Request for Comments on Promoting Supply Chain Resilience, 16608-16610 [2024-04869]
Download as PDF
<![CDATA[
16608
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 46 / Thursday, March 7, 2024 / Notices
(Authority: 22 U.S.C. 2656 and 5 U.S.C. 552)
Leslie W. Hunt,
Coast Guard Liaison Officer, Office of Ocean
and Polar Affairs, Department of State.
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
[Docket Number USTR–2024–0002]
Request for Comments on Promoting
Supply Chain Resilience
[FR Doc. 2024–04894 Filed 3–6–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4710–09–P
Office of the United States
Trade Representative.
ACTION: Request for comments and
notice of public hearing.
AGENCY:
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
[Public Notice: 12354]
Notice of Determinations; Culturally
Significant Object Being Imported for
Exhibition—Determinations: ‘‘David
Medalla: In Conversation With the
Cosmos’’ Exhibition
Notice is hereby given of the
following determinations: I hereby
determine that a certain object being
imported from abroad pursuant to an
agreement with its foreign owner or
custodian for temporary display in the
exhibition ‘‘David Medalla: In
Conversation with the Cosmos’’ at the
Armand Hammer Museum of Art and
Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California,
and at possible additional exhibitions or
venues yet to be determined, is of
cultural significance, and, further, that
its temporary exhibition or display
within the United States as
aforementioned is in the national
interest. I have ordered that Public
Notice of these determinations be
published in the Federal Register.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Reed Liriano, Program Coordinator,
Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S.
Department of State (telephone: 202–
632–6471; email: section2459@
state.gov). The mailing address is U.S.
Department of State, L/PD, 2200 C Street
NW (SA–5), Suite 5H03, Washington,
DC 20522–0505.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
foregoing determinations were made
pursuant to the authority vested in me
by the Act of October 19, 1965 (79 Stat.
985; 22 U.S.C. 2459), Executive Order
12047 of March 27, 1978, the Foreign
Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of
1998 (112 Stat. 2681, et seq.; 22 U.S.C.
6501 note, et seq.), Delegation of
Authority No. 234 of October 1, 1999,
Delegation of Authority No. 236–3 of
August 28, 2000, and Delegation of
Authority No. 523 of December 22,
2021.
khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
Nicole L. Elkon,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Professional
and Cultural Exchanges, Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, Department
of State.
[FR Doc. 2024–04859 Filed 3–6–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4710–05–P
VerDate Sep<11>2014
16:13 Mar 06, 2024
Jkt 262001
The Office of the United
States Trade Representative (USTR)
requests comments and will hold a
public hearing to inform objectives and
strategies that advance U.S. supply
chain resilience in trade negotiations,
enforcement, and other initiatives.
DATES: You must submit comments and
responses in accordance with the
following schedule:
April 12, 2024: Due date for filing
requests to appear and a summary of
expected testimony at the public
hearing.
April 22, 2024: Due date for
submission of written comments.
May 2, 2024: USTR will convene a
public hearing in the main hearing room
of the U.S. International Trade
Commission, 500 E Street SW,
Washington, DC 20436 beginning at
10:00 a.m.
May 16, 2024: Due date for
submission of post-hearing written
comments from persons who testified at
the public hearing.
ADDRESSES: USTR strongly prefers
electronic submissions made through
the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://
www.regulations.gov (Regulations.gov).
The instructions for submitting
comments are in sections IV and V
below. The docket number is USTR–
2024–0002. For alternatives to on-line
submissions, please contact Sandy
McKinzy at (202) 395–9483 in advance
of the deadline.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Special Counsel Victor Ban at (202)
395–5962 or supplychain@ustr.eop.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
SUMMARY:
I. Background
Strengthening our supply chains is a
critical component of the Biden-Harris
Administration’s efforts to advance our
worker-centered trade policy, create
sustainable economic growth, ensure
that our economy is more resilient in
the face of supply shocks, and enhance
U.S. economic security. From the
COVID–19 pandemic to Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine, Americans
have felt first-hand the impacts of
supply chain disruptions, which
include volatile prices for critical
PO 00000
Frm 00088
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
consumer goods and medical products
and widespread product shortages that
contribute to inflationary dynamics.
Further, global supply chains have been
designed to maximize short-term
efficiency and minimize costs, leading
to greater vulnerability and
unsustainable dependencies, and
furthermore have promoted trade that
may not reflect our core values, like
labor standards and environmental
protection.
