[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 19, Volume 3]
[Revised as of April 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 19CFR356.14]

[Page 314-315]
 
                        TITLE 19--CUSTOMS DUTIES
 
            CHAPTER III--INTERNATIONAL TRADE ADMINISTRATION,
                         DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
 
PART 356--PROCEDURES AND RULES FOR IMPLEMENTING ARTICLE 1904 OF THE NORTH 
AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT--Table of Contents
 
 Subpart D--Violation of a Protective Order or a Disclosure Undertaking
 
Sec. 356.14  Report of violation and investigation.

    (a) An employee of the Department or any other person who has 
information indicating that the terms of a protective order or a 
disclosure undertaking have been violated will provide the information 
to a Director or the Chief Counsel.
    (b) Upon receiving information which indicates that a person may 
have violated the terms of a protective order or an undertaking, the 
Director will conduct an investigation concerning whether there was a 
violation of a protective order or a disclosure undertaking, and who was 
responsible for the violation, if any. For purposes of this subpart, the 
Director will be supervised by the Deputy Under Secretary with guidance 
from the Chief Counsel. The Director will conduct an investigation only 
if the information is received within 30 days after the alleged 
violation occurred or, as determined by the Director, could have been 
discovered through the exercise of reasonable and ordinary care.
    (c) The Director will provide a report of the investigation to the 
Deputy Under Secretary, after review by the Chief Counsel, no later than 
180 days after receiving information concerning a violation. Upon the 
Director's request, and if extraordinary circumstances exist, the Deputy 
Under Secretary may grant the Director up to an additional 180 days to 
conduct the investigation and submit the report.
    (d) The following examples of actions that constitute violations of 
an administrative protective order shall serve as guidelines to each 
person subject to a protective order. These examples do not represent an 
exhaustive list. Evidence that one of the acts described in the 
guidelines has been committed,

[[Page 315]]

however, shall be considered by the Director as reasonable cause to 
believe a person has violated a protective order within the meaning of 
Sec. 356.15.
    (1) Disclosure of proprietary information to any person not granted 
access to that information by protective order, including an official of 
the Department or member of the Secretariat staff not directly involved 
with the panel review pursuant to which the proprietary information was 
released, an employee of any other United States, foreign government or 
international agency, or a member of the United States Congress, the 
Canadian Parliament, or the Mexican Congress.
    (2) Failure to follow the detailed procedures outlined in the 
protective order for safeguarding proprietary information, including 
maintaining a log showing when each proprietary document is used, and by 
whom, and requiring all employees who obtain access to proprietary 
information (under the terms of a protective order granted their 
employer) to sign and date a copy of that protective order.
    (3) Loss of proprietary information.
    (4) Failure to return or destroy all copies of the original 
documents and all notes, memoranda, and submissions containing 
proprietary information at the close of the proceeding for which the 
data were obtained by burning or shredding of the documents or by 
erasing electronic memory, computer disk, or tape memory, as set forth 
in the protective order.
    (5) Failure to delete proprietary information from the public 
version of a brief or other correspondence filed with the Secretariat.
    (6) Disclosure of proprietary information during a public hearing.
    (e) Each day of a continuing violation shall constitute a separate 
violation.