a corresponding
series of either Legg Mason Partners
Equity Trust or Legg Mason Partners
Income Trust, based on net asset value.
Expenses of approximately $1,016,235
incurred in connection with the
reorganization were paid by applicant
and Legg Mason, Inc., the parent of
applicant’s investment adviser.
Filing Date: The application was filed
on July 16, 2008.
Applicant’s Address: 55 Water St.,
New York, NY 10041.
Delaware Investments Municipal Trust
[File No. 811–6411]
Summary: Applicant seeks an order
declaring that it has ceased to be an
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AGENCY:
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[Release No. IC–28343]
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 148 (Thursday, July 31, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44785-44786]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-17573]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Request for Public Comment With Respect to the Annual National
Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 303 of the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984,
as amended, USTR is required to publish annually the National Trade
Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE). With this notice, the
Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) is requesting interested parties to
assist it in identifying significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods,
services and overseas direct investment for inclusion in the NTE.
Particularly important are impediments materially affecting the actual
and potential financial performance of an industry sector. The TPSC
invites written comments that provide views relevant to the issues to
be examined in preparing the NTE.
DATES: Public comments are due not later than Thursday, November 6,
2008.
ADDRESSES: Submissions by electronic mail: FR0717@USTR.EOP.GOV.
Submissions by facsimile: Gloria Blue, Executive Secretary, Trade
Policy Staff Committee, Office of the United States Trade
Representative (202-395-6143). The public is strongly encouraged to
submit documents electronically rather than by facsimile. (See
requirements for submissions below.)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions regarding the report, its
subject matter or procedural questions concerning submissions should be
directed to Ms. Gloria Blue, Office of Policy Coordination, Office of
the United States Trade Representative (202-395-3475).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Last year's report may be found on USTR's
Internet Home Page (https://www.ustr.gov) in the Document Library under
the section on Reports. In order to ensure compliance with the
statutory mandate for reporting foreign trade barriers that are
significant, we will focus particularly on those restrictions where
there has been active private sector interest.
The information submitted should relate to one or more of the
following ten categories of foreign trade barriers:
(1) Import policies (e.g., tariffs and other import charges,
quantitative restrictions, import licensing, and customs barriers);
(2) Standards, testing, labeling, and certification (including
unnecessarily restrictive application of phytosanitary standards,
refusal to accept U.S. manufacturers' self-certification of conformance
to foreign product standards, and environmental restrictions);
(3) Government procurement (e.g., ``buy national'' policies and
closed bidding);
(4) Export subsidies (e.g., export financing on preferential terms
and agricultural export subsidies that displace U.S. exports in third
country markets);
(5) Lack of intellectual property protection (e.g., inadequate
patent, copyright, and trademark regimes);
(6) Services barriers (e.g., limits on the range of financial
services offered by foreign financial institutions, regulation of
international data flows, restrictions on the use of data processing,
quotas on imports of foreign films, and barriers to the provision of
services by professionals (e.g., lawyers, doctors, accountants,
engineers, nurses, etc.);
(7) Investment barriers (e.g., limitations on foreign equity
participation and on access to foreign government-funded R&D consortia,
local content, technology transfer and export performance requirements,
and restrictions on repatriation of earnings, capital, fees and
royalties);
(8) Anticompetitive practices with trade effects tolerated by
foreign governments (including anticompetitive activities of both
state-owned and private firms that apply to services or to goods and
that restrict the sale of U.S. products to any firm, not just to
foreign firms);
(9) Trade restrictions affecting electronic commerce (e.g., tariff
and non-tariff measures, burdensome and discriminatory regulations and
standards, and discriminatory taxation); and
(10) Other barriers (i.e., barriers that encompass more than one
category, e.g., bribery and corruption, or that affect a single
sector).
As in the case of last year's NTE, we are asking that particular
emphasis be placed on any practices that may violate U.S. trade
agreements. We are also interested in receiving any new or updated
information pertinent to the barriers covered in last year's report as
well as new information. Please note that the information not used in
the NTE will be maintained for use in future negotiations.
It is most important that your submission contain estimates of the
potential increase in exports that would result from the removal of the
barrier, as well as a clear discussion of the method(s) by which the
estimates were computed. Estimates should fall within the following
value ranges: Less than $5 million; $5 to $25 million; $25 million to
$50 million; $50 million to $100 million; $100 million to $500 million;
or over $500 million. Such assessments enhance USTR's ability to
conduct meaningful comparative analyses of a barrier's effect over a
range of industries.
Please note that interested parties discussing barriers in more
than one country should, whenever possible, provide a separate
submission (i.e., one that is self-contained) for each country with the
country indicated in the subject line of each submission. If separate,
country-specific submissions are not feasible, please identify all
countries covered by a submission in the subject line of that
submission.
Requirements for Submissions: In order to facilitate prompt
processing of submissions, USTR strongly urges and prefers electronic
(e-mail) submissions in response to this notice. In the event an e-mail
submission is impossible, submissions should be made by facsimile.
Facsimile submissions should not exceed a maximum of 20 pages.
E-mail submissions should be single copy transmissions in English.
Submissions should use the following subject line: ``2009 National
Trade Estimate Report--Submission by (sector, company, association).
Documents must be submitted as either WordPerfect (``WPD''), MSWord
(``DOC''), or text (``TXT'') file. Documents should not be submitted as
electronic image files or contain imbedded images (for example,
``JPG'', ``BMP'', or ``GIF''), as these types of files are generally
excessively large. Supporting Documentation submitted as spreadsheets
is acceptable as Quattro Pro or Excel, pre-formatted for printing on
8\1/2\ x 11 inch paper. To the extent possible, any data attachments to
the submission should be included in the
[[Page 44786]]
same file as the submission itself, and not as separate files.
Petitions will be available for public inspection by appointment
with the staff of the USTR Public Reading Room, except for information
granted ``business confidential'' status pursuant to 15 CFR 2003.6. If
the submission contains business confidential information, a non-
confidential version of the submission must also be submitted that
indicates where confidential information was redacted by inserting
asterisks where material was deleted. In addition, the confidential
submission must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL'' in large,
bold letters at the top and bottom of every page of the documents. The
public version that does not contain business confidential information
must be clearly marked either ``PUBLIC VERSION'' or ``NON-
CONFIDENTIAL'' in large, bold letters at the top and bottom of every
page. The file name of any documents containing business confidential
information attached to an e-mail transmission should begin with the
characters ``BC-'', and the file name of the public version should
begin with the characters ``P-''. The ``P-'' or ``BC-'' should be
followed by the name of the person or party submitting the petition.
Submissions by e-mail should not include separate cover letters or
messages in the message area of the e-mail; information that might
appear in any cover letter should be included directly in the
submission. The e-mail address for submissions is FR0717@ustr.eop.gov.
Public versions of all documents relating to this review will be
available for review shortly after the due date by appointment in the
USTR Public Reading Room, 1724 F Street, NW., Washington, DC.
Availability of documents may be ascertained and appointments may be
made from 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through
Friday, by calling (202-395-6186).
Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. E8-17573 Filed 7-30-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-W8-P