This is why the Administration is
undertaking a whole-of-government
effort to proactively strengthen domestic
manufacturing and to secure trusted
supply chains through strategic
arrangements with trusted partners
(friend-shoring) and with regional
partners (near-shoring). The President is
using all the tools at his disposal,
including new authorities under the
CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation
Reduction Act, and Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law, to incentivize the reshoring and domestic expansion of
critical supply chains. Enduring
resilience will require new investments
in infrastructure, new incentives to
increase the supply of key inputs, and
new forms of cooperation with allies
and trading partners to prevent and
withstand supply chain disruptions and
mitigate risks of price spikes and
volatility that could contribute to
inflationary dynamics.
To advance these policy priorities on
behalf of the American people, USTR
has been crafting a new approach to
trade and investment policy that
promotes supply chain resilience.
Resilient supply chains provide a range
of sources for critical inputs; adapt,
rebound, and recover with agility when
faced with economic shocks; uphold
labor rights and environmental
protections; and strengthen the
domestic manufacturing base and
workforce that drive economic growth
and world-class American innovation.
Over the last several decades,
however, U.S. trade and investment
policy—including rules related to
supply chains—were designed to
incentivize short-term cost-efficiency
and drive tariff liberalization, with the
goal of creating an unfettered global
marketplace. This approach helped
shape producers’ decision-making that,
in many cases, fostered geographically
concentrated and operationally complex
supply chains. For instance, natural
disasters overseas in 2011 disrupted
‘‘just-in-time’’ supply chains with
significant negative impacts for U.S.
automakers. In geopolitically fraught
regions, the challenges are frequently
even greater; when low cost is the driver
of sourcing decisions, and absent
E:\FR\FM\07MRN1.SGM
07MRN1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 46 / Thursday, March 7, 2024 / Notices
khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
incentives for improving standards over
time, production becomes increasingly
consolidated in economies with lower
labor standards, weaker environmental
protections, and transparency and
governance challenges.1 This is the race
to the bottom. It leaves critical sectors
vulnerable to non-market policies and
practices, economic coercion, and other
unfair trade practices, and deprives
consumers of goods whose production
reflects our core values. It has also
contributed to the hollowing out of the
American industrial base and vital U.S.
jobs, and harmed many of our
communities and working families,
undermining support for democracy
itself.
Under the Biden-Harris
Administration, USTR endeavors to
empower American workers and
businesses, large and small, that are
recalibrating and rebuilding secure and
trusted supply chains for resilience,
through a new approach to trade and
investment policy—one that is
supported by innovative strategies,
tools, and mechanisms, and also
integrated with domestic economic
policy to position U.S. manufacturing
and services for continued leadership
and competitiveness. This approach
also entails collaborating with trading
partners and allies to incentivize a race
to the top through stronger coordination
and alignment on labor and
environmental protections within
trusted networks, and to build our
middle classes together, rather than
pitting them against each other.
Through trade negotiations, efforts to
enforce fair trade, and other engagement
with trading partners, USTR seeks to
advance and implement these principles
of supply chain resilience—
transparency, diversity, security, and
sustainability. To promote transparency,
USTR confronts supply chain risks
arising from unfair trade and
competition practices among our trading
partners. To enhance diversity, USTR
creates opportunities for businesses of
all sizes to increase sourcing options,
including those located domestically
and in underserved communities.2 To
bolster security, USTR takes trade action
1 The original Bretton Woods vision for trade,
embodied in the Charter of the International Trade
Organization, included labor standards and
exemptions from certain trade rules for
conservation agreements. However, the rules never
entered into force because certain American trade
associations, in conjunction with Members of
Congress who supported weakening domestic labor
rights, opposed U.S. ratification of the Charter.
2 The term ‘‘underserved communities’’ refers to
those populations, as well as geographic
communities, that have been systematically denied
the opportunity to participate fully in aspects of
economic, social, and civic life, as defined in
Executive Orders 13985 and 14020.
VerDate Sep<11>2014
16:13 Mar 06, 2024
Jkt 262001
to facilitate the strengthening of agile
supply chains with trusted networks
sharing our values, including through
friend-shoring and near-shoring in
furtherance of high-quality economic
growth. And to support sustainability,
USTR works to promote respect for
labor standards and environmental
protections governing global supply
chains and to strengthen those
standards and protections.
