Request for Comments on Commerce Supply Chain Risk Assessment and IPEF Supply Chains, 47536-47539 [2024-12240]
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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 107 / Monday, June 3, 2024 / Notices
customs purposes only. The written
description of the scope of the investigation
is dispositive.
Appendix II—List of Topics Discussed
in the Preliminary Decision
Memorandum
I. Summary
II. Background
III. Injury Test
IV. Analysis of China’s Financial System
V. Diversification of China’s Economy
VI. Critical Circumstances
VII. Use of Facts Otherwise Available and
Adverse Inferences
VIII. Subsidies Valuation
IX. Benchmarks and Interest Rates
X. Analysis of Programs
XI. Recommendation
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
[FR Doc. 2024–12114 Filed 5–31–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[Docket No. 240530–0148]
Request for Comments on Commerce
Supply Chain Risk Assessment and
IPEF Supply Chains
International Trade
Administration, Department of
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for public
comments.
AGENCY:
The Department of Commerce
(Commerce) seeks public comment to
inform its work on assessing and
analyzing risk in global supply chains.
This includes input into a
determination of an initial list of
‘‘critical sectors’’ and ‘‘key goods’’ as
provided under the Indo-Pacific
Economic Framework for Prosperity
(IPEF) Agreement Relating to Supply
Chain Resilience (Supply Chain
Agreement). The United States’ initial
list will be shared with the IPEF Supply
Chain Council members and will inform
work undertaken pursuant to the
Agreement. Comments will also inform
other analytical tools and methodologies
developed by Commerce’s Industry &
Analysis unit to support resilient supply
chains for U.S. industry.
DATES: To be assured of consideration,
submit any written comments by the
June 21 deadline. Commerce may
consider comments filed after the
deadline.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments,
identified by 240530–0148 by the
following methods:
Online Submission (Strongly
Preferred): Submit all electronic public
comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking
Portal. Go to https://
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SUMMARY:
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www.regulations.gov and enter 240530–
0148 in the Search.
Email Submission to IPEFSCA@
trade.gov: Comments submitted by
email should be machine-readable and
should not be copy-protected.
Kevin Doyle, Policy Advisor for IPEF,
International Trade Administration,
U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401
Constitution Ave NW; telephone 202–
779–0376; or emails at IPEFSCA@
trade.gov.
Ahmad Khalil, Managing Director,
Risk Assessment and Advanced
Analytics, Supply Chain Center,
International Trade Administration,
Industry and Analysis unit, U.S.
Department of Commerce, 1401
Constitution Ave NW; telephone 202–
779–0376; or emails at
supplychaincenter@trade.gov.
Please direct media inquiries to ITA’s
Office of Public Affairs at publicaffairs@
trade.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Building supply chain resilience is a
top priority of the Department of
Commerce, building on a long history of
supply chain work led by the Industry
& Analysis (I&A) unit in the
International Trade Administration
(ITA). I&A is comprised of a broad set
of industry experts with unique
commercial perspectives in
understanding supply chains and
informing and driving policy action. In
2023, the Department launched a firstof its-kind Supply Chain Center to serve
as an analytic engine to help drive
decision-making and policy action on
efforts to strengthen supply chain
resilience, leveraging I&A’s deep
industry expertise, quantitative data,
and advanced analytics to help make
the government’s work on supply chains
more proactive and impactful. The
Center is facilitating collaboration
across I&A, other parts of Commerce,
and other government agencies to
support a proactive approach by the
U.S. government in getting ahead of
supply chain challenges, to be strategic
in setting priorities for policy focus and
action based on data-driven risk
analysis, and to serve as a force
multiplier in improving the targeting
and effectiveness of U.S. government
investments. Across these efforts, the
Department depends on close
partnerships with stakeholders from
government, industry, academia, labor,
and civil society.
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Department of Commerce Supply Chain
Risk Assessment
Central to the Supply Chain Center’s
work are efforts to boost the U.S.
government’s ability to understand
systemic supply chain risks by building
a cross-sectoral risk assessment
framework (the ‘‘tool’’). The tool will
utilize a comprehensive set of indicators
to assess current or prospective supply
chain risk across the U.S. economy,
with an emphasis on risks to national
security, including economic security,
most relevant to the U.S. government.
The goal is to help the U.S. government
more comprehensively and
systematically identify supply chain
vulnerabilities and pursue in-depth
analysis for actionable and evidencebased policy recommendations.
