2018-16410. Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35).

Agency: Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Commerce.

Title: Annual Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad.

OMB Control Number: 0608-0053.

Form Number: BE-11.

Type of Request: Regular submission.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 3,150 respondents (U.S. parents). A complete response includes a BE-11 A form for the U.S. parent's domestic operation and one or more BE-11 B, C, or D forms for its foreign affiliates that meet the BE-11 survey requirements. BEA estimates that U.S. parents will submit 3,150 A forms, 25,000 B forms, 1,500 C forms, 200 D forms, and 500 Claim for Exemption forms.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 325,750 hours. Total annual burden is calculated by multiplying the estimated number of submissions of each form by the average hourly burden per form, which is 7 hours for the A form, 12 hours for the B form, 2 hours for the C form, 1 hour for the D form, and 1 hour for the Claim for Exemption form.

Estimated Time per Respondent: 103.4 hours per respondent (325,750 hours/3,150 U.S. parents) is the average, but may vary considerably among respondents because of differences in company structure, complexity, and the number of foreign affiliates each U.S. parent must report.

Needs and Uses: The Annual Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad (BE-11) obtains sample data on the financial structure and operations of U.S. parents and their foreign affiliates. The data are needed to provide reliable, useful, and timely measures of U.S. direct investment abroad to assess its impact on the U.S. and foreign economies. The sample data are used to derive universe estimates in nonbenchmark years from similar data reported in the BE-10, Benchmark Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad, which is conducted every five years. The data collected include balance sheets; income statements; property, plant, and equipment; employment and employee compensation; merchandise trade; sales of goods and services; taxes; and research and development activity.

Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit organizations.

Frequency: Annual.

Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.

This information collection request may be viewed at www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to OIRA [e-mail] or fax to [phone].

Sheleen Dumas,

Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of Chief Information Officer.