By strengthening resilient supply
chains, trade and investment policy can
help ensure the prosperity of American
workers, businesses, and communities,
foster a broad American industrial base,
and fortify our partnerships with trusted
partners and allies.
II. Public Comments
USTR invites comments to inform the
development of trade and investment
policy initiatives that promote supply
chain resilience, as outlined above.
Responses should:
• Be written in clear, concise, and
plain language.
• Include the name and a brief
description of the individual or
organization submitting the comment.
• If applicable, identify the specific
question(s) the comment addresses.
Commenters should submit
information related to one or more of
the following questions:
1. How can U.S. trade and investment
policy, in conjunction with relevant
domestic incentive measures, better
support growth and investment in
domestic manufacturing and services?
2. What existing or new tools could
help ensure that growth in domestic
manufacturing and services does not
undergo the same offshoring that we
have experienced over the past few
decades?
3. How can U.S. trade and investment
policy promote a virtuous cycle and
‘‘race to the top’’ through stronger
coordination and alignment on labor
and environmental protections within
trusted networks among regional and
like-minded trading partners and allies?
4. What are examples of trade and
investment policy tools that potentially
could be deployed in the following
sectors to enhance supply chain
resilience? In these sectors, what
features of the current policy landscape
are working well, or less well, to
advance resilience?
• Aerospace and aerospace
components.
• Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
• Automobiles and automotive parts.
• Call centers, business processing
operations, and related services.
• Critical minerals, including for
electric vehicle and large-scale energy
storage batteries, and related recycling.
PO 00000
Frm 00089
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
16609
• Metals.
• Pharmaceutical and medical goods.
• Semiconductors, microelectronics,
and inputs thereto.
• Renewable energy generation,
transmission, and storage, including
solar and wind technology and inputs
thereto.
• Textiles, such as yarns, fabrics,
apparel, and other finished goods.
5. What additional sectors may need
dedicated trade and investment policy
approaches to advance supply chain
resilience? What should such
approaches entail? With respect to those
sectors, what features of the current
policy landscape are working well, or
less well, to advance resilience?
6. Across sectors, how does access to
capital equipment, manufacturing
equipment, and technology support
supply chain resilience for U.S.
producers, and is there a role for trade
and investment policy?
7. How can the development of
technical standards and regulations
support supply chain resilience?
8. There is concern that preferential
rules of origin in free trade agreements
can operate as a ‘‘backdoor’’ benefiting
goods and/or firms from countries that
are not party to the agreements and are
not bound by labor and environmental
commitments. What actions could be
taken to mitigate these risks and
maximize production in the parties?
What policies could support strong
rules of origin and adherence to rules of
origin?
9. What factors are driving supply
chain and sourcing decisions, and how
does trade and investment policy
impact them? How do companies factor
geopolitical risk into their global and
domestic manufacturing and sourcing
decisions? How do companies take into
account traceability and transparency
considerations in supply chain and
sourcing decisions?
10. To what extent is supply chain
resilience shaping capital allocation
decisions among industry and
investors?
11. How can supply chain resilience
be measured, including the costs of
insufficient resilience, and the impacts
of trade and investment policy on
resilience? What are appropriate
quantitative or qualitative data to
consider?
12. How can U.S. trade and
investment policy support supply
chains that are inclusive of small
disadvantaged businesses and
underserved businesses, including
minority-owned and women-owned
businesses, veteran-owned businesses,
service-disabled veteran owned small
businesses, and HUBZone businesses,
E:\FR\FM\07MRN1.SGM
07MRN1
16610
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 46 / Thursday, March 7, 2024 / Notices
and promote trade opportunities in
underserved communities?
khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
III. Hearing Participation
USTR will convene a public hearing
in the main hearing room of the U.S.
International Trade Commission, 500 E
Street SW, Washington, DC 20436,
beginning at 10:00 a.m. on May 2, 2024.
You must submit requests to appear at
the hearing by April 12, 2024. The
request to appear must include a
summary of testimony, and may be
accompanied by a pre-hearing
submission. Remarks at the hearing will
be limited to five minutes to allow for
possible questions from USTR staff.
USTR may arrange regional hearings or
meetings subsequent to the public
hearing noted above.
IV. Requirements for Submissions
To be assured of consideration,
submit any request to appear at the
hearing by the April 12, 2024 deadline,
any written comments by the April 22,
2024 deadline, and any post-hearing
written comments by the May 16, 2024
deadline. All submissions must be in
English. USTR strongly encourages
submissions via Regulations.gov. The
docket number is USTR–2024–0002.
