[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 3 (Monday, January 6, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 732-733]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-128]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Export Trade Certificate of Review
ACTION: Notice of application.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Export Trading Company Affairs (``OETCA''),
International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce, has
received an application for an Export Trade Certificate of Review. This
notice summarizes the conduct for which certification is sought and
requests comments relevant to whether the Certificate should be issued.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: W. Dawn Busby, Director, Office of
Export Trading Company Affairs, International Trade Administration,
(202) 482-5131. This is not a toll-free number.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title III of the Export Trading Company Act
of 1982 (15 U.S.C. 4001-21) authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to
issue Export Trade Certificates of Review. A Certificate of Review
protects the holder and the members identified in the Certificate from
state and federal government antitrust actions and from private, treble
damage antitrust actions for the export conduct specified in the
Certificate and carried out in compliance with its terms and
conditions. Section 302(b)(1) of the Act and 15 CFR 325.6(a) require
the Secretary to publish a notice in the Federal Register identifying
the applicant and summarizing its proposed export conduct.
Request for Public Comments
Interested parties may submit written comments relevant to the
determination whether a Certificate should be issued, and are
encouraged to provide a nonconfidential version of their comments. An
original and five (5) copies, plus two (2) copies of any
nonconfidential version, should be submitted not later than 20 days
after the date of this notice to: Office of Export Trading Company
Affairs, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce,
Room 1800H, Washington, D.C. 20230. Information submitted by any person
is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (5
U.S.C. 552). Comments should refer to this application as ``Export
Trade Certificate of Review, application number 96-00008.'' A summary
of the application follows.
Summary of the Application
Applicant: U.S. Rice Industry Coalition for Exports, Inc. (``US
RICE''), 1615 L Street, N.W., 7th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Contact: M. Jean Anderson, counsel, Telephone:(202) 682-7217.
Application No: 96-00008.
Date Deemed Submitted: December 20, 1996.
Members (in addition to applicant): Continental Grain Company, New
York, New York; Newfield Partners Ltd., Miami, Florida.
US RICE seeks a Certificate to cover the following specific Export
Trade, Export Markets and Export Trade Activities and Methods of
Operation.
Export Trade Products
Semi-milled and wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or
glazed (Harmonized Tariff Schedule 1006.30) (``milled rice''), husked
(brown) rice (Harmonized Tariff Schedule 1006.20), broken rice
(Harmonized Tariff Schedule 1006.40), and paddy or rough rice
(Harmonized Tariff Schedule 1006.10).
Export Markets
For purposes of allocating through an open bidding procedure the
European Union's tariff rate quota: The countries of the European
Union.
For purposes of Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation
paragraphs 2.-4. below: All parts of the world except the United States
(the fifty states of the United States, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands).
Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation
1. US RICE will administer a system for managing the U.S. share of
the European Union (``EU'') tariff-rate quotas (``TRQs'') for milled,
brown, and broken rice (roughly 38,000 tons of milled rice, 8,000 tons
of brown rice and 7,000 tons of broken rice annually) agreed to as
compensation to the United States for the enlargement of the EU to
include Austria, Finland, and Sweden, as follows:
a. US RICE will allocate the TRQs exclusively through an open quota
tender to the highest bidder(s). Any person incorporated or domiciled
in the United States is eligible to bid. Bidders need not be members of
US RICE and need not be included in the Certificate.
b. The quota tender system will be administered by an independent
third party (``the TRQ Administrator''), who will be retained by US
RICE. The TRQ Administrator may be an individual, partnership,
corporation (for profit or non-profit), or any representative thereof
that is not engaged in the production, milling, distribution, or sale
of milled, brown, or broken rice.
c. Normally at least 45 days before the opening of each TRQ
tranche, as defined by the EU, US RICE will publish notice of the
bidding process for that tranche, specifying a bid date approximately
30 days before the opening of the tranche. Bidders will submit bids to
the TRQ Administrator on the bid date, together with a bid deposit,
initially set at $25 per metric ton. The TRQ Administrator will retain
the full bid deposit for tonnage on which bids are successful, and $5
per metric ton of the deposit for unsuccessful bids, to cover costs of
administering the TRQ system. The remainder will be refunded to
unsuccessful bidders.
d. Following the close of the bidding, the TRQ Administrator will
disclose the bids received to all bidders, and after further review of
bids for conformity with bidding procedures, will notify the high
bidders. High bidders will then have 48 hours to post a five percent
performance bond. When all bonds have been posted, the TRQ
Administrator will issue a list of winning bidders to all participants.
Upon receipt of the full amounts bid, the TRQ Administrator will
promptly issue Export Certificates of Quota (``ECQs'') to the winning
bidders. ECQs will be freely tradable. Each performance bond will be
discharged on submission of export documentation demonstrating that the
[[Page 733]]
ECQ was used to export U.S. rice to the EU.
