On May 27, 2020, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice of a request for emergency clearance of an information collection and a request for comments of a new information collection request (ICR) titled Large Civil Aircraft Dispute Portal. To meet the statutory schedule for revisions, USTR must open the Portal on or about June 23, 2020. Upon OMB approval of this emergency clearance request, USTR will follow the normal clearance procedures for the ICR.
After 15 years of litigation, USTR determined to take action under the Trade Act of 1974 in the form of additional duties on products of certain EU member States, at levels of 10 or 25 percent ad valorem, as specified in the list of products included in Annex A of the October 9 Federal Register notice, effective October 18, 2019 (retaliation list). See 84 Fed. Reg. 54245 (October 9, 2019).
The Trade Act of 1974 requires USTR to revise the retaliation list unless certain conditions are met 120 days after he took action, and every 180 days thereafter unless certain conditions are met. Before making revisions, USTR is required to seek public comments. The USTR announced the beginning of the 120-day review of the action on December 12, 2019. See 84 Fed. Reg. 67992 (December 12 notice).and specifically requested public comments on:
- whether the U.S. Trade Representative should remove products of specific EU member States from the list of products subject to additional duties or should remain on the list.
- if a product remains on the list, whether the U.S. Trade Representative increase the current rate of additional duty to as high as 100 percent.
- whether the U.S. Trade Representative should add additional EU products to the list.
USTR received nearly 26,000 comments in response to the December 12 notice. The USTR announced certain revisions to the action being taken in the investigation on February 14, 2020. See 85 Fed. Reg. 10204 (February 21, 2020), and 85 Fed. Reg. 14517 (March 12, 2020).
The next 180-day revision is required on or about August 12, 2020. USTR anticipates receiving at least as many public comments as it received in response to the initial 120-day review. To assist in timely and comprehensive review and public availability of comments in response to notices of periodic revisions, USTR is establishing the Large Civil Aircraft Dispute Portal and requiring use of the LCA Form attached to the notice. In compliance with statutory requirements, USTR anticipates that it will begin accepting comments regarding the next possible revision around June 23, 2020.
Comments are due no later than June 9, 2020.
