Federal Acquisition Regulation; Small Entity Compliance Guide

AGENCIES:

Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION:

Small Entity Compliance Guide.

SUMMARY:

This document is issued under the joint authority of the Secretary of Defense, the Administrator of General Services and the Administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This Small Entity Compliance Guide has been prepared in accordance with Section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. It consists of a summary of the rule appearing in Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2001-27 which amends the FAR. An asterisk (*) next to a rule indicates that a regulatory flexibility analysis has been prepared. Interested parties may obtain further information regarding this rule by referring to FAC 2001-27, which precedes this document. These documents are also available via the Internet at http://www.acqnet.gov/far.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Laurieann Duarte, FAR Secretariat, (202) 501-4225. For clarification of content, contact Cecelia Davis at (202) 219-0202.

Free Trade Agreements—Australia and Morocco

This interim rule allows contracting officers to purchase the products of Australia and Morocco without application of the Buy American Act if the acquisition is subject to the Free Trade Agreements. The U.S. Trade Representative negotiated Free Trade Agreements with Australia and Morocco, which go into effect January 1, 2005, according to Public Laws 108-286 and 108-302. These Agreements join the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Chile and Singapore Free Trade Agreements which are already in the FAR. The threshold for applicability of the Australian Free Trade Agreement is $58,550 (the same as other Free Trade Agreements to date), but the threshold for applicability of the Morocco Free Trade Agreement is $175,000. Because of the short statutory time frame, this is an interim rule. Also in this rule are changes requested by the U.S. Trade Representative, in the list of Least Developed Countries, and changes in terminology on how the FAR uses the terms “designated country” and “Trade Agreements Act.” Some technical changes are also included.