This is the first effort by the U.S.
government to assess supply chain
vulnerability across all major sectors of
the economy. This tool will help the
U.S. government to determine—at the
sectoral, and eventually product, level—
where there are hidden vulnerabilities
that could be addressed through policy
action by the U.S. government and/or
public-private partnerships.
The supply chain risk assessment
framework is an iterative tool. The latest
version of the framework incorporates
upwards of 40 indicators of risk that
relate to a sector’s criticality to the U.S.
government, vulnerability to disruption,
and resilience in the face of disruption.
Examples of criticality of a product or
sector include products listed in the
White House Critical and Emerging
Technologies list, the products required
for the Department of Defense industrial
base, and products central to U.S. public
health and safety, such as
pharmaceuticals and certain nutritional
foods.
The vulnerability indicators cover six
categories of risk: geopolitical;
economic; logistical; business/financial;
technological; and environmental.
Resiliency indicators focus on how
quickly a sector can bounce back from
a disruption, considering levels of
substitutability, unutilized capacity, and
replacement of key inputs.
The Center has been consulting with
relevant external stakeholders in the
development of this tool as well,
including reaching out to dozens of
industry and academic experts. The
vision and success of this framework
depend on close collaboration with
industry stakeholders, as well as those
from government, academia, civil
society, labor, and others, to gather
insights, develop accurate assessments
of risks and mitigation options, and then
take targeted and coordinated action to
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advance U.S. supply chain resiliency
and competitiveness.
The creation of an economy-wide risk
tool is an important element of the
Commerce Department’s Supply Chain
Center work, though not the only
instance in which the Center is
leveraging big data and the qualitative
insights of industry experts and
economists. The Center is also
leveraging analytic tools for targeted
scans of critical sectors; expanding its
ability to model scenarios and evaluate
the potential impacts of proposed policy
actions; and deepening its proactive
analysis through case studies and
replicable and scalable frameworks and
toolkits for supply chain analysis and
policy action. The Center is also
bolstering its ability to produce quickturn analysis in the event of supply
chain disruptions by building
partnerships with academia, civil
society, labor and others as well as
standing playbooks that can help inform
policy responses and industry
engagement.
IPEF List of Critical Sectors and Key
Goods
Commerce’s supply chain resilience
efforts are also being advanced through
the Supply Chain Agreement. Launched
in May 2022 with 13 regional partners—
Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji,
India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of
Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and
Vietnam—IPEF seeks to establish a
platform for long-term economic
engagement and cooperation, and to
tackle present-day challenges.
Negotiations among the 14 IPEF
partners for the Supply Chain
Agreement substantially concluded on
May 27, 2023, and a signing ceremony
of the Agreement was held on
November 14 of that same year. The
Supply Chain Agreement entered into
force on February 24, 2024, after the
fifth partner deposited its instrument of
ratification, acceptance, or approval. As
of May 6, 2024, a total of six partners—
Japan, the United States, Singapore, Fiji,
India, and the Republic of Korea—have
deposited their instruments, in that
order.
Parties to the Supply Chain
Agreement intend to collaborate on
initiatives aimed at strengthening the
resilience and competitiveness of target
supply chains, better preparing for and
responding to supply chain disruptions,
and enhancing the role of workers
across these supply chains. To do this,
the Supply Chain Agreement establishes
three supply chain bodies tasked with
facilitating various forms of
cooperation—a Supply Chain Council, a
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Crisis Response Network, and a Labor
Rights Advisory Board. Parties to the
Supply Chain Agreement shall, and
signatories that have not deposited an
instrument of ratification, acceptance, or
approval may designate representatives
to these bodies to discuss and carry out
this work.
Article 10 of the Supply Chain
Agreement requires the development of
initial lists of ‘‘critical sectors’’ and ‘‘key
goods,’’ which will then be shared
through the Supply Chain Council. The
Parties can change or update these lists
at any time. As the U.S. Government’s
representative to the Council, the
Department of Commerce, through the
International Trade Administration
(ITA), is leading the process to prepare
and submit this list on behalf of the
United States, and intends to update the
list periodically, as appropriate and as
envisioned under the Supply Chain
Agreement.
These lists will, among other things,
inform discussions among the members
of the IPEF Supply Chain Council on
opportunities for collaboration under
the Supply Chain Agreement through
the IPEF Supply Chain Council. Such
collaboration could take the form of
actions to promote business
matchmaking, encourage investment, or
improve policy coordination in areas
impacting supply chains, among others.
