Notice2021-19934
Request for Comments on Significant Foreign Trade Barriers for the National Trade Estimate Report
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Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
September 15, 2021
Issuing agencies
Trade Representative, Office of United States
Abstract
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), through the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC), publishes the National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE Report) each year. USTR invites comments to assist it and the TPSC in identifying significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S. foreign direct investment, and the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights for inclusion in the NTE Report. USTR also will consider responses to this notice as part of the annual review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements regarding telecommunications products and services that are in force with respect to the United States.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 176 (Wednesday, September 15, 2021)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 176 (Wednesday, September 15, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51436-51438]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2021-19934]
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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
[Docket Number USTR-2021-0016]
Request for Comments on Significant Foreign Trade Barriers for
the National Trade Estimate Report
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR),
through the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC), publishes the National
Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE Report) each year.
USTR invites comments to assist it and the TPSC in identifying
significant barriers to U.S. exports of goods and services, U.S.
foreign direct investment, and the protection and enforcement of
intellectual property rights for inclusion in the NTE Report. USTR also
will consider responses to this notice as part of the annual review of
the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements regarding
telecommunications products and services that are in force with respect
to the United States.
DATES: October 26, 2021 at midnight EST: Deadline for submission of
comments.
ADDRESSES: USTR strongly prefers electronic submissions made through
the Federal eRulemaking Portal: <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>
(<a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>). The instructions for submitting comments are in
section IV below. The docket number is USTR-2021-0016. For alternatives
to online submissions, please contact Spencer Smith at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#99cae9fcf7fafcebb7d5b7caf4f0edf1abd9eceaedebb7fcf6e9b7fef6ef"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c596b5a0aba6a0b7eb89eb96a8acb1adf785b0b6b1b7eba0aab5eba2aab3">[email protected]</span></a> or (202) 395-2974 before transmitting a
comment and in advance of the deadline.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Spencer Smith at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#653615000b0600174b294b36080c110d5725101611174b000a154b020a13"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="94c7e4f1faf7f1e6bad8bac7f9fde0fca6d4e1e7e0e6baf1fbe4baf3fbe2">[email protected]</span></a> or (202) 395-2974.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
Section 181 of the Trade Act of 1974 as amended (19 U.S.C. 2241),
requires USTR annually to publish the NTE Report, which sets out an
inventory of the most significant foreign barriers affecting U.S.
exports of goods and services, including agricultural commodities, U.S.
intellectual property, U.S. foreign direct investment by U.S. persons,
especially if such investment has implications for trade in goods or
services, and U.S. electronic commerce. The inventory facilitates U.S.
negotiations aimed at reducing or eliminating these barriers and is a
valuable tool in enforcing U.S. trade laws and strengthening the rules-
based trading system. You can find the 2021 NTE Report on USTR's
website at <a href="https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/reports-and-publications">https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/reports-and-publications</a>. To ensure compliance with the statutory
mandate for the NTE Report and the Administration's commitment to focus
on the most significant foreign trade barriers, USTR will take comments
in response to this notice into account in deciding which restrictions
to include in the NTE Report.
II. Topics on Which the TPSC Seeks Information
To assist USTR in preparing the NTE Report, commenters should
submit information related to one or more of the following categories
of foreign trade barriers:
1. Import policies. Examples include tariffs and other import
charges, quantitative restrictions, import licensing, pre-shipment
inspection, customs barriers and shortcomings in trade facilitation or
in valuation
[[Page 51437]]
practices, and other market access barriers.
2. Technical barriers to trade. Examples include unnecessarily
trade restrictive or discriminatory standards, conformity assessment
procedures, labeling, or technical regulations, including unnecessary
or discriminatory technical regulations or standards for
telecommunications products.
3. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Examples include measures
applied to protect food safety, or animal and plant life or health that
are unnecessarily trade restrictive, discriminatory, or not based on
scientific evidence.
4. Government procurement restrictions. Examples include closed
bidding and bidding processes that lack transparency.
5. Intellectual property protection. Examples include inadequate
patent, copyright, and trademark regimes, trade secret theft, and
inadequate enforcement of intellectual property rights.
6. Services. Examples include prohibitions or restrictions on
foreign participation in the market, discriminatory licensing
requirements or standards, local-presence requirements, and
unreasonable restrictions on what services may be offered.
7. Digital trade and electronic commerce. Examples include barriers
to cross-border data flows, including data localization requirements,
discriminatory practices affecting trade in digital products,
restrictions on the provision of internet-enabled services, and other
restrictive technology requirements.
8. Investment. Examples include limitations on foreign equity
participation and on access to foreign government-funded research and
development programs, local content requirements, technology transfer
requirements and export performance requirements, and restrictions on
repatriation of earnings, capital, fees, and royalties.
9. Subsidies, especially export subsidies and local content
subsidies. Examples of export subsidies include subsidies contingent
upon export performance, and agricultural export subsidies that
displace U.S. exports in third country markets. Examples of local
content subsidies include subsidies contingent on the purchase or use
of domestic rather than imported goods.
10. Competition. Examples include government-tolerated
anticompetitive conduct of state-owned or private firms that restricts
the sale or purchase of U.S. goods or services in the foreign country's
markets or abuse of competition laws to inhibit trade; fairness and due
process concerns by companies involved in competition investigatory and
enforcement proceedings in the country.