To submit via Regulations.gov, use
Docket Number USTR–2024–0002 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.’ Regulations.gov
allows users to make submissions by
filling in a ‘type comment’ field, or by
attaching a document using the ‘upload
file’ field. USTR prefers that you
provide submissions in an attached
document named according to the
following protocol, as appropriate:
Commenter Name or Organization_
Supply Chain Resilience. If you provide
submissions in an attached document,
please type ‘‘see attached comments’’ in
the ‘comment’ field on the online
submission form.
Requests to appear at the hearing
must include the name, address, email
address, and telephone number of the
person presenting the testimony in the
‘type comment’ field. Attach a summary
of the testimony, and a pre-hearing
submission if provided, by attaching a
document using the ‘upload file’ field.
The file name should include the name
of the person who will be presenting the
testimony. In addition, please submit a
request to appear by email to Special
Counsel Victor Ban, at supplychain@
VerDate Sep<11>2014
16:13 Mar 06, 2024
Jkt 262001
ustr.eop.gov. In the subject line of the
email, please include the name of the
person who will be presenting the
testimony, followed by ‘Request to
Appear’. In the body of the email,
include the name, address, email
address, and telephone number of the
person presenting testimony.
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.
Please include any information that
might appear in a cover letter, exhibits,
annexes, or other attachments in the
same file as the comment itself, rather
than submitting them as separate files.
Please include the name, email
address, and telephone number of an
individual USTR can contact if there are
issues or questions with the submission.
You will receive a tracking number
upon completion of the submission
procedure at Regulations.gov. The
tracking number is confirmation that
Regulations.gov received your
submission. Keep the confirmation for
your records. USTR is not able to
provide technical assistance for
Regulations.gov.
For further information on using
Regulations.gov, please consult the
resources provided on the website by
clicking on ‘How to Use Regulations.gov
’ on the bottom of the home page. You
can contact the Regulations.gov help
desk at regulationshelpdesk@gsa.gov or
1–866–498–2945 for help with technical
questions on submitting comments on
Regulations.gov.
If you are unable to submit through
Regulations.gov after seeking assistance
from the help desk, please contact
Sandy McKinzy at (202) 395–9483
before transmitting your application and
in advance of the deadline to arrange for
an alternative method of transmission.
USTR will not accept hand-delivered
submissions. USTR may not consider
submissions that you do not make in
accordance with these instructions.
General information concerning USTR
is available at https://www.ustr.gov.
V. Business Confidential Information
(BCI) Submissions
If you ask USTR to treat information
you submit as BCI, you must certify that
the information is business confidential
and that you would not customarily
release it to the public. For any
comments submitted electronically
containing BCI, the file name of the
business confidential version should
begin with the characters ‘BCI.’ You
must clearly mark any page containing
BCI with ‘BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL’
PO 00000
Frm 00090
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
on the top of that page. Filers of
submissions containing BCI also must
submit a public version that will be
placed in the docket for public
inspection. The file name of the public
version should begin with the character
‘P.’ Follow the ‘BCI’ and ‘P’ with the
name of the individual or organization
submitting the comments.
VI. Public Viewing of Review
Submissions
USTR will post written submissions
in the docket for public inspection,
except properly designated BCI. You
can view comments on Regulations.gov
by entering Docket Number USTR–
2024–0002 in the search field on the
home page.
Juan Millan,
Acting General Counsel, Office of the United
States Trade Representative.
[FR Doc. 2024–04869 Filed 3–6–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3390–F4–P
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
[Docket No. FAA–2024–0460]
Notice of Intent To Designate as
Abandoned North American Flying
Service Supplemental Type Certificate
No. SA1–150
Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) DOT.
ACTION: Notice of intent to designate
North American Flying Service
Supplemental Type Certificate as
abandoned; request for comments.
AGENCY:
This notice announces the
FAA’s intent to designate North
American Flying Service Supplemental
Type Certificate (STC) No. SA1–150 as
abandoned and make the related
engineering data available upon request.
The FAA has received a request to
provide engineering data concerning
this STC. The FAA has been
unsuccessful in contacting North
American Flying Service concerning the
STC. This action is intended to enhance
aviation safety.
DATES: The FAA must receive all
comments by September 3, 2024.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments on
this notice by any of the following
methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
regulations.gov. Follow the instructions
for submitting comments.
