Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 194 / Thursday, October 7, 2004 / Notices 60219

Dated: September 30, 2004. 

C. Miller Crouch, 

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau 

of Educational and Cultural Affairs, 

Department of State.

[FR Doc. 04–22582 Filed 10–6–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4710–05–P

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES 

TRADE REPRESENTATIVE 

Trade Policy Staff Committee; Public 

Comments for Market Access 

Negotiations Under the WTO 

Agreement on Government 

Procurement

AGENCY: Office of the United States 

Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: The Trade Policy Staff 

Committee (TPSC) is requesting written 

public comments with respect to the 

expansion of market access 

opportunities in government 

procurement under the World Trade 

Organization Agreement on Government 

Procurement. The specific information 

being sought is described in the 

background section below.

DATES: Public Comments are due by 

noon, November 1, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Offices of the U.S. Trade 

Representative, 600 17th Street, NW., 

Washington, DC 20508. Submissions by 

electronic mail: FR0446@ustr.gov. 

Submissions by facsimile: Gloria Blue, 

Executive Secretary, Trade Policy Staff 

Committee, at (202) 395–6143.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

procedural questions concerning public 

comments, contact Gloria Blue, 

Executive Secretary, TPSC, Office of the 

USTR, 1725 F. Street, NW, Washington, 

DC 20508, telephone (202) 395–3475. 

Questions concerning the expansion of 

market access opportunities in 

government procurement should be 

addressed to Jean Heilman Grier, Senior 

Procurement Negotiator, Office of the 

USTR, (202) 395–5097, or Scott Pietan, 

Department of Commerce, (202) 482–

4337.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

Chairman of the TPSC invites written 

comments from the public on the 

expansion of market access 

opportunities in government 

procurement under the World Trade 

Organization (WTO) Agreement on 

Government Procurement (GPA). 

Comments should identify specific 

improvements that are needed in the 

current coverage of the Parties to the 

GPA. Such requests could include the 

addition of specific government entities, 

state-owned enterprises or other 

government-related entities, the 

addition of services covered by the 

Agreement, and the removal of existing 

discriminatory measures or exclusions. 

The Appendices with the current 

market access commitments or coverage 

of each Party can be found on the WTO 

Web site at http://www.wto.org under 

the trade topic ‘‘government 

procurement,’’ with the details of 

Parties’ market access obligations at 

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/

gproc_e/loose_e.htm. 

1. Background Information 

The GPA is a plurilateral agreement 

that currently applies to 38 Members of 

the WTO. In addition to the United 

States, they are: Canada, European 

Communities (including its 25 member 

States: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech 

Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, 

France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, 

Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, 

Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, 

Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, 

Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom), Hong 

Kong China, Iceland, Israel, Japan, 

Korea, Liechtenstein, Netherlands with 

respect to Aruba, Norway, Singapore, 

and Switzerland. The GPA includes 

both procedures that all the Parties are 

required to follow when they undertake 

procurements covered by the GPA and 

market access obligations in the 

Appendices to the Agreement. 

The Appendices include for each 

Party a positive list of the government 

entities that are required to comply with 

the Agreement when they undertake 

procurement above specified thresholds, 

subject to exclusions of certain goods. 

The government entities covered by the 

GPA include central government 

entities and government-related 

enterprises (such as state-owned 

enterprises), as well as, for most Parties, 

sub-central government entities. The 

Appendices also include a list of the 

services covered by the Party. In 

addition, the Parties set out exclusions 

and discriminatory measures in the 

Appendices.

The GPA calls for negotiations aimed 

at increasing market access 

opportunities under the Agreement 

through the greatest possible extension 

of coverage of government procurement 

by the Parties, on the basis of 

reciprocity, and the elimination of 

discriminatory measures and practices 

that distort open procurement. The GPA 

Parties have agreed to commence 

bilateral negotiations with the 

submission of initial requests to the 

other Parties for improvements in their 

coverage under the GPA by the end of 

November 2004. Based on the requests, 

the Parties will exchange offers in the 

spring of 2005. 

