[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 93 (Wednesday, May 13, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28695-28697]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10218]
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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
[Docket Number USTR-2020-0020]
Annual Review of Country Eligibility for Benefits Under the
African Growth and Opportunity Act
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice of initiation of review and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is
announcing the initiation of the annual review of the eligibility of
the sub-Saharan African countries to receive the benefits of the
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The AGOA Implementation
Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (AGOA Subcommittee) is
developing recommendations for the President on AGOA country
eligibility for calendar year 2021. The AGOA Subcommittee requests
comments for this review. Due to COVID-19, the AGOA Subcommittee will
foster public participation via written submissions rather than an in-
person hearing. This notice includes the schedule for submission of
comments and responses to questions from the AGOA Subcommittee related
to this review.
DATES:
June 24, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of written
comments on the eligibility of sub-Saharan African countries to receive
the benefits of AGOA.
July 7, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for the AGOA Subcommittee
to pose any questions on written comments.
July 16, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of
commenters' responses to questions from the AGOA Subcommittee.
July 25, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for replies from other
interested parties to the written comments and responses to questions.
August 4, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for the AGOA
Subcommittee to pose any additional questions on written comments.
August 13, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. EDT: Deadline for submission of
responses to any additional questions from the AGOA Subcommittee.
ADDRESSES: USTR strongly prefers electronic submissions made through
the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov
(Regulations.gov), using Docket Number USTR-2020-0020. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments in ``Requirements
[[Page 28696]]
for Submissions'' below. For alternatives to on-line submissions,
please contact Bennett Harman, Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade
Representative for Africa, in advance of the relevant deadline at
bharman@ustr.eop.gov or (202) 395-9612.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Please contact Bennett Harman, Deputy
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa, at bharman@ustr.eop.gov
or (202) 395-9612.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
AGOA (Title I of the Trade and Development Act of 2000, Pub. L.
106-200) (19 U.S.C. 2466a et seq.), as amended, authorizes the
President to designate sub-Saharan African countries as beneficiaries
eligible for duty-free treatment for certain additional products not
included for duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of
Preferences (GSP) (Title V of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461 et
seq.) (1974 Act), as well as for the preferential treatment for certain
textile and apparel articles. The President may designate a country as
a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country eligible for AGOA benefits if
he determines that the country meets the eligibility criteria set forth
in section 104 of AGOA (19 U.S.C. 3703) and section 502 of the 1974 Act
(19 U.S.C. 2462).
Section 104 of AGOA includes requirements that the country has
established or is making continual progress toward establishing, among
other things:
A market-based economy
the rule of law
political pluralism
the right to due process
the elimination of barriers to U.S. trade and investment
economic policies to reduce poverty
a system to combat corruption and bribery
protection of internationally recognized worker rights
In addition, the country may not engage in activities that
undermine U.S. national security or foreign policy interests or engage
in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. Section
502 of the 1974 Act provides for country eligibility criteria under
GSP. For a complete list of the AGOA eligibility criteria and more
information on the GSP criteria, see section 104 of the AGOA and
section 502 of the 1974 Act.
Section 506A of the 1974 Act requires the President to monitor and
annually review the progress of each sub-Saharan African country in
meeting the foregoing eligibility criteria in order to determine if a
beneficiary sub-Saharan African country should continue to be eligible,
and if a sub-Saharan African country that currently is not a
beneficiary, should be designated as a beneficiary. If the President
determines that a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country is not making
continual progress in meeting the eligibility requirements, the
President must terminate the designation of the country as a
beneficiary sub-Saharan African country. The President also may
withdraw, suspend, or limit the application of duty-free treatment with
respect to specific articles from a country if he determines that it
would be more effective in promoting compliance with AGOA eligibility
requirements than terminating the designation of the country as a
beneficiary sub-Saharan African country.
For 2020, the President designated the following 38 countries as
beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries:
1. Angola
2. Benin
3. Botswana
4. Burkina Faso
5. Cabo Verde
6. Central African Republic
7. Chad
8. Comoros
9. Republic of Congo
10. Cote d'Ivoire
11. Djibouti
12. Eswatini
13. Ethiopia
14. Gabon
15. The Gambia
16. Ghana
17. Guinea
18. Guinea-Bissau
19. Kenya
20. Lesotho
21. Liberia
22. Madagascar
23. Malawi
24. Mali
25. Mauritius
26. Mozambique
27. Namibia
28. Niger
29. Nigeria
30. Rwanda (AGOA apparel benefits suspended effective July 31, 2018)
31. Sao Tome & Principe
32. Senegal
33. Sierra Leone
34. South Africa
35. Tanzania
36. Togo
37. Uganda
38. Zambia
The President did not designate the following sub-Saharan African
countries as beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries for 2020:
1. Burundi
2. Cameroon
3. Democratic Republic of Congo
4. Equatorial Guinea (graduated from GSP)
5. Eritrea
6. Mauritania
7. Seychelles (graduated from GSP)
8. Somalia
9. South Sudan
10. Sudan
11. Zimbabwe
The AGOA Subcommittee is seeking public comments to develop
recommendations to the President in connection with the annual review
of sub-Saharan African countries' eligibility for AGOA benefits. The
Secretary of Labor may consider comments related to the child labor
criteria to prepare the U.S. Department of Labor's report on child
labor as required under section 504 of the 1974 Act.