11. State-owned enterprises. Examples include subsidies to and from
industrial state-owned enterprises involved in the manufacture or
production of non-agricultural goods or in the provision of services,
as well as industrial state-owned enterprises that could contribute to
overcapacity, or discriminating against foreign goods or services,
acting inconsistently with commercial considerations in the purchase
and sale of goods and services in cases in which these polices
constitute significant barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of
goods and services, U.S. investment, or U.S. electronic commerce, which
may negatively affect U.S. firms and workers.
12. Labor. Examples include concerns with failures by a government
to protect internationally recognized worker rights, including through
failures to eliminate forced labor, or failures to eliminate
discrimination in respect of employment or occupation, in cases where
these failures influence trade flows or investment decisions in ways
that constitute significant barriers to, or distortions of, U.S.
exports of goods and services, U.S. investment, or U.S. electronic
commerce, which may negatively affect U.S. firms and workers.
Internationally recognized worker rights include the right of
association; the right to organize and bargain collectively; a
prohibition on the use of any form of forced or compulsory labor; a
minimum age for the employment of children, and a prohibition on the
worst forms of child labor; and acceptable conditions of work with
respect to minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational safety and
health.
13. Environment. Examples include concerns with a government's
levels of environmental protection, unsustainable stewardship of
natural resources, and harmful environmental practices that constitute
significant barriers to, or distortions of, U.S. exports of goods and
services, U.S. investment, or U.S. electronic commerce, which may
negatively affect U.S. firms and workers.
14. Other barriers. Examples include barriers that encompass more
than one category, such as bribery and corruption, or that affect a
single sector.
Commenters should submit information related to one or more of the
following export markets to be covered in the report: Algeria, Angola,
the Arab League, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia,
Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Cote d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador,
Ethiopia, the European Union, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong,
India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos,
Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway,
Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand,
Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom,
Uruguay, and Vietnam.
In addition, section 1377 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness
Act of 1988 (19 U.S.C. 3106) (Section 1377) requires USTR annually to
review the operation and effectiveness of U.S. telecommunications trade
agreements that are in force with respect to the United States. The
purpose of the review is to determine whether any foreign government
that is a party to one of those agreements is failing to comply with
that government's obligations or is otherwise denying, within the
context of a relevant agreement, ``mutually advantageous market
opportunities'' to U.S. telecommunication products or services
suppliers. USTR will consider responses to this notice in the review
called for in Section 1377.
Commenters should place particular emphasis on any practices that
may violate U.S. trade agreements. USTR also is interested in receiving
new or updated information pertinent to the barriers covered in the
2021 NTE Report as well as information on new barriers. If USTR does
not include in the 2022 NTE Report information that it receives
pursuant to this notice, it will maintain the information for potential
use in future discussions or negotiations with trading partners.
III. Estimate of Increase in Exports
Each comment should include an estimate of the potential increase
in U.S. exports, foreign direct investment, or electronic commerce that
would result from removing any foreign trade barrier the comment
identifies, as well as a description of the methodology the commenter
used to derive the estimate. Commenters should express estimates within
the following value ranges: Less than $25 million; $25 million to $100
million; $100 million to $500 million; and over $500 million.
IV. Requirements for Submissions
Persons submitting written comments must do so in English and must
identify on the first page of the submission `Comments Regarding
Foreign Trade
[[Page 51438]]
Barriers to U.S. Exports for 2022 Reporting.' Commenters providing
information on foreign trade barriers in more than one country should,
whenever possible, provide a separate submission for each country.
The submission deadline is Tuesday, October 26, 2021, at midnight
EST. USTR strongly encourages commenters to make online submissions,
using <a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>. To submit comments via <a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>, enter
docket number USTR-2021-0016 on the home page and click `search.' The
site will provide a search-results page listing all documents
associated with this docket. Find a reference to this notice and click
on the link entitled `comment now.' For further information on using
<a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>, please consult the resources provided on the website
by clicking on `How to Use <a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>' on the bottom of the home
page.
<a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a> allows users to submit comments by filling in a
`type comment' field, or by attaching a document using an `upload file'
field. USTR prefers that you provide comments in an attached document.
If you attach a document, please identify the name of the country to
which the submission pertains in the `type comment' field, e.g., see
attached comments with respect to (name of country). USTR prefers
submissions in Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). If you
use an application other than those two, please indicate the name of
the application in the `type comment' field.
Filers submitting comments containing no business confidential
information (BCI) should name their file using the name of the person
or entity submitting the comments. For any comments submitted
electronically containing BCI, the file name of the business
confidential version should begin with the characters `BCI.' 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 of their comments that USTR will place 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
person or entity submitting the comments.
Please do not attach separate cover letters to electronic
submissions; rather, include any information that might appear in a
cover letter in the comments themselves. Similarly, to the extent
possible, please include any exhibits, annexes, or other attachments in
the same file as the submission itself, not as separate files.
As noted, USTR strongly urges that you file submissions through
<a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>. You must make any alternative arrangements with
Spencer Smith at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#3d6e4d58535e584f1371136e505449550f7d484e494f1358524d135a524b"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f4a784919a979186dab8daa7999d809cc6b481878086da919b84da939b82">[email protected]</span></a> or (202) 395-2974 before
transmitting a comment and in advance of the deadline.
USTR will post comments in the docket for public inspection, except
properly designated BCI. You can view comments on the <a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>
by entering docket number USTR-2021-0016 in the search field on the
home page. General information concerning USTR is available at <a href="https://www.ustr.gov">https://www.ustr.gov</a>.
Edward Gresser,
Chair of the Trade Policy Staff Committee, Office of the United States
Trade Representative.
[FR Doc. 2021-19934 Filed 9-14-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3290-F1-P
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