E8-18861. Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA); Notice Regarding the 2008 Annual Review

AGENCY:

Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION:

Notice and request for petitions.

SUMMARY:

This notice announces the 2008 Annual Review of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). Under this process petitions may be filed calling for the limitation, withdrawal or suspension of ATPA or ATPDEA benefits by presenting evidence that the eligibility criteria of the program are not being met. USTR will publish a list of petitions filed in response to this announcement in the Federal Register.

DATES:

The deadline for the submission of petitions for the 2008 Annual ATPA Review is September 15, 2008.

ADDRESSES:

Submit petitions by electronic mail (e-mail) to [e-mail].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Bennett M. Harman, Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Latin America, Office of the Americas, Office of the United States Trade Representative, 600 17th St., NW., Washington, DC 20508. The telephone number is [phone] and the facsimile number is [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The ATPA (19 U.S.C. 3201-06), as renewed and amended by the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) in the Trade Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-210) and extended until December 31, 2008 by the Andean Trade Preference Act, (Pub L. 110-42), provides for trade benefits for eligible Andean countries. Consistent with Section 3103(d) of the ATPDEA, USTR promulgated regulations (15 CFR part 2016) (68 FR 43922) regarding the review of eligibility of articles and countries for the benefits of the ATPA, as amended. The 2008 Annual ATPA Review is the fifth such review to be conducted pursuant to the ATPA review regulations. To qualify for the benefits of the ATPA and ATPDEA, each country must meet several eligibility criteria, as set forth in sections 203(c) and (d), and section 204(b)(6)(B) of the ATPA, as amended (19 U.S.C. 3202(c), (d); 19 U.S.C. 3203(b)(6)(B)), and as outlined in the Federal Register notice USTR published to request public comments regarding the designation of eligible countries as ATPDEA beneficiary countries (67 FR 53379). Under section 203(e) of the ATPA, as amended (19 U.S.C. 3202(e)), the President may withdraw or suspend the designation of any country as an ATPA or ATPDEA beneficiary country, and may also withdraw, suspend, or limit preferential treatment for any product of any such beneficiary country, if the President determines that, as a result of changed circumstances, the country is not meeting the eligibility criteria.

The ATPA regulations provide the schedule of dates for conducting an annual review, unless otherwise specified by Federal Register notice. Notice is hereby given that, in order to be considered in the 2008 Annual ATPA Review, all petitions to withdraw or suspend the designation of a country as an ATPA or ATPDEA beneficiary country, or to withdraw, suspend, or limit application of preferential treatment to any article of any ATPA beneficiary country under the ATPA, or to any article of any ATPDEA beneficiary country under section 204(b)(1), (3), or (4) (19 U.S.C. 3202(b)(1), (3), (4)) of the ATPA, must be received by the Andean Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee no later than 5 p.m. EDT on September 15, 2008. Petitioners should consult 15 CFR 2016.0 regarding the content of such petitions.

E-mail submissions should be single copy transmissions in English, and the total submission including attachments should not exceed 50 pages. Submissions should use the following subject line: “2008 Annual ATPA Review—Petition.” Documents must be submitted as either WordPerfect (“.WPD”), MSWord (“.DOC”), Adobe (“PDF”), or text (“.TXT”) files. Supporting documentation submitted as spreadsheets are acceptable as Quattro Pro or Excel, pre-formatted for printing on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper. Submissions by e-mail should not include separate cover letters or messages in the message area of the e-mail; information that might appear in any cover letter should be included directly in the submission. To the extent possible, any data attachments to the submission should be included in the same file as the submission itself, and not as separate files.

Petitions will be available for public inspection by appointment with the staff of the USTR Public Reading Room, except for information granted “business confidential” status pursuant to 15 CFR 2003.6. If the submission contains business confidential information that the submitter wishes to protect from public disclosure, the confidential submission must be marked “BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL” at the top and bottom of every page of the document. In addition, the submission must be accompanied by a non-confidential version that indicates, with asterisks, where confidential information was redacted or deleted. The top and bottom of each page of the non-confidential version must be marked either “PUBLIC VERSION” or “NON-CONFIDENTIAL”. Business confidential comments that are submitted without the required markings or that are not accompanied by a properly marked non-confidential version as set forth above may not be accepted or may be treated as public documents.

The file name of any document containing business confidential information attached to an e-mail transmission should begin with the characters “BC-”, and the file name of the public version should begin with the characters “P-”. The “P-” or “BC-” should be followed by the name of the person or party submitting the petition. The e-mail address for submissions is [e-mail]. Public versions of all documents relating to this review will be available for review shortly after the due date by appointment in the USTR Public Reading Room, 1724 F Street, NW., Washington, DC. Availability of documents may be ascertained, and appointments may be made from 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, by calling [phone].

Carmen Suro-Bredie,

Chairman, Trade Policy Staff Committee.