2. The bid proceeds will be distributed and otherwise used as
follows:
a. All bid proceeds will be deposited in a trust fund. Each year,
the TRQ Administrator will distribute funds from the preceding year's
tenders to qualifying members of US RICE in proportion to each such
member's percentage share by volume of total exports of U.S. rice to
all destinations in the year preceding the tender (and for 1996 TRQs,
1995). No US RICE member may receive a distribution in excess of that
amount.
b. Any person incorporated or domiciled in the United States that
has exported U.S. rice in the current or preceding calendar year or is
actively engaged in rice milling in the United States may join US RICE
by executing the US RICE Operating Agreement and paying the dues of
$5,000 per quota year. A member of US RICE will qualify for a
particular distribution by (i) joining US RICE by January 31 of the
quota year (e.g., for the distribution of proceeds from 1998 TRQs, by
January 31, 1998), and in the case of distributions of proceeds from
the 1996 and 1997 TRQs, by February 28, 1997; and (ii) documenting its
share of U.S. rice exports for the relevant year to the TRQ
Administrator.
c. Funds remaining in the trust fund after a distribution will be
used as necessary to cover operating expenses, and thereafter for
promotion of U.S. rice exports worldwide through activities generally
comparable to those funded by the USDA's market access program.
3. The TRQ Administrator may receive confidential information and
documentation of rice exports from members and prospective members of
US RICE in connection with membership applications and distributions.
The TRQ Administrator will maintain the confidentiality of such
information and will not disclose it to any other member or any other
person except to another neutral third party as necessary to process
membership applications and distributions of bid proceeds.
4. US RICE and/or its Members may also:
a. exchange and discuss information regarding the structure and
operation of the US RICE TRQ management system, including the types of
information regarding past transactions and exports that are necessary
for implementing the system;
b. assess the operation of the system and consider and implement
modifications to improve the system's workability;
c. exchange and discuss information concerning U.S. and foreign
agreements, legislation, and regulations affecting the US RICE TRQ
management system;
d. discuss and modify association dues, bid deposit fees, and
performance bonds;
e. discuss, decide on, and implement export promotion activities to
be undertaken with post-distribution funds in the trust fund;
f. otherwise exchange and discuss information as necessary to
implement the foregoing activities and take the necessary action to
implement the US RICE TRQ management system, relating to the U.S.-EU
Enlargement Agreement and any successor or related agreements, and
related EU regulations;
g. provide nonconfidential information to, and consult as
appropriate with, officials of the U.S. Government and the European
Commission concerning the operation of the US RICE TRQ management
system; and
h. meet to engage in the activities described above.
Abbreviated Amendment Procedure
New US RICE members may be included in the Certificate through an
abbreviated amendment procedure. Under the procedure, US RICE will
notify the Secretary of Commerce and the Attorney General, in writing,
of those members of US RICE that wish to be included in the
Certificate. If the Department so requests, the notification will
include a certification from each such member of its domestic and
export sales of rice in its preceding fiscal year. Notice of the
members so identified shall be published in the Federal Register. If 30
days or more following publication in the Federal Register, the
Secretary of Commerce, with the concurrence of the Attorney General,
determines that the incorporation in the Certificate of these members
through the abbreviated amendment procedure is consistent with the
standards of the Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall amend the
Certificate to incorporate such members, effective as of the date on
which the application for amendment was deemed submitted. If the
Secretary of Commerce does not so amend the Certificate within 60 days
of publication in the Federal Register, such amendment must be sought
through the normal amendment procedure.
Terms and Conditions of Certificate
1. Except as expressly authorized in Export Trade Activity and
Method of Operation 4(a), in engaging in Export Trade Activities and
Methods of Operation, neither US RICE nor any Member shall
intentionally disclose, directly or indirectly, to any other Member
(including parent companies, subsidiaries, or other entities related to
any Member not named as a Member) any information regarding its or any
other Member's costs, production, inventories, domestic prices,
domestic sales, capacity to produce products for domestic sales,
domestic orders, terms of domestic marketing or sale, or U.S. business
plans, strategies, or methods, unless (1) such information is already
generally available to the trade or public; or (2) the information
disclosed is a necessary term or condition (e.g., price, time required
to fill an order, etc.) of an actual or potential bona fide export sale
and the disclosure is limited to the prospective purchaser.
2. US RICE and its Members will comply with requests made by the
Secretary of Commerce on behalf of the Secretary or the Attorney
General for information or documents relevant to conduct under the
Certificate. The Secretary of Commerce will request such information or
documents when either the Attorney General or the Secretary of Commerce
believes that the information or documents are required to determine
that the Export Trade, Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation
of a person protected by this Certificate of Review continue to comply
with the standards of section 303 (a) of the Act.
Definitions
``Member'' means a member of US RICE who has been certified as a
``Member'' within the meaning of Section 325.2(l) of the regulations. A
US RICE member that is not a Member may join the US RICE export trade
certificate of review by requesting that US RICE file for an amended
certificate. A Member may withdraw from coverage under this certificate
at any time by giving written notice to US RICE, a copy of which US
RICE will promptly transmit to the Secretary of Commerce and the
Attorney General.
Dated: December 30, 1996.
W. Dawn Busby,
Director, Office of Export Trading Company Affairs.
[FR Doc. 97-128 Filed 1-3-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DR-P