The Council may establish teams to
develop Action Plans to provide
recommendations to promote resilience
and competitiveness for critical sectors
or key goods based on the lists
provided. Those critical sectors and key
goods that appear on three or more lists
are eligible for the development of an
Action Plan.
Article 1 of the Supply Chain
Agreement provides the following
definitions of ‘‘critical sectors’’ and ‘‘key
goods’’:
• critical sectors means sectors that
produce goods and supply any related
essential services critical to a Party’s
national security, public health and
safety, or prevention of significant or
widespread economic disruptions, as
identified by that Party in accordance
with Article 10;
• key goods means raw, in-process, or
manufactured materials, articles, or
commodities, the absence of which
could have a significant effect on a
Party’s national security, public health
and safety, or prevention of significant
or widespread economic disruptions, as
identified by that Party in accordance
with Article 10;
Article 10 of the Supply Chain
Agreement further outlines the factors
intended to be considered in identifying
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respective critical sectors and key
goods. These include:
(a) the impact of a potential shortage
on its national security, public health
and safety, or prevention of significant
or widespread economic disruptions;
(b) the level of dependence on a single
supplier or a single country, region, or
geographic location;
(c) geographic factors including actual
or potential transport constraints,
especially for its island or remote
regions;
(d) the availability and reliability of
alternative suppliers or supply
locations;
(e) the extent of imports required to
meet domestic demand;
(f) the availability of domestic
production capacity; or
(g) the extent of interconnectedness
with other critical sectors or key goods.
The Department of Commerce
recognizes the importance of a
deliberative and inclusive review and
selection process for identifying the
United States’ initial list of critical
sectors and key goods under the Supply
Chain Agreement.
To assist in these endeavors,
Commerce requests information from
the public on the topics provided below.
Request for Written Comments
Instructions: This notice is intended
to improve Commerce’s understanding
of public views on how the Department
and I&A should assess risk in global
supply chains, including what
indicators and data sets it should
include in the development of an
economy-wide risk assessment tool, and
how to apply the factors outlined in the
Supply Chain Agreement in its
determination of the United States’
initial list of critical sectors and key
goods under the Supply Chain
Agreement. This notice is a general
solicitation for public comments and
further sets forth specific topics for
discussion and comment. Commerce
seeks broad input from all interested
stakeholders, including U.S. industry,
researchers, labor organizations,
academia, and civil society.
Commenters are encouraged to address
any or all of the following questions and
may respond with general views on how
to apply these factors or provide specific
information about a specific sector or
good. To the extent commenters choose
to respond to the specific questions
asked, responses may be formatted as
the commenter prefers.
Comments will be reviewed by
Commerce staff, including the Supply
Chain Center, the Industry & Analysis
business unit offices, the IPEF team,
and, as appropriate, Commerce
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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 107 / Monday, June 3, 2024 / Notices
contractors, and may be used to inform
the agency’s work on supply chain risk
analysis as outlined above, as well as in
identifying the United States’ initial list
of critical sectors and key goods for
cooperation under the Supply Chain
Agreement. Commerce intends to share
the information received with relevant
U.S. government departments and
agencies, consistent with the BidenHarris Administration’s whole-ofgovernment approach to strengthening
supply chains.
Topics
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General Methodology Questions (To
Inform Commerce’s Supply Chain Risk
Assessment Framework)
• What tools, approaches, and
methodologies do you recommend that
Commerce utilize in order to identify
priority products and sectors at elevated
risk of supply chain disruption,
particularly those of relevance to the
United States based on national
security, including economic security?
• More specifically, what definitions,
indicators, and data sets do you
recommend that Commerce use to
evaluate the following aspects of supply
chain risk:
Æ Criticality of the product or sector
to the United States
Æ Vulnerability of the product or
sector to supply chain disruption
Æ Resiliency of the product or sector
in the face of a supply chain
disruption
• What tools, approaches, and
methodologies could Commerce use to
assess a supply chain’s areas of greatest
vulnerability? How can those
vulnerabilities be quantified and tracked
over time?
• What factors influence your
organization’s evaluation of risk in your
supply chains? What additional data,
information, or analysis from the U.S.
government would you view as valuable
in this assessment?
• How should the U.S. government
leverage technological advancements to
foster data collection, analysis, and
dissemination for both public and
private entities?
• What data, indicia, or criteria might
help Commerce identify those supply
chains where the market would be least
likely to prevent or quickly resolve a
disruption?
