[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 202 (Thursday, October 17, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 54109-54111]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-26646]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of Economic Analysis
15 CFR Part 801
[Docket No. 960918263-6263-01]
RIN 0691-AA27
International Services Surveys: BE-20 Benchmark Survey of
Selected Services Transactions With Unaffiliated Foreign Persons
AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: This notice sets forth proposed rules to amend the reporting
requirements for the BE-20, Benchmark Survey of Selected Services
Transactions with Unaffiliated Foreign Persons.
The BE-20 benchmark survey is conducted by the Bureau of Economic
Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of Commerce, under the International
Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act. It is taken once every
five years. The last survey was conducted for 1991, and the next survey
will be conducted for 1996. The BE-20 is a benchmark survey that is
intended to cover the universe of selected U.S. services transactions
with unaffiliated foreign persons. In nonbenchmark years, universe
estimates of these transactions are derived from reported sample data
by extrapolating forward the universe data collected in the BE-20
survey. The data are needed to support U.S. trade policy initiatives on
international services and to compile the U.S. balance of payments and
the national income and product accounts.
The major change to the BE-20 benchmark survey contained in these
proposed rules is to expand its coverage to obtain data on additional
types of services. Transactions in the following types of services
would be covered on the BE-20 for the first time: Merchanting services
(sales only), financial services by firms that are not financial
services providers (purchases only), operational leasing services,
selling agent services, and ``other'' private services. ``Other''
private services consists of transactions in satellite photography,
security, actuarial, salvage, oil spill and toxic waste cleanup,
language translation, and account collection services.
DATES: Comments on these proposed rules will receive consideration if
submitted in writing on or before November 18, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to the Office of the Chief,
International Investment Division (BE-50), Bureau of Economic Analysis,
U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230, or hand delivered to
Room M-100, 1441 L Street, NW., Washington, DC 20005. Comments will be
available for public inspection in Room 7006, 1441 L Street, NW.,
between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
R. David Belli, Assistant Chief, International Investment Division (BE-
50), Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce,
Washington, DC 20230; phone (202) 606-9800.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: These proposed rules amend 15 CFR part 801
by revising Sec. 801.10 to set forth revised reporting requirements for
the BE-20, Benchmark Survey of Selected Services Transactions with
Unaffiliated Foreign Persons. The survey is conducted by the Bureau of
Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of Commerce, under the
International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act (Pub. L. 94-
472, 90 Stat. 2059, 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108, as amended). Section 3103(a)
of the act provides that ``The President shall, to the extent he deems
necessary and feasible--* * * (4) conduct * * * benchmark surveys with
respect to trade in services between unaffiliated United States persons
and foreign persons. * * *'' In Section 3 of Executive Order 11961, as
amended by Executive Order 12518, the President delegated the authority
under the Act as concerns international trade in services to the
Secretary of Commerce, who has redelegated it to BEA.
The BE-20 benchmark survey is conducted once every five years. The
next survey will cover 1996; the last survey was conducted for 1991.
The survey is intended to cover the universe of selected U.S. services
transactions with unaffiliated foreign persons. In nonbenchmark years,
universe estimates of these transactions are derived from reported
sample data by extrapolating forward the universe data collected in the
BE-20 benchmark survey. The data are needed to support U.S. trade
policy initiatives on international services; compile the U.S. balance
of payments and national income and product accounts; develop U.S.
international price indexes for services; assess U.S. competitiveness
in, and promote, international trade in services; and improve the
ability of U.S. businesses to identify and evaluate market
opportunities for services trade.
The major change to the BE-20 benchmark survey contained in these
proposed rules is to expand coverage to obtain data on additional types
of services. The expanded coverage will fill several of the remaining
major gaps in Government statistics on international services
transactions in new, growing, and volatile services categories.
Transactions in the following types of services would be covered on the
BE-20 for the first time: Merchanting services (sales only), financial
services by firms that are not financial services providers (purchases
only), operational leasing services, selling agent services, and
``other'' private services. ``Other'' private services consists of
transactions in satellite photography, security, actuarial, salvage,
oil spill and toxic waste cleanup, language translation, and account
collection services.
