Economic Analysis Bureau December 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule amends regulations concerning the reporting requirements for the BE-12, Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States. The BE-12 survey is conducted once every 5 years and covers virtually the entire universe of foreign direct investment in the United States in terms of value. The benchmark survey will be conducted for 2007. BEA is changing the reporting requirements on the BE-12 Benchmark survey to: Increase the exemption level for reporting on the BE-12(LF) (Long Form) from $125 million to $175 million; increase the exemption level for reporting on the BE- 12(SF) (Short Form) from $10 million to $40 million; and increase the exemption level for reporting on the BE-12 Bank Form from $10 million to $15 million. In addition, BEA is amending Form BE-12(X) by: Re-naming it the Form BE-12 Claim for Not Filing and deleting several questions, which will be moved to a new Form BE-12 Mini. The Claim for Not Filing will be completed only by persons that are not subject to the reporting requirements of the BE-12 survey but have been contacted by BEA concerning their reporting status. The BE-12 Mini is an abbreviated form for reporting U.S. affiliates with total assets, sales or gross operating revenues, and net income (loss) less than or equal to $40 million.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) proposes to provide to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data collected from several surveys that it conducts on U.S. direct investment abroad, foreign direct investment in the United States, and U.S. international services transactions for statistical purposes exclusively. In accordance with the requirement of Section 524(d) of the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA), we are providing the opportunity for public comment on this data-sharing action. The data provided to BLS will be used for two purposes: (1) The BLS International Price Program is researching the feasibility of producing price indexes for imports and exports of services, such as financial services, film and tape rentals, and royalties and license fees. BLS will use data from BEA surveys to develop sample frames of companies that trade these services and to directly collect price information from the selected companies. BLS will also use BEA data as weighting sources for the price indexes. Should it prove feasible to produce price indexes for international services, BEA will share data collected in its direct investment and international services surveys with BLS each time BLS draws a new sample and reweights the indexes. BLS will share sample frame and revenue information that it collects with BEA, which will allow BEA to identify errors or omissions in the data collected on its surveys. This data sharing effort will improve the quality of price indexes for imported and exported services that BEA uses in compiling the National Income and Product Accounts. (2) The BLS Division of Foreign Labor Statistics will use BEA data collected on employment, compensation, and (as available) hours worked at the foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational companies to estimate their hourly compensation costs for research comparing the levels and trends of hourly compensation costs of foreign affiliates with the average costs for establishments in the same industries and same host countries as the affiliates.