II. Public Participation
Due to COVID-19, the AGOA Subcommittee will foster public
participation via written submissions rather than an in-person hearing
for the 2020 AGOA Eligibility Review. USTR invites public comment
according to the schedule set out in the Dates section above. The AGOA
Subcommittee will review comments and replies to comments, if any, and
may ask clarifying questions to commenters according to the schedule
set out above. The AGOA Subcommittee will post the questions it asks on
the public docket, other than questions that include properly
designated business confidential information (BCI). Any questions that
include properly designated BCI will not be posted on the docket for
public viewing, but rather will be sent via email to the relevant
commenters. Replies to these questions that also contain BCI must
follow procedures laid out in section IV.
III. Requirements for Submissions
You must submit comments and answers to questions from the AGOA
Subcommittee by the applicable deadlines set forth in this notice. You
must make all submissions in English via Regulations.gov, using Docket
Number USTR-2012-0020. USTR will not accept hand-delivered submissions.
To make a submission using Regulations.gov, enter Docket Number USTR-
2012-0020 in the `search for' field on the home page and click
`search.' The site will provide a search-results page listing all
documents
[[Page 28697]]
associated with this docket. Find a reference to this notice by
selecting `notice' under `document type' in the `filter results by'
section on the left side of the screen and click on the link entitled
`comment now.' The Regulations.gov website offers the option of
providing comments by filling in a `type comment' field or by attaching
a document using the `upload file(s)' field. The AGOA Subcommittee
prefers that you provide submissions in an attached document and note
`see attached' in the `type comment' field on the online submission
form. At the beginning of the submission, or on the first page (if an
attachment) include the following text (in bold and underlined): (1)
``2020 AGOA Eligibility Review''; (2) the relevant country or
countries; and (3) whether the document is a comment, a reply to a
comment, or an answer to an AGOA Subcommittee question. Submissions
should not exceed 30 single-spaced, standard letter-size pages in 12-
point type, including attachments. Include any data attachments to the
submission in the same file as the submission itself, and not as
separate files.
You will receive a tracking number upon completion of the
submission procedure at Regulations.gov. The tracking number is
confirmation that Regulations.gov received the submission. Keep the
confirmation for your records. USTR is not able to provide technical
assistance for Regulations.gov. USTR may not consider documents you do
not submit in accordance with these instructions. If you are unable to
provide submissions as requested, please contact Bennett Harman, Deputy
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa, at bharman@ustr.eop.gov
or (202) 395-9612, in advance of the relevant deadline to arrange for
an alternative method of transmission. General information concerning
USTR is available at www.ustr.gov.
IV. Business Confidential Submissions
If you ask USTR to treat information you submitted as BCI, you must
certify that the information is business confidential and you would not
customarily release it to the public. You must clearly designate BCI by
marking the submission ``BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL'' at the top and bottom
of the cover page and each succeeding page, and indicating, via
brackets, the specific information that is BCI. Additionally, you must
include `Business Confidential' in the `type comment' field. For any
submission containing BCI, you must separately submit a non-
confidential version, i.e., not as part of the same submission with the
confidential version, indicating where BCI has been redacted. USTR will
post the non-confidential version in the docket and it will be open to
public inspection.
V. Public Viewing of Review Submissions
USTR will make public versions of all documents relating to these
reviews available for public viewing pursuant to 15 CFR 2017.4, in
Docket Number USTR-2020-0020 on Regulations.gov, upon completion of
processing, usually within two weeks of the relevant due date or date
of the submission.
VI. Petitions
At any time, any interested party may submit a petition to USTR
with respect to whether a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country is
meeting the AGOA eligibility requirements. An interested party may file
a petition through www.regulations.gov, under docket number USTR-2020-
0020.
Edward Gresser,
Chair of the Trade Policy Staff Committee, Office of the United States
Trade Representative.
[FR Doc. 2020-10218 Filed 5-12-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3290-F0-P