Reporting in the BE-20 benchmark survey is required from U.S.
persons with sales to, or purchases from, unaffiliated foreign persons
in excess of $500,000 in any of the services covered during the
reporting year. Those meeting this criterion must supply data on the
amount of their total sales or total purchases of each type of service
in which their transactions exceeded this threshold amount. Except for
sales of merchanting services, the data also must
[[Page 54110]]
be disaggregated by country; for sales of merchanting services, data
are required to be reported only for all foreign countries combined.
U.S. persons with purchases or sales during the reporting year of
$500,000 or less in a given type of covered service are asked to
provide, on a voluntary basis, estimates only of their total purchases
or total sales, as appropriate, for the given type of service.
To reduce respondent burden, BEA is eliminating several questions
in the U.S. reporter identification section of the survey.
Specifically, a requirement to disaggregate sales or gross operating
revenues by individual detailed (3-digit) industry has been eliminated,
and only a single industry for the consolidated enterprise is to be
reported. In addition, a question on the respondent's total number of
full-time and part-time U.S. employees at the end of its fiscal year
has been eliminated.
Executive Order 12612
These proposed rules do not contain policies with Federalism
implications sufficient to warrant preparation of a Federalism
assessment under E.O. 12612.
Executive Order 12866
These proposed rules have been determined to be not significant for
purposes of E.O. 12866.
Paperwork Reduction Act
These proposed rules contain a collection of information
requirement subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act. A request for
review of the forms has been submitted to the Office of Management and
Budget under section 3504(h) of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, no person is required
to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure
to comply with, a collection of information subject to the requirements
of the Paperwork Reduction Act unless that collection displays a
currently valid OMB Control Number: such a Control Number (0608-0058)
has been displayed.
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is
estimated to vary from 4 to 500 hours, with an overall average burden
of 12 hours. This includes time for reviewing the instructions,
searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data
needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.
Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of
this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this
burden, to: Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BE-1), U.S.
Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230; and to the Office of
Management and Budget, O.I.R.A., Paperwork Reduction Project 0608-0058,
Washington, DC 20503.
Regulatory Flexibility Act
The Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulation,
Department of Commerce, has certified to the Chief Counsel for
Advocacy, Small Business Administration, under the provisions of the
Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 605(b)), that this proposed
rulemaking, if adopted, will not have a significant economic impact on
a substantial number of small entities. The exemption level for the
survey excludes most small businesses from mandatory reporting.
Reporting is required only if total sales or total purchases
transactions with unaffiliated foreign persons in a covered type of
service exceed $500,000 during the year. Of those smaller businesses
that must report, most will tend to have specialized operations and
activities and will likely report only one type of service; therefore,
the burden on them should be small.
List of Subjects in 15 CFR Part 801
Balance of payments, Economic statistics, Foreign trade, Penalties,
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Dated: September 16, 1996.
J. Steven Landefeld,
Director, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
For the reasons set forth in the preamble, BEA proposes to amend 15
CFR part 801, as follows:
PART 801--[AMENDED]
1. The authority citation for Part 801 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301, 15 U.S.C. 4908, 22 U.S.C. 3101-3108,
and E.O. 11961 (3 CFR, 1997 Comp., p. 86) as amended by E.O. 12013
(3 CFR, 1977 Comp., p. 147), E.O. 12318 (3 CFR, 1981 Comp., p. 173),
and E.O. 12518 (3 CFR, 1985 Comp., p. 348).
2. Section 801.10 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 801.10 Rules and regulations for the BE-20, Benchmark Survey of
Selected Services Transactions with Unaffiliated Foreign Persons.
The BE-20, Benchmark Survey of Selected Services Transactions with
Unaffiliated Foreign Persons, will be conducted covering companies'
1996 fiscal year and every fifth year thereafter. All legal
authorities, provisions, definitions, and requirements contained in
Sec. 801.1 through Sec. 801.9(a) are applicable to this survey.
Additional rules and regulations for the BE-20 survey are given below.
More detailed instructions and descriptions of the individual types of
services covered are given on the report form itself.
(a) The BE-20 survey consists of two parts and eight schedules.
Part I requests information needed to determine whether a report is
required and which schedules apply. Part II requests information about
the reporting entity. Each of the eight schedules covers one or more
types of services and is to be completed only if the U.S. Reporter has
transactions of the type(s) covered by the particular schedule.