IPEF-Related Questions (To Inform the
U.S. List of Critical Sectors and Key
Goods Under the Supply Chain
Agreement)
• How should Commerce assess
‘‘significant or widespread economic
disruptions’’ for purposes of the Supply
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Chain Agreement? What thresholds or
metrics should Commerce consider in
assessing the risk of such disruptions for
the purposes of identifying critical
sectors and key goods?
• Which, if any, of the factors listed
in Article 10 of the Supply Chain
Agreement should Commerce prioritize
in making its determinations of critical
sectors or key goods for cooperation
under the Supply Chain Agreement?
Please offer a justification.
• In your view, bearing in mind the
seven factors outlined above, what
sectors and goods best fit the criteria for
‘‘critical sectors’’ and ‘‘key goods’’ for
cooperation under the Supply Chain
Agreement and why?
• For those sectors and goods that
Commerce should consider ‘‘critical
sectors’’ and ‘‘key goods’’ for
cooperation under the Supply Chain
Agreement, what types of activities,
either by governments, by companies, or
via public-private cooperation, would
be most valuable to the private sector?
• The U.S. Department of Commerce
requests U.S. small businesses
(generally defined by the Small
Business Administration as firms with
fewer than 500 employees) or
organizations representing U.S. small
business members that submit
comments to self-identify as such, so
that we may be aware of issues of
particular interest to small businesses.
Requirements for Submissions
To be assured of consideration,
submit any written comments by the
June 21 deadline. All submissions must
be in English. Commerce strongly
encourages submissions via
Regulations.gov. Commerce may
consider comments filed after the
deadline. The docket number is
240530–0148.
To submit via Regulations.gov, use
Docket Number 240530–0148 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. Commerce prefers that you
provide submissions in an attached
document named according to the
following protocol, as appropriate:
Commenter Name or Organization and
‘‘Commerce Supply Chain’’. If you
provide submissions in an attached
document, please type ‘see attached
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comments’ in the ‘comment’ field on the
online submission form.
Please include the name, email
address, and telephone number of an
individual Commerce 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.
Commerce 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 Kevin
Doyle at 202–779–0376 or IPEFSCA@
trade.gov or Ahmad Khalil at 202–963–
9696 or supplychaincenter@trade.gov
before transmitting your application and
in advance of the deadline to arrange for
an alternative method of transmission.
ITA will not accept hand-delivered
submissions. ITA may not consider
submissions that you do not make in
accordance with these instructions.
General information concerning
Commerce’s Supply Chain Center is
available at https://www.trade.gov/
supply-chain-center. Commerce’s work
on IPEF is available at https://
www.commerce.gov/ipef.
Business Confidential Information (BCI)
Submissions
If you ask Commerce 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.
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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 107 / Monday, June 3, 2024 / Notices
Public Viewing of Review Submissions
ITA 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 240530–0148
in the search field on the home page.
Public Burden Statement
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 0690–0038.
Without this approval, we could not
conduct this information collection.
Public reporting for this information
collection is estimated to be
approximately 2 hours 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
Paperwork Reduction Act Program:
pra@trade.gov or to Katelynn Byers, ITA
PRA Process Administrator:
Katelynn.Byers@trade.gov.
Dated: May 30, 2024.
Sharon H Yuan,
Counselor and Chief Negotiator for IPEF.
[FR Doc. 2024–12240 Filed 5–30–24; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510–25–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
[RTID 0648–XD889]
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Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to
Specified Activities; Taking Marine
Mammals Incidental to U.S. Navy
Maintenance and Pile Replacement
Project in Puget Sound, Washington
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; issuance of incidental
harassment authorizations.
AGENCY:
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In accordance with the
regulations implementing the Marine
Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as
amended, notification is hereby given
that NMFS has issued an incidental
harassment authorization (IHA) to the
United States Navy (Navy) to
incidentally harass marine mammals
during construction activities associated
with the Naval Facilities Engineering
Command Northwest (NAVFAC NW)
Maintenance and Pile Replacement
(MPR) project in Puget Sound,
Washington.
DATES: These authorizations are
effective from July 1, 2024 through June
30, 2025 and July 1, 2025 through June
30, 2026.