• Mail: Gary Wechsler, AIR–755,
FAA, East Certification Branch, 1701
Columbia Avenue, College Park, Georgia
30337.
SUMMARY:
E:\FR\FM\07MRN1.SGM
07MRN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 46 (Thursday, March 7, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16608-16610]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-04869]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
[Docket Number USTR-2024-0002]
Request for Comments on Promoting Supply Chain Resilience
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Request for comments and notice of public hearing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)
requests comments and will hold a public hearing to inform objectives
and strategies that advance U.S. supply chain resilience in trade
negotiations, enforcement, and other initiatives.
DATES: You must submit comments and responses in accordance with the
following schedule:
April 12, 2024: Due date for filing requests to appear and a
summary of expected testimony at the public hearing.
April 22, 2024: Due date for submission of written comments.
May 2, 2024: USTR will convene a public hearing in the main hearing
room of the U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW,
Washington, DC 20436 beginning at 10:00 a.m.
May 16, 2024: Due date for submission of post-hearing written
comments from persons who testified at the public hearing.
ADDRESSES: USTR strongly prefers electronic submissions made through
the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov
(Regulations.gov). The instructions for submitting comments are in
sections IV and V below. The docket number is USTR-2024-0002. For
alternatives to on-line submissions, please contact Sandy McKinzy at
(202) 395-9483 in advance of the deadline.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Special Counsel Victor Ban at (202)
395-5962 or [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
Strengthening our supply chains is a critical component of the
Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to advance our worker-centered
trade policy, create sustainable economic growth, ensure that our
economy is more resilient in the face of supply shocks, and enhance
U.S. economic security. From the COVID-19 pandemic to Russia's full-
scale invasion of Ukraine, Americans have felt first-hand the impacts
of supply chain disruptions, which include volatile prices for critical
consumer goods and medical products and widespread product shortages
that contribute to inflationary dynamics. Further, global supply chains
have been designed to maximize short-term efficiency and minimize
costs, leading to greater vulnerability and unsustainable dependencies,
and furthermore have promoted trade that may not reflect our core
values, like labor standards and environmental protection.
This is why the Administration is undertaking a whole-of-government
effort to proactively strengthen domestic manufacturing and to secure
trusted supply chains through strategic arrangements with trusted
partners (friend-shoring) and with regional partners (near-shoring).
The President is using all the tools at his disposal, including new
authorities under the CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act,
and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to incentivize the re-shoring and
domestic expansion of critical supply chains. Enduring resilience will
require new investments in infrastructure, new incentives to increase
the supply of key inputs, and new forms of cooperation with allies and
trading partners to prevent and withstand supply chain disruptions and
mitigate risks of price spikes and volatility that could contribute to
inflationary dynamics.
To advance these policy priorities on behalf of the American
people, USTR has been crafting a new approach to trade and investment
policy that promotes supply chain resilience. Resilient supply chains
provide a range of sources for critical inputs; adapt, rebound, and
recover with agility when faced with economic shocks; uphold labor
rights and environmental protections; and strengthen the domestic
manufacturing base and workforce that drive economic growth and world-
class American innovation.
Over the last several decades, however, U.S. trade and investment
policy--including rules related to supply chains--were designed to
incentivize short-term cost-efficiency and drive tariff liberalization,
with the goal of creating an unfettered global marketplace. This
approach helped shape producers' decision-making that, in many cases,
fostered geographically concentrated and operationally complex supply
chains. For instance, natural disasters overseas in 2011 disrupted
``just-in-time'' supply chains with significant negative impacts for
U.S. automakers. In geopolitically fraught regions, the challenges are
frequently even greater; when low cost is the driver of sourcing
decisions, and absent
[[Page 16609]]
incentives for improving standards over time, production becomes
increasingly consolidated in economies with lower labor standards,
weaker environmental protections, and transparency and governance
challenges.\1\ This is the race to the bottom. It leaves critical
sectors vulnerable to non-market policies and practices, economic
coercion, and other unfair trade practices, and deprives consumers of
goods whose production reflects our core values. It has also
contributed to the hollowing out of the American industrial base and
vital U.S. jobs, and harmed many of our communities and working
families, undermining support for democracy itself.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The original Bretton Woods vision for trade, embodied in the
Charter of the International Trade Organization, included labor
standards and exemptions from certain trade rules for conservation
agreements. However, the rules never entered into force because
certain American trade associations, in conjunction with Members of
Congress who supported weakening domestic labor rights, opposed U.S.
ratification of the Charter.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USTR endeavors to empower
American workers and businesses, large and small, that are
recalibrating and rebuilding secure and trusted supply chains for
resilience, through a new approach to trade and investment policy--one
that is supported by innovative strategies, tools, and mechanisms, and
also integrated with domestic economic policy to position U.S.
manufacturing and services for continued leadership and
competitiveness. This approach also entails collaborating with trading
partners and allies to incentivize a race to the top through stronger
coordination and alignment on labor and environmental protections
within trusted networks, and to build our middle classes together,
rather than pitting them against each other.
