Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA); Notice Regarding the 2003 Annual Review

AGENCY:

Office of the United States Trade Representative.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

This notice announces the 2003 Annual Review of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). The deadline for the submission of petitions for the 2003 Annual ATPA Review is September 15, 2003. USTR will publish a list of petitions filed in response to this announcement in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES:

Submit petitions by electronic mail (e-mail) to FR0088@ustr.gov. If unable to submit petitions by e-mail, contact the Office of the Americas, Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), 600 17th St., NW., Washington, DC 20508, at (202) 395-5190.

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 (202) 395-5190 and the facsimile number is (202) 395-9675.

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), 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 2003 Annual ATPA Review is the first such review to be conducted pursuant to the ATPA 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 comment 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 a beneficiary country, and may also withdraw, suspend, or limit preferential treatment for any product of any 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 2003 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 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, 2003. Petitioners should consult 15 CFR 2016.0 regarding the content of such petitions.

Petitions must be submitted, in English, to the Andean Subcommittee, Trade Policy Staff Committee. 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, a non-confidential version of the submission must also be submitted that indicates where confidential information was redacted by inserting asterisks where material was deleted. In addition, the confidential submission must be clearly marked “BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL” in large, bold letters at the top and bottom of every page of the document. The public version that does not contain business confidential information must be clearly marked either “PUBLIC VERSION” or “NON-CONFIDENTIAL” in large, bold letters at the top and bottom of every page.

In order to facilitate prompt consideration of submissions, USTR strongly urges and prefers electronic mail (e-mail) submissions in response to this notice. E-mail submissions should be single copy transmissions in English, and with the total submission including attachments should not exceed 50 pages. E-mail submissions should use the following subject line: “2003 Annual ATPA Review—Petition.” Documents must be submitted as either WordPerfect (“.WPD”), MSWord (“.DOC”), or text (“.TXT”) file. Documents should not be submitted as electronic image files or contain imbedded images (for example, “.JPG”, “PDF”, “.BMP”, or “.GIF”), as these type files are generally excessively large. Supporting documentation submitted as spreadsheets are acceptable as Quattro Pro or Excel, pre-formatted for printing on 81/2 x 11 inch paper. 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.

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. 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. The e-mail address for submissions is FR0088@ustr.gov.

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 (202) 395-6186.