[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 32 (Thursday, February 15, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6022-6024]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-3334]
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INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
AGENCY: International Trade Commission.
ACTION: Notice of proposed collection; comment request.
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SUMMARY: The proposed information collection is a 3-year extension,
pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub L. 104-13), of the
current ``generic clearance'' (approved by the Office of Management and
Budget under control no. 3117-0016) under which the Commission can
issue specific questionnaires for the following types of investigations
with statutory deadlines: countervailing duty, antidumping, escape
clause, market disruption, and ``interference with programs of the
USDA.'' Comments concerning the proposed information collection are
requested in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d); such comments are
described in greater detail in the section of this notice entitled
supplementary information.
DATES: To be assured of consideration, written comments must be
received not later than April 23, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Signed comments should be submitted to Donna R. Koehnke,
Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW.,
Washington, D.C. 20436.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Copies of the proposed information
collection (and related instructions) and draft Paperwork Reduction Act
Submission and Supporting Statement to be submitted to the Office of
Management and Budget may be obtained from either of the following
persons: Debra Baker, Office of Investigations, U.S. International
Trade Commission, telephone 202-205-3180, or Lynn Featherstone,
Director, Office of Investigations, U.S. International Trade
Commission, telephone 202-205-3160.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Request for Comments
Comments are solicited as to (1) whether the proposed information
collection is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information will have practical
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed information collection, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used; (3) the quality, utility, and clarity
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 automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological forms of information technology,
e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses). Comments are also
solicited as to whether questionnaires gather adequate information on
the burden respondents incur in answering the questionnaire.
Historically, the Commission has requested that questionnaire
respondents report the actual number of hours required and the cost to
them of preparing the reply and completing the form. (This information
is compiled by the Commission for each specific questionnaire issued
under the ``generic clearance'' and submitted to the Office of
Management and Budget for their review on a quarterly basis. It also
forms the basis for the Commission's burden estimates reported below.)
Under the proposed information collection, the Commission will request
that respondents divide the cost data they report into two components
(or wage rate categories), namely costs incurred (1) by managers,
accountants, attorneys, and other professional and supervisory
personnel and (2) for clerical support.
Need for the Proposed Information Collection
The Commission conducts countervailing duty and antidumping
investigations under the provisions of Title VII of the Tariff Act of
1930 to determine whether domestic industries are being injured or
threatened with injury by reason of imports of the product(s) in
question which are being subsidized (countervailing duty cases) or sold
at less than fair value (antidumping cases). Escape-clause
investigations are conducted by the Commission to determine whether
increased imports are a substantial cause of serious injury or threat
of serious injury to a domestic industry. If the Commission makes an
affirmative determination in escape-clause investigations it is also
required to recommend a remedy that will eliminate the injury to the
domestic industry. Market disruption investigations are conducted to
determine whether imports of an article produced in a Communist country
are causing injury to a domestic industry. In addition, the Commission
conducts investigations to determine whether imports are interfering
with programs of the Department of Agriculture for agricultural
commodities or products.
[[Page 6023]]
Specific investigations are instituted in response to petitions
received from U.S. manufacturers of the product(s) in question or, in
rare instances, in response to a request from the U.S. trade
representative or the Department of Commerce. Data received in response
to the questionnaires issued under the terms of the proposed
information collection (or ``generic clearance'') are consolidated and
form much of the statistical base for the Commission's determinations
in these statutorily-mandated investigations.
Information Collection Plan
Using the sample ``generic clearance'' questionnaires as a guide,
questionnaires for specific investigations are prepared and are sent to
all U.S. producers manufacturing the product(s) in question and to all
significant importers of the products, particularly those importing
from the country(ies) subject to investigation, except in cases
involving an unusually large number of firms. In these instances,
questionnaires are sent to a representative sample of firms. Purchaser
questionnaires are also sent to all significant purchasers of the
product(s) in cases involving as many as 50 consuming firms. Firms
receiving questionnaires include businesses, farms, and/or other for-
profit institutions; responses are mandatory.
Description of the Information to be Collected
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,
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 production in question,
data on asset valuation, research and development expenses, and capital
expenditures; and (part IV) price-related information. (Questionnaires
may, on occasion, also contain part V, an abbreviated version of the
above-listed parts, used for gathering data on additional product
categories.)
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) data on price-related
information similar to that requested in the producer questionnaire.
Purchaser questionnaires generally consist of six 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; (part III) general questions about the market for the production
in question and about the purchaser's purchasing practices; (part IV) a
number of questions related to competition between the domestic product
and the subject imports; and (parts V and VI) actual purchase prices
for specific types of domestic and subject imported products and the
names of the firm's vendors.
The Commission solicits input from petitioners and other potential
recipients when preparing questionnaires for individual investigations.
Where possible, the Commission also circulates draft questionnaires to
parties for their comment.