(b) Who must report. (1) Mandatory reporting. A BE-20 report is
required from each U.S. person who had transactions (either sales or
purchases) in excess of $500,000 with unaffiliated foreign persons in
any of the services listed in paragraph (c) of this section during its
fiscal year covered by the survey.
(i) The determination of whether a U.S. person is subject to this
mandatory reporting requirement may be judgmental, that is, based on
the judgment of knowledgeable persons in a company who can identify
reportable transactions on a recall basis, with a reasonable degree of
certainty, without conducting a detailed manual records search. Because
the $500,000 threshold applies separately to sales and purchases, the
mandatory reporting requirement may apply only to sales, only to
purchases, or to both sales and purchases.
(ii) Reporters who file pursuant to this mandatory reporting
requirement must complete Parts I and II of Form BE-20 and all
applicable schedules. The total amounts of transactions applicable to a
particular schedule are to be entered in the appropriate column(s) on
line 1 of the schedule. In addition, except for sales of merchanting
services, these amounts must be distributed below line 1 to the
country(ies) involved in the transaction(s). For sales of merchanting
services, the data by individual foreign Country are not required to be
reported, although these data may be reported voluntarily.
(iii) Application of the $500,000 exemption level to each covered
service is indicated on the schedule for that particular service. It
should be noted that an item other than sales or purchases may be used
as the measure of a given service for purposes of determining whether
the threshold for mandatory reporting of the service is exceeded.
(2) Voluntary reporting. If, during the fiscal year covered, the
U.S. person's
[[Page 54111]]
total transactions (either sales or purchases) in any of the types of
services listed in paragraph (c) of this section are $500,000 or less,
the U.S. person is requested to provide an estimate of the total for
each type of service.
(i) Provision of this information is voluntary. The estimates may
be judgmental, that is, based on recall, without conducting a detailed
manual records search. Because the $500,000 threshold applies
separately to sales and purchases, the voluntary reporting option may
apply only to sales, only to purchases, or to both sales and purchases.
(ii) The amounts of transactions reportable on a particular
schedule are to be entered in the appropriate column(s) in the
voluntary reporting section of the schedule: they are not required to
be disagregated by country. Reporters filing voluntary information only
should also complete Parts I and II of the form.
(3) Any U.S. person that receives the BE-20 survey form from BEA,
but is not reporting data in neither the mandatory or voluntary section
of the form, must nevertheless complete and return the Exemption Claim
included with the form to BEA. This requirement is necessary to ensure
compliance with reporting requirements and efficient administration of
the Act by eliminating unnecessary followup contact.
(c) Covered types of services. Only the services listed below are
covered by the BE-20 survey. Other services, such as transportation and
reinsurance, are NOT covered. Covered services are: Agricultural
services; research, development, and testing services; management,
consulting, and public relations services; management of health care
facilities; accounting, auditing, and bookkeeping services; legal
services; educational and training services; mailing, reproduction, and
commercial art; employment agencies and temporary help supply services;
industrial engineering services; industrial-type maintenance,
installation, alteration, and training services; performing arts,
sports, and other live performances, presentations, and events; sale or
purchase of rights to natural resources, and lease bonus payments; use
or lease of rights to natural resources, excluding lease bonus
payments; disbursements to fund news-gathering costs of broadcasters;
disbursements to fund news-gathering costs of print media;
disbursements to fund production costs of motion pictures;
disbursements to fund production costs of broadcast program material
other than news; disbursements to maintain government tourism and
business promotion offices; disbursements for sales promotion and
representation; disbursements to participate in foreign trade shows
(purchases only); premiums paid on purchases of primary insurance;
losses recovered on purchases of primary insurance; construction,
engineering, architectural, and mining services (purchases only);
merchanting services (sales only); financial services (purchases only,
by companies or parts of companies that are not financial services
providers); advertising services; computer and data processing
services; data base and other information services; telecommunications
services; operational leasing services; and ``other'' private services.
``Other'' private services covers transactions in the following types
of services: Satellite photography services, security services,
actuarial services, salvage services, oil spill and toxic waster
cleanup services, language translation services, and account collection
services.
[FR Doc. 96-26646 Filed 10-16-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-EA-M