ADDRESSES: Electronic copies of the
application and supporting documents,
as well as a list of the references cited
in this document, may be obtained
online at: https://
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/
marine-mammal-protection/incidentaltake-authorizations-constructionactivities. In case of problems accessing
these documents, please call the contact
listed below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kate
Fleming, Office of Protected Resources,
NMFS, (301) 427–8401.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
SUMMARY:
Background
The MMPA prohibits the ‘‘take’’ of
marine mammals, with certain
exceptions. Sections 101(a)(5)(A) and
(D) of the MMPA (16 U.S.C. 1361 et
seq.) direct the Secretary of Commerce
(as delegated to NMFS) to allow, upon
request, the incidental, but not
intentional, taking of small numbers of
marine mammals by U.S. citizens who
engage in a specified activity (other than
commercial fishing) within a specified
geographical region if certain findings
are made and either regulations are
proposed or, if the taking is limited to
harassment, a notice of a proposed IHA
is provided to the public for review.
Authorization for incidental takings
shall be granted if NMFS finds that the
taking will have a negligible impact on
the species or stock(s) and will not have
an unmitigable adverse impact on the
availability of the species or stock(s) for
taking for subsistence uses (where
relevant). Further, NMFS must prescribe
the permissible methods of taking and
other ‘‘means of effecting the least
practicable adverse impact’’ on the
affected species or stocks and their
habitat, paying particular attention to
rookeries, mating grounds, and areas of
similar significance, and on the
availability of the species or stocks for
taking for certain subsistence uses
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(referred to in shorthand as
‘‘mitigation’’); and requirements
pertaining to the monitoring and
reporting of the takings. The definitions
of all applicable MMPA statutory terms
cited above are included in the relevant
sections below.
Summary of Request
On October 5, 2023, NMFS received a
request from the Navy for two
consecutive 1-year IHAs to take marine
mammals incidental to construction
associated with the Navy’s NAVFAC
NW MPR project in Puget Sound,
Washington. Following NMFS’ review
of the application, the Navy submitted
a revised version on December 14, 2023,
additional information on January 10,
2024, and the marine mammal
monitoring plan on January 23, 2024.
Final revisions to both the application
and the marine mammal monitoring
plan were provided on March 2, 2024.
The application was deemed adequate
and complete on February 27, 2024. The
Navy’s request is for take of 10 species
of marine mammals by Level B
harassment and, for harbor seal, Level B
and Level A harassment. Neither the
Navy nor NMFS expect serious injury or
mortality to result from this activity.
Therefore, IHAs are appropriate.
NMFS previously issued a regulation
and associated Letters of Authorization
(LOAs) to the Navy for related work (84
FR 15963, April 17, 2019); https://
www.fisheries.noaa.gov/action/
incidental-take-authorization-us-navymarine-structure-maintenance-and-pilereplacement-wa). The Navy complied
with all the requirements (e.g.,
mitigation, monitoring, and reporting) of
the previous LOAs, and information
regarding their monitoring results may
be found in the Effects of Specified
Activities on Marine Mammals and
Their Habitat of the Federal Register
Notice for the proposed IHA. Please
refer to the notice of proposed IHAs (89
FR 25580, April 11, 2024).
There are no changes from the
Proposed IHAs to the Final IHAs.
Description of the Specified Activity
Overview
Maintaining existing wharfs and piers
is vital to sustaining the Navy’s mission
and ensuring readiness. To ensure
continuance of necessary missions at
the four installations, the Navy must
conduct annual maintenance and repair
activities at existing marine waterfront
structures, including removal and
replacement of piles of various types
and sizes. The Navy refers to this
program as the Marine Structure MPR
program.
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 107 (Monday, June 3, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47536-47539]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-12240]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[Docket No. 240530-0148]
Request for Comments on Commerce Supply Chain Risk Assessment and
IPEF Supply Chains
AGENCY: International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; request for public comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) seeks public comment to
inform its work on assessing and analyzing risk in global supply
chains. This includes input into a determination of an initial list of
``critical sectors'' and ``key goods'' as provided under the Indo-
Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Agreement Relating to
Supply Chain Resilience (Supply Chain Agreement). The United States'
initial list will be shared with the IPEF Supply Chain Council members
and will inform work undertaken pursuant to the Agreement. Comments
will also inform other analytical tools and methodologies developed by
Commerce's Industry & Analysis unit to support resilient supply chains
for U.S. industry.
DATES: To be assured of consideration, submit any written comments by
the June 21 deadline. Commerce may consider comments filed after the
deadline.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by 240530-0148 by the
following methods:
Online Submission (Strongly Preferred): Submit all electronic
public comments via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to https://www.regulations.gov and enter 240530-0148 in the Search.
Email Submission to [email protected]: Comments submitted by email
should be machine-readable and should not be copy-protected.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Kevin Doyle, Policy Advisor for IPEF, International Trade
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Ave NW;
telephone 202-779-0376; or emails at [email protected].