Estimated Burden of the Proposed Information Collection
The Commission estimates that questionnaires issued under the
proposed information collection will impose an average annual burden of
90,000 response hours on 2,800 respondents (i.e., recipients that
provide a response to the Commission's questionnaires). The tabulation
below lists the estimated average annual burden for each type of
questionnaire for August 1997 through July 2000.
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Producers' Importers' Purchasers'
questionnaire questionnaire questionnaire
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No. of respondents.............................................. 940 980 880
Frequency of response........................................... 1 1 1
Total annual responses.......................................... 940 980 880
Hours per response.............................................. 36.4 37.2 22.0
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Total hours............................................... 34,200 36,450 19,350
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These estimates are based upon an analysis of the burden actually
imposed by specific questionnaires issued under the Commission's
currently approved ``generic clearance'' authority for fiscal years
1993 through 1995. The methodology is based on the average number of
times questionnaires were sent to 10 or more recipients per
investigation, the average number of responses per questionnaire, the
average burden per respondent, and the Commission's anticipated
workload. The estimates are annual averages and take into consideration
the increase in workload expected for the Commission in fiscal years
1997 and 1998 resulting from the mandated sunset review of title VII
determinations issued previously.
The estimated annual cost to respondents of the proposed
information collection for August 1997 through July 2000 is $3.8
million in fiscal year 1995 dollars. The cost was obtained by
multiplying the estimated number of questionnaires to be cleared under
the generic clearance by the average cost of completing the
questionnaire by respondents. In fiscal year 1995 dollars, the average
reported cost per producing firm was $897; the average reported cost
per importing firm was $1,734; the average reported cost per purchasing
firm was $1,007. The cost estimate provided is an average and is not
broken out by wage rate categories. (Information to be collected by the
proposed information collection will permit such analysis in the
future.) Because the specific questionnaires issued under the ``generic
clearance'' are not repetitive, all of the costs imposed on respondents
fall into the ``total operation and maintenance and purchase of
services'' component. There are no known capital and start-up costs
(e.g., purchasing computers and software; monitoring, sampling,
drilling and testing equipment; and record storage facilities) to
respondents. (Estimates of annualized cost to the Commission are
presented in a draft Paperwork Reduction Act Submission and Supporting
Statement available upon request from the Commission.)
Variation in Estimated Burden
The hourly burden estimates presented above can be expected to vary
widely from one hour to several times the reported average burden. The
reasons for the variation are as follows: (1) the respondent may not
produce, import, or purchase the product(s) under investigation (such
respondents need only to so certify and return the
[[Page 6024]]
first page of the questionnaire to the Commission); (2) the respondent
may only produce, import, or purchase the products during a short time
period or handle only one of the products reviewed; and (3) the
questionnaires include the maximum number of reporting categories to
ensure that meaningful data will be obtained from firms with complex
business operations, and some sections of the questionnaires will not
apply to smaller-sized firms.
In addition to variation in hourly burden among firms completing a
specific questionnaire, there is also variation in hourly burden among
questionnaires prepared for different investigations. The Tariff Act of
1930 identifies certain economic factors that the Commission is to take
into account in arriving at determinations in countervailing duty and
antidumping investigations; the Commission is also provided with
guidelines concerning the relevant economic factors it is to assess in
escape clause investigations. In some investigations, questionnaires
will solicit data pertaining to other economic factors not listed in
the statutes (e.g., channels of distribution) because such data have
been found to be particularly useful in past Commission determinations
or are relevant to the case in question. A key factor which leads to
variation in hourly burden among investigations is the number of
product categories for which data must be collected.
Description of Efforts to Reduce Burden
To facilitate the preparation of its questionnaires, the Commission
has proposed to amend its rules to require that the petition identify
the proposed domestic like product(s) and further identify each product
on which the Commission should seek information in its questionnaires
(see Notice of Proposed Amendments to Rules of Practice and Procedure,
60 FR 51748, Oct. 3, 1995). Further, the Commission has issued
proposals to formalize the process for parties to comment on data
collection in final phase countervailing and antidumping duty
investigations. The Commission has also adopted a new format and
otherwise revised the basic content of Commission questionnaires (60 FR
51748, Oct. 3, 1995). The content of the new generic forms are
described above and are available from the Commission; they are much
shorter in length than those used in the past and facilitate the
development of a less burdensome questionnaire for use in specific
investigations. Finally, the Commission may utilize a ``short form''
for use in cases were numerous small businesses must be surveyed. This
form is a simplified and abbreviated version of the questionnaire sent
to larger firms. To further reduce respondent burden, the Commission
permits the submission of carefully prepared data estimates and will
accept information in electronic format.
Issued: February 9, 1996.
By order of the Commission.
Donna R. Koehnke,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 96-3334 Filed 2-14-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7020-02-P
