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[Federal Register: December 14, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 241)]
[Notices]
[Page 78253-78254]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr14de00-154]
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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Trade Policy Staff Committee
Public Comments on Proposed United States-Chile Free Trade
Agreement
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice of intent to conduct negotiations, initiation of
environmental review, and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The United States intends to conduct negotiations with the
Republic of Chile to conclude a free trade agreement. The Trade Policy Staff
Committee (TPSC) is requesting written comments from the public to assist the
United States Trade Representative (USTR) in formulating
negotiating objectives for the agreement and to provide advice on how specific
goods and services and other matters should be treated under the agreement.
Pursuant to Executive Order 13141 (64 FR 63169), USTR,
through the TPSC, is initiating an environmental review of the agreement. The
TPSC is also requesting written comments from the public on what should be
included in the scope of the environmental review, including the potential
environmental effects that might flow from the free trade agreement and the
potential implications for environmental laws and regulations. Persons
submitting written comments should provide as much detail as possible on the
degree to which the subject matter they propose for inclusion in the review may
raise significant environmental issues in the context of the negotiation.
DATES: Public comments should be received by noon, January 29, 2001.
ADDRESS: Public comment should be submitted to: Gloria Blue, Executive
Secretary, TPSC, Office of the USTR, 600 17th Street, NW.,
Washington, DC 20508 Attention: U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For procedural questions concerning
public comments, contact Gloria Blue, Executive Secretary, TPSC, Office of the USTR,
600 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20508 (202) 395-3475. All questions
regarding the environmental review should be addressed to Mary Latimer, Deputy
Assistant USTR for Environment and Natural Resources, Office
of the USTR (202) 395-7320. All other questions regarding the
negotiations should be addressed to Susan Cronin, Director for Brazil and the
Southern Cone, Office of the Western Hemisphere of the USTR
(202) 395-5190.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On November 29, 2000, President Clinton agreed
with Chile's President Ricardo Lagos to negotiate a bilateral free trade
agreement. In the negotiations, the United States and the Republic of Chile will
seek to eliminate duties and commercial barriers to bilateral trade in U.S.-and
Chilean-origin goods and also expect to address trade in services, agricultural
products, investment, trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights,
government procurement, trade-related environmental and labor matters, and other
issues. Two-way trade between the United States and Republic of Chile approached
$6 billion in 1999. USTR is requesting that the U.S.
International Trade Commission conduct a study of the potential economic impacts
of the free trade agreement.
USTR, through the TPSC, will perform an environmental
review of the agreement pursuant to Executive Order 13141, 64 FR 63169.
Written comments with as much specificity as possible,
including data, views and recommendations, are invited on:
(a) General and commodity-specific negotiating objectives for
the agreement.
(b) Economic costs and benefits to U.S. producers and
consumers of the removal of tariffs and non-tariff barriers to U.S.-Chile trade.
(c) Treatment of specific goods (described by Harmonized
System tariff numbers) under the agreement, including comments on (1)
product-specific import or export interests or barriers, (2) experience with
particular measures that should be addressed in the negotiations, and (3) in the
case of articles for which immediate elimination of tariffs is not appropriate,
recommended staging schedule for such elimination.
(d) Proposals for service sectors to be addressed in the
agreement, existing barriers to trade in those sectors, and economic costs and
benefits of removing such barriers.
(e) Relevant trade-related intellectual property rights
issues that should be addressed in the negotiations.
(f) Relevant investment issues that should be addressed in
the negotiations.
(g) Relevant environmental and labor issues that should be
addressed in the negotiations
(h) Relevant government procurement issues that should be
addressed in the negotiations.
(i) Possible environmental effects of the proposed agreement
and the scope of the U.S. environmental review of the proposed agreement.
Comments identifying as present or potential trade barriers
any laws or regulations that are not primarily trade-related should address the
economic, political and social objectives of such laws and regulations and the
degree to which they discriminate against producers of the other country.
Comments on the scope of the environmental review should be as detailed as
possible.
Written Comments
Persons submitting written comments should provide twenty
(20) copies no later than noon, January 29, 2001, to Gloria Blue at address
listed above. If possible, comments should be submitted before this date. Where
possible, please supplement written comments with a computer disk of the
submission containing as much of the technical details as possible either in
spreadsheet or word processing table format, with each tariff line or services
sector in a separate cell. The disk should have a label identifying the software
used and the submitter.
Written comments submitted in connection with this request,
except for information granted ``business confidential'' status pursuant to 15
CFR 2003.6, will be available for public inspection in the USTR
Reading Room (Room 101) at the address noted above. An appointment to review the
file may be made by calling Brenda Webb at (202) 395-6186. The Reading Room is
open to the public from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday
through Friday.
Business confidential information, including any information
submitted on disks, will be subject to the requirements of 15 CFR 2003.6. Any
business confidential material must be clearly marked as such on the cover
letter or page and each succeeding page, and must be accompanied by a
non-confidential summary thereof. If the submission contains business
confidential information, twenty copies of a public version that does not
contain confidential information must be submitted. A justification as to why
the information contained in the submission should be treated confidentially
must be included in the submission. In addition, any submissions containing
business confidential information must be clearly marked ``Confidential'' at the
top and bottom of the cover page (or letter) and each succeeding page of the
submission. The version that does not contain confidential information should
also be clearly marked, at the top and bottom of each page, ``public
version'' or ``non-confidential.''
Carmen Suro-Bredie,
Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee
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