Through trade negotiations, efforts to enforce fair trade, and
other engagement with trading partners, USTR seeks to advance and
implement these principles of supply chain resilience--transparency,
diversity, security, and sustainability. To promote transparency, USTR
confronts supply chain risks arising from unfair trade and competition
practices among our trading partners. To enhance diversity, USTR
creates opportunities for businesses of all sizes to increase sourcing
options, including those located domestically and in underserved
communities.\2\ To bolster security, USTR takes trade action to
facilitate the strengthening of agile supply chains with trusted
networks sharing our values, including through friend-shoring and near-
shoring in furtherance of high-quality economic growth. And to support
sustainability, USTR works to promote respect for labor standards and
environmental protections governing global supply chains and to
strengthen those standards and protections.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ The term ``underserved communities'' refers to those
populations, as well as geographic communities, that have been
systematically denied the opportunity to participate fully in
aspects of economic, social, and civic life, as defined in Executive
Orders 13985 and 14020.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
By strengthening resilient supply chains, trade and investment
policy can help ensure the prosperity of American workers, businesses,
and communities, foster a broad American industrial base, and fortify
our partnerships with trusted partners and allies.
II. Public Comments
USTR invites comments to inform the development of trade and
investment policy initiatives that promote supply chain resilience, as
outlined above. Responses should:
Be written in clear, concise, and plain language.
Include the name and a brief description of the individual
or organization submitting the comment.
If applicable, identify the specific question(s) the
comment addresses.
Commenters should submit information related to one or more of the
following questions:
1. How can U.S. trade and investment policy, in conjunction with
relevant domestic incentive measures, better support growth and
investment in domestic manufacturing and services?
2. What existing or new tools could help ensure that growth in
domestic manufacturing and services does not undergo the same
offshoring that we have experienced over the past few decades?
3. How can U.S. trade and investment policy promote a virtuous
cycle and ``race to the top'' through stronger coordination and
alignment on labor and environmental protections within trusted
networks among regional and like-minded trading partners and allies?
4. What are examples of trade and investment policy tools that
potentially could be deployed in the following sectors to enhance
supply chain resilience? In these sectors, what features of the current
policy landscape are working well, or less well, to advance resilience?
Aerospace and aerospace components.
Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
Automobiles and automotive parts.
Call centers, business processing operations, and related
services.
Critical minerals, including for electric vehicle and
large-scale energy storage batteries, and related recycling.
Metals.
Pharmaceutical and medical goods.
Semiconductors, microelectronics, and inputs thereto.
Renewable energy generation, transmission, and storage,
including solar and wind technology and inputs thereto.
Textiles, such as yarns, fabrics, apparel, and other
finished goods.
5. What additional sectors may need dedicated trade and investment
policy approaches to advance supply chain resilience? What should such
approaches entail? With respect to those sectors, what features of the
current policy landscape are working well, or less well, to advance
resilience?
6. Across sectors, how does access to capital equipment,
manufacturing equipment, and technology support supply chain resilience
for U.S. producers, and is there a role for trade and investment
policy?
7. How can the development of technical standards and regulations
support supply chain resilience?
8. There is concern that preferential rules of origin in free trade
agreements can operate as a ``backdoor'' benefiting goods and/or firms
from countries that are not party to the agreements and are not bound
by labor and environmental commitments. What actions could be taken to
mitigate these risks and maximize production in the parties? What
policies could support strong rules of origin and adherence to rules of
origin?
9. What factors are driving supply chain and sourcing decisions,
and how does trade and investment policy impact them? How do companies
factor geopolitical risk into their global and domestic manufacturing
and sourcing decisions? How do companies take into account traceability
and transparency considerations in supply chain and sourcing decisions?
10. To what extent is supply chain resilience shaping capital
allocation decisions among industry and investors?
