Notice2026-04025
Notice of Request for Extension of a Previously Approved Information Collection and Request for Comment; Request for Comment on Designation of Confidential Information
Primary source
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Published
March 2, 2026
Issuing agencies
International Trade Commission
Abstract
This notice announces the intention of the U.S. International Trade Commission (Commission) to request a three-year extension, under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the Act), of the current generic survey clearance that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) previously approved. The Commission uses this clearance to issue information collections for investigations that it is required to conduct under the Tariff Act of 1930, the Trade Act of 1974, and other trade-remedy statutes that require or authorize the Commission to make findings or determinations. The current generic survey clearance is assigned OMB Control No. 3117-0016; it will expire on June 30, 2026. The Commission requests comments concerning the proposed information collections under section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Act; this notice describes such comments in greater detail in the supplementary information section below. In addition, the Commission is seeking public comment on how, if at all, it should revise these questionnaires in light of the decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit cited below.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 40 (Monday, March 2, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 40 (Monday, March 2, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10133-10135]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-04025]
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INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION
Notice of Request for Extension of a Previously Approved
Information Collection and Request for Comment; Request for Comment on
Designation of Confidential Information
AGENCY: United States International Trade Commission.
ACTION: 60-Day notice and request for comment.
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SUMMARY: This notice announces the intention of the U.S. International
Trade Commission (Commission) to request a three-year extension, under
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the Act), of the current generic
survey clearance that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
previously approved. The Commission uses this clearance to issue
information collections for investigations that it is required to
conduct under the Tariff Act of 1930, the Trade Act of 1974, and other
trade-remedy statutes that require or authorize the Commission to make
findings or determinations. The current generic survey clearance is
assigned OMB Control No. 3117-0016; it will expire on June 30, 2026.
The Commission requests comments concerning the proposed information
collections under section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Act; this notice
[[Page 10134]]
describes such comments in greater detail in the supplementary
information section below. In addition, the Commission is seeking
public comment on how, if at all, it should revise these questionnaires
in light of the decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit cited below.
DATES: To assure that the Commission will consider your comments, it
must receive them no later than 60 days after publication of this
notice in the Federal Register.
ADDRESSES: Submit signed comments identified by docket number MISC-048
via the Commission's Electronic Document Information System (EDIS,
<a href="https://edis.usitc.gov">https://edis.usitc.gov</a>) or to Lisa Barton, Secretary to the Commission,
U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E St. SW, Washington, DC
20436.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: You may obtain copies of the proposed
information collection and supporting documentation from Stamen
Borisson, Office of Investigations, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#cebdbaafa3aba0e0aca1bca7bdbda1a08ebbbda7baade0a9a1b8"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5d2e293c303833733f322f342e2e32331d282e34293e733a322b">[email protected]</span></a>, (202)
205-3125. Hearing-impaired persons can obtain information on this
matter by contacting the Commission's TDD terminal on 202-205-1810.
Persons with mobility impairments who will need special assistance in
gaining access to the Commission should contact the Office of the
Secretary at 202-205-2000. You may also obtain general information
concerning the Commission by accessing its website (<a href="http://www.usitc.gov">http://www.usitc.gov</a>).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Request for Comments
The Commission solicits comments on its collection of information
through questionnaires issued in its import injury investigations with
respect to two issues.
First, the Commission solicits comments in connection with the
Paper Work Reduction Act as to: (1) whether the proposed information
collection is necessary for the proper performance of the Commission's
functions; (2) the accuracy of the Commission's estimate of the burden
of the proposed information collection; (3) the quality, utility,
clarity, and design of the information to be collected; and (4)
minimization of the burden of the proposed information collection on
those who are to respond (including through the use of appropriate
automation, electronic filing, or other forms of information
technology).To the extent appropriate, please cite to specific
experiences that your firm has had with other governmental surveys and
data collections.
Second, on February 2, 2026, the Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit issued its decision In re United States. The Court held that
``the Commission's practice of automatically designating all
questionnaire responses as confidential is not authorized by the
statute.'' In re United States, 2025-127, slip op. at 21 (Feb. 2,
2026). The Commission solicits comments as to how it should designate
confidential information or otherwise revise its questionnaires in
light of the Federal Circuit decision.
Summary of the Proposed Information Collections
(1) Need for the Proposed Information Collections
The Commission utilizes, or may utilize, the information requested
in questionnaires and five-year review institution notices issued under
the generic survey clearance in the following statutory investigation
types: antidumping duty, countervailing duty, safeguards, other import
competition, market disruption, interference with programs of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, and cross-border long-haul trucking. This
clearance also covers questionnaires needed for new types of trade-
remedy investigations when directed in new legislation, such as rules
of origin investigations or other matters in which the Commission is
directed to make a determination or finding. The vast majority of
information requests issued by the Commission under the existing
generic clearance authority relate to antidumping and countervailing
duty investigations, or reviews of orders previously issued in such
investigations. The Commission's generic survey clearance to issue
questionnaires does not apply to fact-finding investigations conducted
under section 332 of the Tariff Act of 1930.
The information provided by firms in response to the questionnaires
under this authority provides information that the Commission uses in
making its findings and determinations. Commission staff consolidates
submitted information and provides it to the Commission primarily in
the form of data tables, figures, and analysis within a written report.
