Request for Comments To Compile the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, 36069-36070 [2017-16195]
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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 147 / Wednesday, August 2, 2017 / Notices
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
[Docket Number USTR–2017–0013]
Request for Comments To Compile the
National Trade Estimate Report on
Foreign Trade Barriers
Office of the United States
Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
Section 181 of the Trade Act
of 1974, as amended, requires the Office
of the United States Trade
Representative (USTR) annually to
publish the National Trade Estimate
Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE).
The Trade Policy Staff Committee
(TPSC) is asking interested persons to
submit written comments to assist the
TPSC in identifying significant barriers
to U.S. exports of goods, services, and
U.S. foreign direct investment for
inclusion in the NTE.
Section 1377 of the Omnibus Trade
and Competitiveness Act of 1988
(Section 1377) requires USTR annually
to review the operation and
effectiveness of all U.S. trade
agreements regarding
telecommunications products and
services that are in force with respect to
the United States. USTR will consider
written comments in response to this
notice regarding the trade barriers
pertinent to the conduct of the review
called for in Section 1377.
DATES: We must receive all written
comments no later than 11:59 p.m.,
October 25, 2017.
ADDRESSES: We strongly prefer
electronic submissions made through
the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments in
section 4 below. The docket number is
USTR–2017–0013. For alternatives to
on-line submissions, please contact
Yvonne Jamison, Trade Policy Staff
Committee, at (202) 395–3475.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Direct questions to Yvonne Jamison at
(202) 395–3475.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
SUMMARY:
sradovich on DSKBCFCHB2PROD with NOTICES
1. Background
The NTE sets out an inventory of the
most important foreign barriers affecting
U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S.
foreign direct investment, and
protection of intellectual property
rights. The inventory facilitates U.S.
negotiations aimed at reducing or
eliminating these barriers. The report
also provides a valuable tool in
enforcing U.S. trade laws and
strengthening the rules-based trading
VerDate Sep<11>2014
19:43 Aug 01, 2017
Jkt 241001
system. You can find the 2017 NTE
Report on USTR’s Web site at https://
www.ustr.gov under the tab ‘‘Reports’’.
To ensure compliance with the NTE’s
statutory mandate and the Trump
Administration’s commitment to focus
on the most significant foreign trade
barriers, USTR will be guided by the
existence of active private sector interest
in deciding which restrictions to
include in the NTE.
2. Topics on Which the TPSC Seeks
Information
To assist USTR in preparing the NTE,
commenters should submit information
related to one or more of the following
categories of foreign trade barriers:
1. Import policies (e.g., tariffs and
other import charges, quantitative
restrictions, import licensing, and
customs barriers).
2. Government procurement
restrictions (e.g., ‘‘buy national policies’’
and closed bidding).
3. Export subsidies (e.g., export
financing on preferential terms,
subsidies provided to equipment
manufacturers contingent on export and
agricultural export subsidies that
displace U.S. exports in third country
markets).
4. Lack of intellectual property
protection (e.g., inadequate patent,
copyright, and trademark regimes).
5. 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, unnecessary or
discriminatory technical regulations or
standards for telecommunications
services, and barriers to the provision of
services by professionals).
6. 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).
7. Government-tolerated
anticompetitive conduct of state-owned
or private firms that restrict the sale or
purchase of U.S. goods or services in the
foreign country’s markets.
8. Trade restrictions affecting
electronic commerce (e.g., tariff and
non-tariff measures, burdensome and
discriminatory regulations and
standards, and discriminatory taxation).
9. Trade restrictions implemented
through unwarranted sanitary and
phytosanitary measures, including
unwarranted measures justified for
purposes of protecting food safety, and
animal and plant life or health.
PO 00000
Frm 00144
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
36069
10. Trade restrictions implemented
through unwarranted standards,
conformity assessment procedures, or
technical regulations (Technical Barriers
to Trade) that may have as their
objective protecting national security
requirements, preventing deceptive
practices, or protecting human health or
safety, animal or plant life or health, or
the environment, but that can be
formulated or implemented in ways that
create significant barriers to trade
(including unnecessary or
discriminatory technical regulations or
standards for telecommunications
products).
11. Other barriers (e.g., barriers that
encompass more than one category,
such as bribery and corruption, or that
affect a single sector).
In addition, Section 1377 (19 U.S.C.
3106) requires USTR annually to review
the operation and effectiveness of all
U.S. trade agreements regarding
telecommunications products and
services that are in force with respect to
the United States. The purpose of the
review is to determine whether any act,
policy, or practice of a country that has
entered into a trade agreement or other
telecommunications trade agreement
with the United States is inconsistent
with the terms of such agreement or
otherwise denies U.S. firms, within the
context of the terms of such agreements,
mutually advantageous market
opportunities for telecommunications
products and services.