11. How can supply chain resilience be measured, including the
costs of insufficient resilience, and the impacts of trade and
investment policy on resilience? What are appropriate quantitative or
qualitative data to consider?
12. How can U.S. trade and investment policy support supply chains
that are inclusive of small disadvantaged businesses and underserved
businesses, including minority-owned and women-owned businesses,
veteran-owned businesses, service-disabled veteran owned small
businesses, and HUBZone businesses,
[[Page 16610]]
and promote trade opportunities in underserved communities?
III. Hearing Participation
USTR will convene a public hearing in the main hearing room of the
U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC
20436, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on May 2, 2024. You must submit requests
to appear at the hearing by April 12, 2024. The request to appear must
include a summary of testimony, and may be accompanied by a pre-hearing
submission. Remarks at the hearing will be limited to five minutes to
allow for possible questions from USTR staff. USTR may arrange regional
hearings or meetings subsequent to the public hearing noted above.
IV. Requirements for Submissions
To be assured of consideration, submit any request to appear at the
hearing by the April 12, 2024 deadline, any written comments by the
April 22, 2024 deadline, and any post-hearing written comments by the
May 16, 2024 deadline. All submissions must be in English. USTR
strongly encourages submissions via Regulations.gov. The docket number
is USTR-2024-0002.
To submit via Regulations.gov, use Docket Number USTR-2024-0002 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.'
Regulations.gov allows users to make submissions by filling in a `type
comment' field, or by attaching a document using the `upload file'
field. USTR prefers that you provide submissions in an attached
document named according to the following protocol, as appropriate:
Commenter Name or Organization_Supply Chain Resilience. If you provide
submissions in an attached document, please type ``see attached
comments'' in the `comment' field on the online submission form.
Requests to appear at the hearing must include the name, address,
email address, and telephone number of the person presenting the
testimony in the `type comment' field. Attach a summary of the
testimony, and a pre-hearing submission if provided, by attaching a
document using the `upload file' field. The file name should include
the name of the person who will be presenting the testimony. In
addition, please submit a request to appear by email to Special Counsel
Victor Ban, at [email protected]. In the subject line of the
email, please include the name of the person who will be presenting the
testimony, followed by `Request to Appear'. In the body of the email,
include the name, address, email address, and telephone number of the
person presenting testimony.
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.
Please include any information that might appear in a cover letter,
exhibits, annexes, or other attachments in the same file as the comment
itself, rather than submitting them as separate files.
Please include the name, email address, and telephone number of an
individual USTR can contact if there are issues or questions with the
submission.
You will receive a tracking number upon completion of the
submission procedure at Regulations.gov. The tracking number is
confirmation that Regulations.gov received your submission. Keep the
confirmation for your records. USTR is not able to provide technical
assistance for Regulations.gov.
For further information on using Regulations.gov, please consult
the resources provided on the website by clicking on `How to Use
Regulations.gov ' on the bottom of the home page. You can contact the
Regulations.gov help desk at [email protected] or 1-866-498-
2945 for help with technical questions on submitting comments on
Regulations.gov.
If you are unable to submit through Regulations.gov after seeking
assistance from the help desk, please contact Sandy McKinzy at (202)
395-9483 before transmitting your application and in advance of the
deadline to arrange for an alternative method of transmission. USTR
will not accept hand-delivered submissions. USTR may not consider
submissions that you do not make in accordance with these instructions.
General information concerning USTR is available at https://www.ustr.gov.
V. Business Confidential Information (BCI) Submissions
If you ask USTR to treat information you submit as BCI, you must
certify that the information is business confidential and that you
would not customarily release it to the public. For any comments
submitted electronically containing BCI, the file name of the business
confidential version should begin with the characters `BCI.' You must
clearly mark any page containing BCI with `BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL' on
the top of that page. Filers of submissions containing BCI also must
submit a public version that will be placed in the docket for public
inspection. The file name of the public version should begin with the
character `P.' Follow the `BCI' and `P' with the name of the individual
or organization submitting the comments.
VI. Public Viewing of Review Submissions
USTR will post written submissions in the docket for public
inspection, except properly designated BCI. You can view comments on
Regulations.gov by entering Docket Number USTR-2024-0002 in the search
field on the home page.
Juan Millan,
Acting General Counsel, Office of the United States Trade
Representative.
[FR Doc. 2024-04869 Filed 3-6-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3390-F4-P