Ahmad Khalil, Managing Director, Risk Assessment and Advanced
Analytics, Supply Chain Center, International Trade Administration,
Industry and Analysis unit, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401
Constitution Ave NW; telephone 202-779-0376; or emails at
[email protected].
Please direct media inquiries to ITA's Office of Public Affairs at
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Building supply chain resilience is a top priority of the
Department of Commerce, building on a long history of supply chain work
led by the Industry & Analysis (I&A) unit in the International Trade
Administration (ITA). I&A is comprised of a broad set of industry
experts with unique commercial perspectives in understanding supply
chains and informing and driving policy action. In 2023, the Department
launched a first-of its-kind Supply Chain Center to serve as an
analytic engine to help drive decision-making and policy action on
efforts to strengthen supply chain resilience, leveraging I&A's deep
industry expertise, quantitative data, and advanced analytics to help
make the government's work on supply chains more proactive and
impactful. The Center is facilitating collaboration across I&A, other
parts of Commerce, and other government agencies to support a proactive
approach by the U.S. government in getting ahead of supply chain
challenges, to be strategic in setting priorities for policy focus and
action based on data-driven risk analysis, and to serve as a force
multiplier in improving the targeting and effectiveness of U.S.
government investments. Across these efforts, the Department depends on
close partnerships with stakeholders from government, industry,
academia, labor, and civil society.
Department of Commerce Supply Chain Risk Assessment
Central to the Supply Chain Center's work are efforts to boost the
U.S. government's ability to understand systemic supply chain risks by
building a cross-sectoral risk assessment framework (the ``tool''). The
tool will utilize a comprehensive set of indicators to assess current
or prospective supply chain risk across the U.S. economy, with an
emphasis on risks to national security, including economic security,
most relevant to the U.S. government. The goal is to help the U.S.
government more comprehensively and systematically identify supply
chain vulnerabilities and pursue in-depth analysis for actionable and
evidence-based policy recommendations.
This is the first effort by the U.S. government to assess supply
chain vulnerability across all major sectors of the economy. This tool
will help the U.S. government to determine--at the sectoral, and
eventually product, level--where there are hidden vulnerabilities that
could be addressed through policy action by the U.S. government and/or
public-private partnerships.
The supply chain risk assessment framework is an iterative tool.
The latest version of the framework incorporates upwards of 40
indicators of risk that relate to a sector's criticality to the U.S.
government, vulnerability to disruption, and resilience in the face of
disruption.
Examples of criticality of a product or sector include products
listed in the White House Critical and Emerging Technologies list, the
products required for the Department of Defense industrial base, and
products central to U.S. public health and safety, such as
pharmaceuticals and certain nutritional foods.
The vulnerability indicators cover six categories of risk:
geopolitical; economic; logistical; business/financial; technological;
and environmental.
Resiliency indicators focus on how quickly a sector can bounce back
from a disruption, considering levels of substitutability, unutilized
capacity, and replacement of key inputs.
The Center has been consulting with relevant external stakeholders
in the development of this tool as well, including reaching out to
dozens of industry and academic experts. The vision and success of this
framework depend on close collaboration with industry stakeholders, as
well as those from government, academia, civil society, labor, and
others, to gather insights, develop accurate assessments of risks and
mitigation options, and then take targeted and coordinated action to
[[Page 47537]]
advance U.S. supply chain resiliency and competitiveness.
The creation of an economy-wide risk tool is an important element
of the Commerce Department's Supply Chain Center work, though not the
only instance in which the Center is leveraging big data and the
qualitative insights of industry experts and economists. The Center is
also leveraging analytic tools for targeted scans of critical sectors;
expanding its ability to model scenarios and evaluate the potential
impacts of proposed policy actions; and deepening its proactive
analysis through case studies and replicable and scalable frameworks
and toolkits for supply chain analysis and policy action. The Center is
also bolstering its ability to produce quick-turn analysis in the event
of supply chain disruptions by building partnerships with academia,
civil society, labor and others as well as standing playbooks that can
help inform policy responses and industry engagement.
IPEF List of Critical Sectors and Key Goods
Commerce's supply chain resilience efforts are also being advanced
through the Supply Chain Agreement. Launched in May 2022 with 13
regional partners--Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India,
Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam--IPEF seeks to establish
a platform for long-term economic engagement and cooperation, and to
tackle present-day challenges.
Negotiations among the 14 IPEF partners for the Supply Chain
Agreement substantially concluded on May 27, 2023, and a signing
ceremony of the Agreement was held on November 14 of that same year.