We invite commenters to identify
those barriers covered in submissions
that may operate as ‘‘localization
barriers to trade.’’ Localization barriers
are measures designed to protect, favor,
or stimulate domestic industries,
services providers, and/or intellectual
property at the expense of goods,
services, or intellectual property from
other countries, including the provision
of subsidies linked to local production.
For more information on localization
barriers, please go to https://
www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/localizationbarriers.
Commenters should place particular
emphasis on any practices that may
violate U.S. trade agreements. The TPSC
also is interested in receiving new or
updated information pertinent to the
barriers covered in the 2017 NTE as well
as information on new barriers. If USTR
does not include in the NTE information
that it receives pursuant to this notice,
it will maintain the information for
potential use in future discussions or
negotiations with trading partners.
3. Estimate of Increase in Exports
Each comment should include an
estimate of the potential increase in U.S.
E:\FR\FM\02AUN1.SGM
02AUN1
36070
Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 147 / Wednesday, August 2, 2017 / Notices
sradovich on DSKBCFCHB2PROD with NOTICES
exports that would result from removing
any foreign trade barrier the comment
identifies, as well as a description of the
methodology the commenter used to
derive the estimate. Commenters should
express estimates 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. These estimates will help USTR
conduct comparative analyses of a
barrier’s effect over a range of
industries.
4. Requirements for Submissions
In order to be assured of
consideration, we must receive your
written comments in English by 11:59
p.m. on October 25, 2017. USTR
strongly encourages commenters to
make on-line submissions, using the
www.regulations.gov Web site. On the
first page of the submission, please
identify it as ‘‘Comments Regarding
Foreign Trade Barriers to U.S. Exports
for 2018 Reporting.’’ Commenters
providing information on foreign trade
barriers in more than one country
should, whenever possible, provide a
separate submission for each country.
To submit comments via
www.regulations.gov, enter docket
number USTR–2017–0013 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 and click
on the link entitled ‘‘Comment Now!’’
For further information on using the
www.regulations.gov Web site, please
consult the resources provided on the
Web site by clicking on ‘‘How to Use
Regulations.gov’’ on the bottom of the
home page. We will not accept handdelivered submissions.
The www.regulations.gov Web site
allows users to submit comments by
filling in a ‘‘Type Comment’’ field or by
attaching a document using an ‘‘Upload
File’’ field. USTR prefers that you
submit comments in an attached
document. If you attach a document,
please identify the name of the country
to which the submission pertains in the
‘‘Type Comment’’ field. For example—
‘‘See attached comments with respect to
(name of country).’’ USTR prefers
submissions in Microsoft Word (.doc) or
Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). If you use an
application other than those two, please
indicate the name of the application in
the ‘‘Type Comment’’ field.
For any comments submitted
electronically containing business
confidential information, the file name
of the business confidential version
should begin with the characters ‘‘BC’’.
Any page containing business
VerDate Sep<11>2014
19:43 Aug 01, 2017
Jkt 241001
confidential information must be clearly
marked ‘‘BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL’’
on the top of that page. Filers of
submissions containing business
confidential information also must
submit a public version of their
comments that we will place in the
docket for public inspection. The file
name of the public version should begin
with the character ‘‘P’’. The ‘‘BC’’ and
‘‘P’’ should be followed by the name of
the person or entity submitting the
comments. Filers submitting comments
containing no business confidential
information should name their file using
the name of the person or entity
submitting the comments.
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 submission itself, not as
separate files.
As noted, USTR strongly urges
submitters to file comments through
www.regulations.gov. You must make
any alternative arrangements with
Yvonne Jamison in advance of
transmitting a comment. You can
contact Ms. Jamison at (202) 395–3475.
General information concerning USTR
is available at www.ustr.gov.
We will post comments in the docket
for public inspection, except business
confidential information. You can view
comments on the www.regulations.gov
Web site by entering the relevant docket
number in the search field on the home
page.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ronald Baumgarten, Office of
Agricultural Affairs, (202) 395–9583 or
Ronald_Baumgarten@ustr.eop.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant
to Additional U.S. Note 5 to Chapter 17
of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of
the United States (HTS), the United
States maintains WTO TRQs for imports
of raw cane and refined sugar.
Section 404(d)(3) of the Uruguay
Round Agreements Act (19 U.S.C.
3601(d)(3)) authorizes the President to
allocate the in-quota quantity of a TRQ
for any agricultural product among
supplying countries or customs areas.
The President delegated this authority
to the United States Trade
Representative under Presidential
Proclamation 6763 (60 FR 1007, January
4, 1995).