In addition, the Commission treats information provided in the
questionnaires as confidential and releases completed questionnaires
returned by industry participants to representatives of parties to its
investigations under an administrative protective order, the terms of
which safeguard the confidentiality of any business proprietary or
business confidential information. Representatives of interested
parties also receive a confidential version of Commission reports under
that same administrative protective order. Included in the proposed
generic clearance is the administrative protective order application
form and the forms associated with submitting new petitions to the
Commission. Also included in the proposed generic clearance are the
institution notices for the five-year reviews of antidumping and
countervailing duty orders and suspended investigations. The Commission
evaluates responses to the institution notices, which will form much of
the record supporting the Commission's determinations to conduct either
expedited or full five-year reviews of existing antidumping and
countervailing duty orders.
(2) Information Collection Plan
The Commission sends questionnaires for specific investigations to
all identified domestic producers of the product(s) in question subject
to the Commission proceeding. The Commission also sends importer and
purchaser questionnaires to all substantial U.S. importers and
purchasers of the product(s). Further, the Commission sends
questionnaires to all foreign manufacturers of the product(s) in
question that are represented by counsel, and, in addition, it attempts
to contact any other foreign manufacturers, especially if they export
the product(s) in question to the United States. Firms receiving
questionnaires include businesses, farms, and other for-profit
institutions; responses by domestic firms are mandatory. The Commission
publishes institution notices for the five-year reviews in the Federal
Register and solicits comments from interested parties (e.g., U.S.
producers within the industry in question, as well as labor unions or
representative groups of workers, U.S. importers and foreign exporters,
and involved foreign country governments).
(3) Description of the Information To Be Collected
These questionnaires are based on long-established, generic
formats, that align the data being gathered to the specific points of
analysis that the statutes direct the Commission to analyze, although
the content of each questionnaire will differ based on the needs of a
particular investigation. Producer questionnaires generally consist of
the following four parts: (part I) general questions relating to the
organization and activities of the firm; (part II) data on capacity,
production,
[[Page 10135]]
inventories, employment, and the quantity and value of the firm's
shipments and purchases from various sources; (part III) financial
data, including income-and-loss data on the product in question, data
on asset valuation, research and development expenses, and capital
expenditures; and (part IV) pricing and market factors. Questionnaires
may, on occasion, also contain additional parts depending on the facts
of the case and the arguments raised by interested parties, the most
frequent of which relate to information to assess proposed alternative
definitions of the domestic like product.
Importer questionnaires generally consist of three parts: (part I)
general questions relating to the organization and activities of the
firm; (part II) data on the firm's imports and the shipment and
inventories of its imports; and (part III) pricing and market factors
similar to that requested in the domestic producer questionnaire.
Purchaser questionnaires generally consist of four parts: (part I)
general questions relating to the organization and activities of the
firm; (part II) data concerning the purchases of the product by the
firm and the names of the firm's vendors; (part III) market
characteristics and purchasing practices; and (part IV) comparisons
between imported and U.S.-produced product. The Commission may send an
abbreviated purchaser questionnaire: (1) in a preliminary phase
investigation, consisting of two parts: (part I) data concerning the
purchases of the product by the firm; and (part II) questions regarding
purchasing practices; or (2) in an adequacy phase of a review
investigation, consisting of one part: (part I) general questions
regarding the industry. Foreign producer questionnaires generally
consist of: (part I) general questions relating to the organization and
activities of the firm; (part II) data concerning the firm's
manufacturing operations; and may include (part III) market factors.
The notices of institution for the five-year reviews include 11
specific requests for information that firms are to provide if their
response is to be considered by the Commission.
(4) Estimated Burden of the Proposed Information Collection
The Commission estimates that information collections issued under
the requested generic clearance will impose an average annual burden of
409,250 hours on 12,935 respondents (i.e., recipients that provide a
response to the Commission's questionnaires, notices of institution of
five-year reviews, and other investigations and forms).
(5) Minimization of Burden
The Commission periodically reviews its investigative processes,
including data collection, to reduce the information burden.
Questionnaires clearly state that reasonable estimates are acceptable
for certain items. The questionnaires are designed in part with check-
in type formats to simplify the response. The reporting burden is
reduced by limiting data to a terminal year when a time series is not
required. Moreover, the reporting burden for smaller firms is reduced
in that the sections of the questionnaire that are applicable to their
operations are typically more limited and, when pertinent, there are
fewer requested data points. The Commission will not accept requests by
parties to expand the data collection or add items to the questionnaire
for specific investigations if it believes that such requests will
increase the response burden without substantially adding to the
investigative record. Respondents submit the information provided in
response to the Commission's notices of institution for the five-year
reviews electronically to the Commission's Electronic Data Information
System (EDIS) and Electronic Docket. In addition, the Commission has
reduced the information burden by streamlining the questionnaires. For
example, the Commission removed redundant fields, added auto-calculated
reconciliation fields, enabled population of whole data tables, reduced
the number of years for which data is collected in certain five-year
reviews, and streamlined data collections for preliminary proceedings.
No record keeping burden is known to result from the proposed
collection of information.
By order of the Commission.
Issued: February 25, 2026.
Lisa Barton,
Secretary to the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2026-04025 Filed 2-27-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7020-02-P
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