The Supply Chain Agreement entered into force on February 24, 2024,
after the fifth partner deposited its instrument of ratification,
acceptance, or approval. As of May 6, 2024, a total of six partners--
Japan, the United States, Singapore, Fiji, India, and the Republic of
Korea--have deposited their instruments, in that order.
Parties to the Supply Chain Agreement intend to collaborate on
initiatives aimed at strengthening the resilience and competitiveness
of target supply chains, better preparing for and responding to supply
chain disruptions, and enhancing the role of workers across these
supply chains. To do this, the Supply Chain Agreement establishes three
supply chain bodies tasked with facilitating various forms of
cooperation--a Supply Chain Council, a Crisis Response Network, and a
Labor Rights Advisory Board. Parties to the Supply Chain Agreement
shall, and signatories that have not deposited an instrument of
ratification, acceptance, or approval may designate representatives to
these bodies to discuss and carry out this work.
Article 10 of the Supply Chain Agreement requires the development
of initial lists of ``critical sectors'' and ``key goods,'' which will
then be shared through the Supply Chain Council. The Parties can change
or update these lists at any time. As the U.S. Government's
representative to the Council, the Department of Commerce, through the
International Trade Administration (ITA), is leading the process to
prepare and submit this list on behalf of the United States, and
intends to update the list periodically, as appropriate and as
envisioned under the Supply Chain Agreement.
These lists will, among other things, inform discussions among the
members of the IPEF Supply Chain Council on opportunities for
collaboration under the Supply Chain Agreement through the IPEF Supply
Chain Council. Such collaboration could take the form of actions to
promote business matchmaking, encourage investment, or improve policy
coordination in areas impacting supply chains, among others. The
Council may establish teams to develop Action Plans to provide
recommendations to promote resilience and competitiveness for critical
sectors or key goods based on the lists provided. Those critical
sectors and key goods that appear on three or more lists are eligible
for the development of an Action Plan.
Article 1 of the Supply Chain Agreement provides the following
definitions of ``critical sectors'' and ``key goods'':
critical sectors means sectors that produce goods and
supply any related essential services critical to a Party's national
security, public health and safety, or prevention of significant or
widespread economic disruptions, as identified by that Party in
accordance with Article 10;
key goods means raw, in-process, or manufactured
materials, articles, or commodities, the absence of which could have a
significant effect on a Party's national security, public health and
safety, or prevention of significant or widespread economic
disruptions, as identified by that Party in accordance with Article 10;
Article 10 of the Supply Chain Agreement further outlines the
factors intended to be considered in identifying respective critical
sectors and key goods. These include:
(a) the impact of a potential shortage on its national security,
public health and safety, or prevention of significant or widespread
economic disruptions;
(b) the level of dependence on a single supplier or a single
country, region, or geographic location;
(c) geographic factors including actual or potential transport
constraints, especially for its island or remote regions;
(d) the availability and reliability of alternative suppliers or
supply locations;
(e) the extent of imports required to meet domestic demand;
(f) the availability of domestic production capacity; or
(g) the extent of interconnectedness with other critical sectors or
key goods.
The Department of Commerce recognizes the importance of a
deliberative and inclusive review and selection process for identifying
the United States' initial list of critical sectors and key goods under
the Supply Chain Agreement.
To assist in these endeavors, Commerce requests information from
the public on the topics provided below.
Request for Written Comments
Instructions: This notice is intended to improve Commerce's
understanding of public views on how the Department and I&A should
assess risk in global supply chains, including what indicators and data
sets it should include in the development of an economy-wide risk
assessment tool, and how to apply the factors outlined in the Supply
Chain Agreement in its determination of the United States' initial list
of critical sectors and key goods under the Supply Chain Agreement.
This notice is a general solicitation for public comments and further
sets forth specific topics for discussion and comment. Commerce seeks
broad input from all interested stakeholders, including U.S. industry,
researchers, labor organizations, academia, and civil society.
Commenters are encouraged to address any or all of the following
questions and may respond with general views on how to apply these
factors or provide specific information about a specific sector or
good. To the extent commenters choose to respond to the specific
questions asked, responses may be formatted as the commenter prefers.
Comments will be reviewed by Commerce staff, including the Supply
Chain Center, the Industry & Analysis business unit offices, the IPEF
team, and, as appropriate, Commerce
[[Page 47538]]
contractors, and may be used to inform the agency's work on supply
chain risk analysis as outlined above, as well as in identifying the
United States' initial list of critical sectors and key goods for
cooperation under the Supply Chain Agreement. Commerce intends to share
the information received with relevant U.S. government departments and
agencies, consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration's whole-of-
government approach to strengthening supply chains.
