[Federal Register: September 24, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 185)]
[Notices]
[Page 55287-55289]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr24se03-7]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Institute of Standards and Technology
[Docket No.: 030908225-3225-01]
Request for Technical Input on Standards Issues and Foreign
Markets
AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of inquiry.
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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce requests industry comments on
pressing standards issues and priority foreign markets. As part of the
Department's Secretarial Initiative to Enhance Commerce Department
Standards Activities, the Department is currently conducting a series
of industry roundtables, seeking comment on barriers in export markets
caused by foreign governments' policies on standards and technical
regulatory requirements. The Department is supplementing these
roundtables with a general solicitation of comments from industry
representatives via this notice.
The Department has also scheduled an open roundtable standards
discussion, to be held on October 23 at the Department of Commerce and
invites interested parties to indicate their interest in participating
in this roundtable.
DATES: Written comments on standards issues and foreign markets must be
submitted to NIST no later than November 1, 2003.
The Department also invites industry to attend an open roundtable
standards discussion, to be held on October 23 at the Department of
Commerce. Participants in the discussion will be asked for their
individual input and advice, and will not be asked to furnish group
consensus advice.
A request to attend the open roundtable standards discussion should
[[Page 55288]]
be submitted to ITA no later than September 30, 2003.
ADDRESSES: The public is strongly encouraged to submit comments
electronically rather than by facsimile or by mail.
All comments on standards issues and foreign markets should be
addressed to: Dr. Belinda Collins, Deputy Director, Technology
Services, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau
Drive, MS 2000, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, fax (301) 975-2183. E-mail:
belinda.collins@nist.gov. Those wishing to attend the open roundtable discussion should
contact: Ms. Lisa Handy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Trade
Development, International Trade Administration, 1401 Constitution
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230. E-mail: lisa_handy@ita.doc.gov. The
October 23 roundtable discussion will be held at the U.S. Department of
Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230.
The full text of the Initiative is available at: http://www.commerce.gov/opa/press/2003_Releases/March/19_Standards.htm
.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information on submitting
input on standards issues and barriers in export markets, contact Dr.
Belinda Collins, Deputy Director, Technology Services, National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Tel: 301-975-4500 or Ms.
Christine DeVaux, Technology Services, NIST, Tel: 301-975-4679.
For further information on the open roundtable, contact Ms. Lisa
Handy, International Trade Administration, Tel: 202-482-2788.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On March 19, 2003, Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans announced an
eight-point Standards Initiative to help break down trade barriers. The
initiative is in response to industry concerns that foreign standards
and technical regulation issues are becoming among the greatest
challenges to expanding exports.
Foreign standards and methods used to assess conformity to
standards can facilitate efficient international trade and its
benefits, or they also can be used intentionally or unintentionally to
impede access to foreign markets. Many in industry view foreign
standards and technical regulation as a principal non-tariff barrier in
markets around the world. Divergent standards, redundant testing and
compliance procedures, and unilateral and non-transparent standard
setting exercises are now recognized as major impediments to free
trade--estimated to affect 80 percent of world commodity trade.
Over the course of the last several months, a number of industry
associations and companies have highlighted foreign standards
development and technical regulations as an issue of increasing
importance for U.S. exports. There is a sense from industry that the
U.S. Government, specifically the Commerce Department, could do more to
reduce the barriers to export markets caused by foreign governments'
adverse policies on standards and technical regulatory requirements.
In response to industry concerns, the Commerce Department has
developed an eight-point initiative to augment current activities as an
effective framework to address the relationship between foreign
standards and the international competitiveness of U.S. companies. The
outputs of the Initiative will be used to determine recommendations to
the Secretary by January 2004 for future action.
Initiative
The full text of the Initiative may be found at http://www.commerce.gov/opa/press/2003_Releases/March/19_Standards.htm
.
Under the Initiative, the Department will carry out the following
activities:
(1) Conduct a standards activity assessment of all existing
Commerce Department programs and efforts to reduce standards-related
barriers in foreign markets; recommendations will be made to the
Secretary for future action.
(2) Reinforce expertise in key markets through a new, redesigned,
intensive training program for standards liaisons posted abroad.
(3) Devise an effective standards training and outreach program for
all Commerce Department Foreign Commercial Service Officers.
(4) Develop and create a ``best practices'' database in addressing
standards issues in foreign markets.
(5) Expand the early warning system to disseminate market
intelligence and information on standards developments in key priority
foreign markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
(6) Support the development of a dialogue on standards within the
proposed President's Export Council subcommittee on technology and
competitiveness.
(7) Reach out to U.S. industry by hosting a series of industry-
specific roundtables to gather input from industry on the most pressing
standards issues and priority foreign markets. Summaries of the
industry roundtables will be made publicly available by December 31,
2003.
(8) Appoint a liaison at the International Trade Administration to
ensure that industry's priorities on standards are promoted through the
Department's international policies and programs.
Industry Roundtables
As part of the Initiative, the Department of Commerce is conducting
a series of standards roundtables in order to gain U.S. industry's
insight into how foreign standards and related technical regulations
affect their competitiveness overseas. The Department is also
interested in industry's views on national standards issues. Industry
input will be used for the following:
(1) Outlining a roadmap for future action by DOC, based on some of
the major concerns and issues raised by industry and based on areas
where the Department's efforts are either supporting or not supporting
industry's most important needs;
(2) Determining standards-related programs and strategies for
Department activities; and,
(3) Informing Commerce offices on the current status of industry
issues and on industry perspectives, and ensuring that their concerns
are heard by a broad cross-section of the Department, including at
senior levels.
Any advice will be provided by the participants acting as
individuals and not as a group.
Submissions
Input directed to the Department of Commerce should focus on the
following questions (additional comments are also welcome):
1. What are the highest priority standards issues facing your
industry?
2. Are there adequate national and/or international standards to
satisfy your industry's trade/export-related needs?
3. Does your industry experience standards-related problems in
specific countries or regions, or do these problems affect multiple
regions?
4. Do your industry's problems result primarily from the technical
requirements contained in standards or technical regulations that adopt
such standards? Please describe specific examples where the technical
requirements resulted in market entry problems in your industry.
5. Do your industry's problems result from how compliance with
technical requirements is assessed? Do you have examples of cases where
either the
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technical requirements or the assessment process resulted in market
entry problems for your industry?
6. Has your industry been able to take an effective approach to
address international standards issues? What steps have produced the
most benefit? Could other industrial sectors benefit from using these
approaches?
7. Has your industry been able to take an effective approach to
address national standards issues? What steps have produced the most
benefit? Could other industrial sectors benefit from using these
approaches?
8. Do you have examples of a problem experienced by your industry
where the federal government has been effective in resolving the
issues? What steps taken by federal government officials were effective
in resolving the issue, and why were they effective? Would such steps
or approaches be applicable in other cases or were their successes
unique to a specific problem? What steps were ineffective or less
effective, and why do you think that this was so? Was it the unique
nature of the problem, or would such steps have been equally
ineffective in most cases?
9. What actions would you recommend the Department undertake
following this and similar roundtables? Would your industry be willing
to help to improve the situation encountered with respect to problems
associated with standards and conformity assessment?
All comments must be submitted no later than November 1, 2003.
Dated: September 16, 2003.
Arden L. Bement, Jr.,
Director.
[FR Doc. 03-24176 Filed 9-23-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-P