On May 6, 2016 (81 FR 27390), the
Secretary of Agriculture established the
FY2017 WTO TRQ for imported raw
cane sugar at the minimum to which the
United States is committed pursuant to
the WTO Uruguay Round Agreements
(1,117,195 metric tons raw value
(MTRV) conversion factor: 1 metric ton
= 1.10231125 short tons.). On May 27,
2016 (81 FR 33729), USTR provided
notice of country-by-country allocations
of the FY2017 in-quota quantity of the
WTO TRQ for imported raw cane sugar.
Based on consultation with quota
holders, USTR is reallocating 86,495
MTRV of the original TRQ quantity from
those countries that are unable to fill
their FY2017 allocated raw cane sugar
quantities. USTR is allocating the
86,495 MTRV to the following countries
in the amounts specified below:
Edward Gresser,
Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee, Office
of the United States Trade Representative.
Country
[FR Doc. 2017–16195 Filed 8–1–17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3290–F7–P
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Reallocation of Unused Fiscal Year
2017 Tariff-Rate Quota Volume for Raw
Cane Sugar
Office of the United States
Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The Office of the United
States Trade Representative (USTR) is
providing notice of country-by-country
reallocations of the fiscal year (FY) 2017
in-quota quantity of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) tariff-rate quota
(TRQ) for imported raw cane sugar.
DATES: This notice is applicable on
August 2, 2017.
SUMMARY:
PO 00000
Frm 00145
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
Argentina ..........................
Australia ............................
Belize ................................
Brazil .................................
Colombia ...........................
Costa Rica ........................
Ecuador ............................
El Salvador .......................
Fiji .....................................
Guatemala ........................
Guyana .............................
Honduras ..........................
India ..................................
Jamaica ............................
Malawi ...............................
Mauritius ...........................
Mozambique .....................
Nicaragua .........................
Panama ............................
Peru ..................................
Philippines ........................
South Africa ......................
Swaziland .........................
E:\FR\FM\02AUN1.SGM
02AUN1
FY 2017 raw
cane sugar
unused
reallocation
(MTRV)
4,756
9,180
1,217
16,038
2,655
1,659
1,217
2,876
995
5,309
1,327
1,106
885
1,217
1,106
1,327
1,438
2,323
3,208
4,535
14,932
2,544
1,770
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 147 (Wednesday, August 2, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36069-36070]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-16195]
[[Page 36069]]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
[Docket Number USTR-2017-0013]
Request for Comments To Compile the National Trade Estimate
Report on Foreign Trade Barriers
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Section 181 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, requires the
Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) annually to
publish the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers
(NTE). The Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) is asking interested
persons to submit written comments to assist the TPSC in identifying
significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods, services, and U.S.
foreign direct investment for inclusion in the NTE.
Section 1377 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988
(Section 1377) requires USTR annually to review the operation and
effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements regarding telecommunications
products and services that are in force with respect to the United
States. USTR will consider written comments in response to this notice
regarding the trade barriers pertinent to the conduct of the review
called for in Section 1377.
DATES: We must receive all written comments no later than 11:59 p.m.,
October 25, 2017.
ADDRESSES: We strongly prefer electronic submissions made through the
Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments in section 4 below. The docket
number is USTR-2017-0013. For alternatives to on-line submissions,
please contact Yvonne Jamison, Trade Policy Staff Committee, at (202)
395-3475.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Direct questions to Yvonne Jamison at
(202) 395-3475.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. Background
The NTE sets out an inventory of the most important foreign
barriers affecting U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. foreign
direct investment, and protection of intellectual property rights. The
inventory facilitates U.S. negotiations aimed at reducing or
eliminating these barriers. The report also provides a valuable tool in
enforcing U.S. trade laws and strengthening the rules-based trading
system. You can find the 2017 NTE Report on USTR's Web site at https://www.ustr.gov under the tab ``Reports''. To ensure compliance with the
NTE's statutory mandate and the Trump Administration's commitment to
focus on the most significant foreign trade barriers, USTR will be
guided by the existence of active private sector interest in deciding
which restrictions to include in the NTE.
2. Topics on Which the TPSC Seeks Information
To assist USTR in preparing the NTE, commenters should submit
information related to one or more of the following categories of
foreign trade barriers:
1. Import policies (e.g., tariffs and other import charges,
quantitative restrictions, import licensing, and customs barriers).
2. Government procurement restrictions (e.g., ``buy national
policies'' and closed bidding).
3. Export subsidies (e.g., export financing on preferential terms,
subsidies provided to equipment manufacturers contingent on export and
agricultural export subsidies that displace U.S. exports in third
country markets).
4. Lack of intellectual property protection (e.g., inadequate
patent, copyright, and trademark regimes).
5. 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, unnecessary or discriminatory
technical regulations or standards for telecommunications services, and
barriers to the provision of services by professionals).
6. 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).
7. Government-tolerated anticompetitive conduct of state-owned or
private firms that restrict the sale or purchase of U.S. goods or
services in the foreign country's markets.