Topics
General Methodology Questions (To Inform Commerce's Supply Chain Risk
Assessment Framework)
What tools, approaches, and methodologies do you recommend
that Commerce utilize in order to identify priority products and
sectors at elevated risk of supply chain disruption, particularly those
of relevance to the United States based on national security, including
economic security?
More specifically, what definitions, indicators, and data
sets do you recommend that Commerce use to evaluate the following
aspects of supply chain risk:
[cir] Criticality of the product or sector to the United States
[cir] Vulnerability of the product or sector to supply chain
disruption
[cir] Resiliency of the product or sector in the face of a supply
chain disruption
What tools, approaches, and methodologies could Commerce
use to assess a supply chain's areas of greatest vulnerability? How can
those vulnerabilities be quantified and tracked over time?
What factors influence your organization's evaluation of
risk in your supply chains? What additional data, information, or
analysis from the U.S. government would you view as valuable in this
assessment?
How should the U.S. government leverage technological
advancements to foster data collection, analysis, and dissemination for
both public and private entities?
What data, indicia, or criteria might help Commerce
identify those supply chains where the market would be least likely to
prevent or quickly resolve a disruption?
IPEF-Related Questions (To Inform the U.S. List of Critical Sectors and
Key Goods Under the Supply Chain Agreement)
How should Commerce assess ``significant or widespread
economic disruptions'' for purposes of the Supply Chain Agreement? What
thresholds or metrics should Commerce consider in assessing the risk of
such disruptions for the purposes of identifying critical sectors and
key goods?
Which, if any, of the factors listed in Article 10 of the
Supply Chain Agreement should Commerce prioritize in making its
determinations of critical sectors or key goods for cooperation under
the Supply Chain Agreement? Please offer a justification.
In your view, bearing in mind the seven factors outlined
above, what sectors and goods best fit the criteria for ``critical
sectors'' and ``key goods'' for cooperation under the Supply Chain
Agreement and why?
For those sectors and goods that Commerce should consider
``critical sectors'' and ``key goods'' for cooperation under the Supply
Chain Agreement, what types of activities, either by governments, by
companies, or via public-private cooperation, would be most valuable to
the private sector?
The U.S. Department of Commerce requests U.S. small
businesses (generally defined by the Small Business Administration as
firms with fewer than 500 employees) or organizations representing U.S.
small business members that submit comments to self-identify as such,
so that we may be aware of issues of particular interest to small
businesses.
Requirements for Submissions
To be assured of consideration, submit any written comments by the
June 21 deadline. All submissions must be in English. Commerce strongly
encourages submissions via Regulations.gov. Commerce may consider
comments filed after the deadline. The docket number is 240530-0148.
To submit via Regulations.gov, use Docket Number 240530-0148 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. Commerce prefers that you provide submissions in an attached
document named according to the following protocol, as appropriate:
Commenter Name or Organization and ``Commerce Supply Chain''. If you
provide submissions in an attached document, please type `see attached
comments' in the `comment' field on the online submission form.
Please include the name, email address, and telephone number of an
individual Commerce 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.
Commerce 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 Kevin Doyle at 202-779-
0376 or [email protected] or Ahmad Khalil at 202-963-9696 or
[email protected] before transmitting your application and in
advance of the deadline to arrange for an alternative method of
transmission. ITA will not accept hand-delivered submissions. ITA may
not consider submissions that you do not make in accordance with these
instructions. General information concerning Commerce's Supply Chain
Center is available at https://www.trade.gov/supply-chain-center.
Commerce's work on IPEF is available at https://www.commerce.gov/ipef.
Business Confidential Information (BCI) Submissions
If you ask Commerce 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.
[[Page 47539]]
Public Viewing of Review Submissions
ITA 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 240530-0148 in the search
field on the home page.
Public Burden Statement
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 0690-
0038. Without this approval, we could not conduct this information
collection. Public reporting for this information collection is
estimated to be approximately 2 hours 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
Paperwork Reduction Act Program: [email protected] or to Katelynn Byers,
ITA PRA Process Administrator: [email protected].
Dated: May 30, 2024.
Sharon H Yuan,
Counselor and Chief Negotiator for IPEF.
[FR Doc. 2024-12240 Filed 5-30-24; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-25-P
