[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 85 (Tuesday, May 3, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24860-24862]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-10713]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
Request for Public Comments Concerning Regulatory Cooperation
Between the United States and the European Union That Would Help
Eliminate or Reduce Unnecessary Divergences in Regulation and in
Standards Used in Regulation That Impede U.S. Exports
AGENCY: International Trade Administration, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Government recognizes that economic recovery and job
creation will depend significantly on its ability to work
collaboratively with key trading partners to promote free and open
trade and investment while also protecting public health and safety,
the environment, intellectual property, and consumers' rights. In our
trade and investment relationship with the European Union, the main
impediments to greater trade and investment--and more open foreign
markets for U.S. exporters and investors --are not tariffs or quotas,
but rather differences in regulatory measures. These regulatory
measures--which include standards developed by a government and used in
regulation, standards developed by other bodies at the request or
direction of a regulator for use in regulation, or proposals to provide
a presumption of compliance to technical requirements developed by a
government--may be unnecessary and may increase costs for producers and
consumers.
With this Notice, the Department of Commerce's International Trade
Administration (ITA), in support of the National Export Initiative
(NEI) and the U.S.-EU High Level Regulatory Cooperation Forum (HLRCF),
and pursuant to the Secretary of Commerce's role as the chair of Trade
Promotion Coordinating Committee, is requesting stakeholders assist the
Administration identify opportunities for cooperation between the
United States and the European Union to reduce or eliminate divergences
in regulatory measures that impede trade in goods in the transatlantic
marketplace, in ways that may be unnecessary, as well as any existing
or emerging sectors that may benefit from transatlantic regulatory
cooperation.
For more information on U.S.-EU regulatory cooperation, see the Web
site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/oira_irc_europe.
DATES: The agency must receive comments on or before June 2, 2011.
ADDRESSES: Submissions should be made via the internet at http://www.regulations.gov under docket ITA-2011-0006. Please direct written
submissions to Lori Cooper, Office of the European Union, Department of
Commerce, Room 3513, 14th and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC
20230. The public is strongly encouraged to file submissions
electronically rather than by mail.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions regarding this notice should
be directed to [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: With this notice, the Commerce Department,
on behalf of the Administration, is seeking public input to help
identify divergences in regulatory measures in the transatlantic
marketplace, so that the U.S. Government can work cooperatively with
the European Union to address them.
President Obama linked trade to job creation when he announced the
National Export Initiative (NEI) in his 2010 State of the Union address
and set the ambitious goal of doubling U.S. exports in the next five
years to support millions of jobs here at home. To help achieve this
goal, the U.S. Government is working to remove unnecessary divergences
in regulations and in standards used in regulation between the United
States and the European Union. The European Union, with its 27 member
countries, is our largest trading partner, accounting for 19 percent of
U.S. merchandise exports in 2010.
Since 2005, the U.S. Government has worked with officials from the
European Commission, within the framework of the U.S.-EU High Level
Regulatory Cooperation Forum (HLRCF), to strengthen regulatory
cooperation, to promote better regulation, and to reduce or eliminate
unnecessary regulatory differences that hinder trade and reduce
competitiveness, when doing so does not compromise those protections
Americans expect from their government. In addition, at the conclusion
of its December 2010 meeting, the Transatlantic Economic Council,
comprised of Cabinet-level officials from the United States and the
European Union, endorsed several initiatives aimed at further promoting
U.S.-EU regulatory cooperation, including directing the HLRCF to
develop a process for identifying, with stakeholder input, sectors in
which the United States and the European Union could pursue upstream
regulatory cooperation.
In his January 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama
announced the NEI to double U.S. exports over five years and support
the creation of new jobs. As the President's Export Promotion Cabinet
has undertaken to implement the NEI, regional and sectoral plans are
being developed to tailor the U.S. Government's NEI efforts based on
the realities of trade with key trading partners. For example,
bilateral trade between the United States and the European Union was
$559.4 billion in 2010. Despite this extensive trade between the United
States and the European Union, U.S. exporters indicate that they
continue to encounter unnecessary transatlantic divergences in
regulatory measures that impede trade.
ITA has developed a Mature Markets Initiative (MMI) to evaluate how
best to grow exports, create jobs, and support U.S. business growth in
areas where trade is robust. Regulatory cooperation is a key component
of the MMI. Accordingly, ITA has identified the European Union as a
mature market and will seek ways to ease or eliminate unnecessary
differences in regulation and in standards used in regulation that
hinder competitiveness and negatively impact trade for U.S. firms,
including new-to-market and new-to-export businesses, and particularly
for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Trade may be impeded, for example, because countries apply
different standards or technical requirements to address common
environmental, health, safety, or other concerns with respect to
certain products or product categories. In some instances, such
divergences may be arbitrary and can lead to delays,
[[Page 24861]]
additional costs, and burdens on U.S. suppliers, particularly SMEs,
and, in some cases, can make it difficult for U.S. suppliers to
penetrate foreign markets. These divergences can also increase
regulatory burdens for governments and costs for consumers. In other
cases, divergences in regulation and in standards used in regulation,
despite the burdens they impose, may be necessary to achieve legitimate
objectives such as the protection of the environment and public health
and safety.
