Export Trade Certificate of Review

ACTION:

Notice of Application to Amend an Export Trade Certificate of Review.

SUMMARY:

Export Trading Company Affairs (“ETCA”), International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce, has received an application to amend an Export Trade Certificate of Review (“Certificate”). This notice summarizes the proposed amendment and requests comments relevant to whether the Certificate should be issued.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jeffrey Anspacher, Director, Export Trading Company Affairs, International Trade Administration, (202) 482-5131 (this is not a toll-free number) or e-mail at oetca@ita.doc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title III of the Export Trading Company Act of 1982 (15 U.S.C. 4001-21) authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to issue Export Trade Certificates of Review. An Export Trade Certificate of Review protects the holder and the members identified in the Certificate from state and federal government antitrust actions and from private treble damage antitrust actions for the export conduct specified in the Certificate and carried out in compliance with its terms and conditions. Section 302(b)(1) of the Export Trading Company Act of 1982 and 15 CFR 325.6(a) require the Secretary to publish a notice in the Federal Register identifying the applicant and summarizing its proposed export conduct.

Request for Public Comments

Interested parties may submit written comments relevant to the determination whether an amended Certificate should be issued. If the comments include any privileged or confidential business information, it must be clearly marked and a nonconfidential version of the comments (identified as such) should be included. Any comments not marked privileged or confidential business information will be deemed to be nonconfidential. An original and five (5) copies, plus two (2) copies of the nonconfidential version, should be submitted no later than 20 days after the date of this notice to: Export Trading Company Affairs, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Room 7021-B H, Washington, DC 20230. Information submitted by any person is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). However, nonconfidential versions of the comments will be made available to the applicant if necessary for determining whether or not to issue the Certificate. Comments should refer to this application as “Export Trade Certificate of Review, application number 05-2A001.” A summary of the application for an amendment follows.

Summary of the Application

Applicant: Central America Poultry Export Quota, Inc. (“CA-PEQ”), 901 New York Avenue, NW., Third Floor, Washington, DC 20001-4413.

Contact: Kyd D. Brenner, Partner, DTB Associates, LLP, Telephone: (202) 661-7098.

Application No.: 05-2A001.

Date Deemed Submitted: November 28, 2006.

The original CA-PEQ Certificate was issued on January 30, 2006 (71 FR 6753, February 9, 2006) and last amended on July 11, 2006 (71 FR 40076, July 14, 2006).

Proposed Amendment

1. CA-PEQ seeks to amend the Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation section of its certificate at part 2 (Implementation), F (Contents of Bid), first sentence, (ii) from: the quantity of poultry bid, in an amount that is a multiple of 25 metric tons to: the quantity of poultry bid, with a minimum bid of one metric ton.

2. CA-PEQ seeks to allow for the public disclosure of the following two additional pieces of information regarding the result of its public tender process: (a) The average bid price for all successful bids; and (b) the names of the successful bidders. This change would be reflected by amending the Export Trade Activities and Methods of Operation section of its certificate at part 2 (Implementation), H (Confidentiality of Information) from: The Administrator shall treat all bids and their contents as confidential. The Administrator shall disclose any such information only to another neutral third party or authorized government official of the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras or Nicaragua, signatories to the DR-CAFTA, and only where necessary to ensure the effective operation of the TRQ System or where required by law (including appropriate disclosure in connection with the arbitration of a dispute). However, after the issuance of all TRQ Certificates from an open-tender process, the Administrator shall notify all bidders and shall disclose publicly (i) the total tonnage for which TRQ Certificates were awarded, and (ii) the lowest price per metric ton of all successful bids to: The Administrator shall treat all bids and their contents as confidential. The Administrator shall disclose any such information only to another neutral third party or authorized government official of the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras or Nicaragua, signatories to the DR-CAFTA, and only where necessary to ensure the effective operation of the TRQ System or where required by law (including appropriate disclosure in connection with the arbitration of a dispute). However, after close of each open-tender process the Administrator shall notify all bidders and shall disclose publicly (i) the total tonnage for which TRQ certificates were awarded, (ii) the lowest price per metric ton of all successful bids, (iii) the average price per metric tons for all successful bids, and (iv) the names of the winning bidders.