8. Trade restrictions affecting electronic commerce (e.g., tariff
and non-tariff measures, burdensome and discriminatory regulations and
standards, and discriminatory taxation).
9. Trade restrictions implemented through unwarranted sanitary and
phytosanitary measures, including unwarranted measures justified for
purposes of protecting food safety, and animal and plant life or
health.
10. Trade restrictions implemented through unwarranted standards,
conformity assessment procedures, or technical regulations (Technical
Barriers to Trade) that may have as their objective protecting national
security requirements, preventing deceptive practices, or protecting
human health or safety, animal or plant life or health, or the
environment, but that can be formulated or implemented in ways that
create significant barriers to trade (including unnecessary or
discriminatory technical regulations or standards for
telecommunications products).
11. Other barriers (e.g., barriers that encompass more than one
category, such as bribery and corruption, or that affect a single
sector).
In addition, Section 1377 (19 U.S.C. 3106) requires USTR annually
to review the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements
regarding telecommunications products and services that are in force
with respect to the United States. The purpose of the review is to
determine whether any act, policy, or practice of a country that has
entered into a trade agreement or other telecommunications trade
agreement with the United States is inconsistent with the terms of such
agreement or otherwise denies U.S. firms, within the context of the
terms of such agreements, mutually advantageous market opportunities
for telecommunications products and services.
We invite commenters to identify those barriers covered in
submissions that may operate as ``localization barriers to trade.''
Localization barriers are measures designed to protect, favor, or
stimulate domestic industries, services providers, and/or intellectual
property at the expense of goods, services, or intellectual property
from other countries, including the provision of subsidies linked to
local production. For more information on localization barriers, please
go to https://www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/localization-barriers.
Commenters should place particular emphasis on any practices that
may violate U.S. trade agreements. The TPSC also is interested in
receiving new or updated information pertinent to the barriers covered
in the 2017 NTE as well as information on new barriers. If USTR does
not include in the NTE information that it receives pursuant to this
notice, it will maintain the information for potential use in future
discussions or negotiations with trading partners.
3. Estimate of Increase in Exports
Each comment should include an estimate of the potential increase
in U.S.
[[Page 36070]]
exports that would result from removing any foreign trade barrier the
comment identifies, as well as a description of the methodology the
commenter used to derive the estimate. Commenters should express
estimates 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. These
estimates will help USTR conduct comparative analyses of a barrier's
effect over a range of industries.
4. Requirements for Submissions
In order to be assured of consideration, we must receive your
written comments in English by 11:59 p.m. on October 25, 2017. USTR
strongly encourages commenters to make on-line submissions, using the
www.regulations.gov Web site. On the first page of the submission,
please identify it as ``Comments Regarding Foreign Trade Barriers to
U.S. Exports for 2018 Reporting.'' Commenters providing information on
foreign trade barriers in more than one country should, whenever
possible, provide a separate submission for each country.
To submit comments via www.regulations.gov, enter docket number
USTR-2017-0013 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 and click on the link
entitled ``Comment Now!'' For further information on using the
www.regulations.gov Web site, please consult the resources provided on
the Web site by clicking on ``How to Use Regulations.gov'' on the
bottom of the home page. We will not accept hand-delivered submissions.
The www.regulations.gov Web site allows users to submit comments by
filling in a ``Type Comment'' field or by attaching a document using an
``Upload File'' field. USTR prefers that you submit comments in an
attached document. If you attach a document, please identify the name
of the country to which the submission pertains in the ``Type Comment''
field. For example--``See attached comments with respect to (name of
country).'' USTR prefers submissions in Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe
Acrobat (.pdf). If you use an application other than those two, please
indicate the name of the application in the ``Type Comment'' field.
For any comments submitted electronically containing business
confidential information, the file name of the business confidential
version should begin with the characters ``BC''. Any page containing
business confidential information must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS
CONFIDENTIAL'' on the top of that page. Filers of submissions
containing business confidential information also must submit a public
version of their comments that we will place in the docket for public
inspection. The file name of the public version should begin with the
character ``P''. The ``BC'' and ``P'' should be followed by the name of
the person or entity submitting the comments. Filers submitting
comments containing no business confidential information should name
their file using the name of the person or entity submitting the
comments.
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 submission itself, not as separate files.
As noted, USTR strongly urges submitters to file comments through
www.regulations.gov. You must make any alternative arrangements with
Yvonne Jamison in advance of transmitting a comment. You can contact
Ms. Jamison at (202) 395-3475. General information concerning USTR is
available at www.ustr.gov.
We will post comments in the docket for public inspection, except
business confidential information. You can view comments on the
www.regulations.gov Web site by entering the relevant docket number in
the search field on the home page.
Edward Gresser,
Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee, Office of the United States Trade
Representative.
[FR Doc. 2017-16195 Filed 8-1-17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3290-F7-P