Cooperation with respect to regulation and standards used in
regulation can help reduce unjustified divergences and lower costs and
burdens for businesses, especially SMEs, as well as for governments and
consumers. For example, when regulators in different countries are
allowed legally to share full data, studies, and other information on
specific regulatory issues, they are more likely to reach similar
conclusions, such as on the risks associated with a particular product,
appropriate measures to mitigate those risks, and the costs and
benefits associated with alternative regulatory approaches. This can
lead regulators in these countries to adopt regulatory measures that
are more aligned with each other, allow producers to develop economies
of scale, reduce compliance costs associated with divergent regulatory
measures, and pass on cost savings to consumers. It is important for
regulatory cooperation to be transparent and non-discriminatory, reduce
unnecessary costs and burdens on producers and consumers, and continue
to fulfill each government's public health, safety, environmental, and
other legitimate policy objectives.
Regulatory cooperation may include, e.g., equivalency agreements
under which a regulator in one country agrees to recognize another
country's standards as equivalent to its own, allowing products to be
placed on its market that meet the other country's standards, or mutual
recognition agreements under which regulators in each country agree to
allow products from the other country to be placed on the market based
on tests or certifications carried out in that country. The outcome of
any such regulatory cooperation must ensure that each government can
continue to meet its legitimate policy objectives and advance consumer
interests.
In addition, when regulators cooperate with regard to regulatory
measures, their cooperation may serve not only to facilitate trade, but
may also help to realize common public policy objectives. For example,
when regulators in different countries coordinate their efforts in
carrying out product recalls, it can help ensure that defective or
unsafe products are promptly removed from the market, thereby
increasing consumers' confidence in the products they buy and in the
global trading system.
Request for Information: ITA invites public comment on the
following possible types of cooperative regulatory activities between
the United States and the European Union: Information-sharing
agreements; technical assistance; memoranda of understanding, mutual
recognition agreements; collaboration between regulators before
initiating rulemaking proceedings; agreements to align particular
regulatory measures; equivalency arrangements; and accreditation of
testing laboratories or other conformity assessment bodies. ITA
acknowledges that these types of cooperative agreements and activities
are not appropriate in all cases, and that many already exist between
certain regulatory agencies of the U.S. government and their
counterparts in the European Union, so interested parties are asked to
provide a rationale for the proposed use of a particular cooperative
approach or specific activity. ITA is also seeking recommendations for
existing or emerging industry or product sectors that may benefit from
regulatory cooperation between the United States and the European
Union.
Submitters should be as specific as possible in describing the
relevant product or product sector in which they believe there is an
opportunity to facilitate trade without undermining U.S. public health,
safety, environmental, and other legitimate policy objectives. In
addition, each comment should include, where appropriate: (a) A
description of the specific measure or measures that the recommendation
would address (e.g., laws or regulations setting out safety or testing
requirements for the relevant product or product sector); (b) an
Internet link to or a copy of the measure in English and documentation
that may assist ITA in understanding the measure; (c) identification of
the key markets in the European Union for the product or product
sector; (d) a description of how and to what degree the regulatory
measures are affecting trade and their related costs, including for
SMEs; (e) information that may affect the recommendation's feasibility
(e.g., U.S. legal, regulatory, confidentiality, or policy constraints,
or any response from stakeholders or U.S. trading partners the
recommendation may elicit); (f) estimates of the potential benefits,
including for SMEs, that would result from more closely aligning the
regulatory measure, as well as a description of the method by which the
submitter has calculated the benefits; (g) contact information, if
known, for the relevant government and non-government stakeholders in
the United States or the European Union; and (h) any other information
that may assist ITA in considering the recommendation.
ITA is interested in receiving recommendations concerning any
product sector that, due to the volume of trade between the United
States and the European Union, is a justifiable focus of enhanced
regulatory cooperation. Submitters are encouraged to work with
counterparts and other interested stakeholders in the United States and
the European Union to submit comments jointly. ITA will give positive
consideration to recommendations that demonstrate strong support from
stakeholders in both the United States and the European Union.
Requirements for Submissions: In order to ensure the timely receipt
and consideration of comments, ITA strongly encourages commenters to
make online submissions, using the http://www.regulations.gov Web site.
Comments should be submitted under ITA-2011-0006. To find this docket,
enter the docket number in the ``Enter Keyword or ID'' window at the
http://www.regulations.gov home page and click ``Search.'' The site
will provide a search-results page listing all documents associated
with that docket number. Find a reference to this notice by selecting
``Notice'' under ``Document Type'' on the search-results page, and
click on the link entitled ``Submit a Comment.'' The http://www.regulations.gov Web site provides the option of making submissions
by filling in a comments field, or by attaching a document. ITA prefers
submissions to be provided in an attached document. (For further
information on using the http://www.regulations.gov Web site, please
consult the resources provided on the Web site by clicking on the
``Help'' tab.)
All comments and recommendations submitted in response to this
notice will be made available to the public. For any comments submitted
electronically containing business confidential information, the file
name of the business confidential version should begin with the
characters ``BC''. The top of any page containing business confidential
information must be clearly marked ``BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL''. Any
person filing comments that
[[Page 24862]]
contain business confidential information must also file in a separate
submission a public version of the comments. The file name of the
public version of the comments should begin with the character ``P''.
The ``BC'' and ``P'' should be followed by the name of the person or
entity submitting the comments. If a comment contains no business
confidential information, the file name should begin with the character
``P'', followed by the name of the person or entity submitting the
comments.
Please do not attach separate cover letters to electronic
submissions; rather, include any information that might appear in a
cover letter in the comments themselves. Similarly, to the extent
possible, please include any exhibits, annexes, or other attachments in
the same file as the submission itself, not as separate files.
Dated: April 27, 2011.
Michael C. Camu[ntilde]ez,
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2011-10713 Filed 5-2-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DA-P