The comments will be considered in 

developing U.S. positions in the 

negotiations, including requests for 

improvements in the market access 

provided by other Parties under the 

GPA. 

2. Requirements for Submissions 

In order to facilitate prompt 

processing of submissions, USTR 

strongly urges and prefers electronic (email) submissions in response to this 

notice. 

Persons making submissions by email should use the following subject 

line: ‘‘Expansion of Market Access 

under the WTO/GPA’’ followed by 

‘‘Written Comments.’’ Documents 

should be submitted as WordPerfect, 

MSWord, or text (.txt) files. Supporting 

documentation submitted as 

spreadsheets are acceptable in Quattro 

Pro or Excel. 

For any document containing 

business confidential information 

submitted electronically, the file name 

of the business confidential version 

should begin with the characters ‘‘BC-’’, 

and the file name of the public version 

should begin with the characters ‘‘P-’’. 

The ‘‘P-’’ or ‘‘BC-’’ should be followed 

by the name of the submitter. Persons 

who make submissions by e-mail should 

not provide separate cover letters; 

information that might appear in a cover 

letter should be included in the 

submission itself. To the extent 

possible, any attachments to the 

submission should be included in the 

same file as the submission itself, and 

not as separate files. 

Written comments submitted in 

response to this request will be placed 

in a file open to public inspection 

pursuant to 15 CFR 2003.5, except 

business confidential information 

exempt from public inspection in 

accordance with 15 CFR 2003.6. 

Business confidential information 

submitted in accordance with 15 CFR 

2003.6 must be clearly market ‘‘Business 

Confidential’’ at the top of each page, 

including any cover letter or cover page, 

and must be accompanied by a 

nonconfidential summary of the 

confidential information. All public 

documents and nonconfidential 

summaries shall be available for public 

inspection in the USTR Reading Room. 

The USTR Reading Room is open to the 

public, by appointment only, from 10 

a.m. to 12 noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., 

Monday through Friday. An 

appointment to review the file must be 

scheduled at least 48 hours in advance 

60220 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 194 / Thursday, October 7, 2004 / Notices 

1See Tazewell & Peoria Railroad, Inc.—Lease and 

Operation Exemption—Peoria and Pekin Union 

Railway Company, STB Finance Docket No. 34544 

(STB served Sept. 28, 2004).

and may be made by calling (202) 395–

6186. 

General information concerning the 

Office of the United States Trade 

Representative may be obtained by 

accessing its Internet Web site (http://

www.ustr.gov).

Carmen Suro-Bredie, 

Chairman, Trade Policy Staff Committee.

[FR Doc. 04–22574 Filed 10–6–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3190–W4–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Highway Administration 

Environmental Impact Statement: 

Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska

AGENCY: Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA) and Alaska 

Department of Transportation and 

Public Facilities (ADOT&PF).

ACTION: Notice of intent.

SUMMARY: The FHWA is issuing this 

notice to advise the public that an 

environmental impact statement (EIS) 

will be prepared for the West Dowling 

Road Connection Project located in the 

Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Edrie Vinson, Environmental Project 

Manager, Federal Highway 

Administration, P O Box 21648, Juneau, 

AK 99802, (907) 586–7464 or Miriam 

Tanaka, P.E. Project Manager, 

ADOT&PF, Box 196900, Anchorage, AK 

99519, (907) 269–0546.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

FHWA, in cooperation with the 

ADOT&PF, will prepare an EIS for the 

West Dowling Road Connection Project. 

The ADOT&PF has identified the need 

to enhance roadway connectivity and 

construct accessibility improvements in 

the West Dowling Road Connection 

Project area. The arterial network in the 

project area is poorly connected. Of the 

roads that are classified as arterials, 

none connect east-west across the 

project area. The road network that does 

exist (minor arterials and collectors that 

feed traffic to the arterials) is 

discontinuous, which limits 

accessibility and mobility within and 

through the project area. East-west 

barriers to through traffic in the project 

area are Campbell Creek, the Alaska 

Railroad tracks, and the controlledaccess freeways (New Seward Highway 

and Minnesota Drive). Because of the 

limited roadway connections, 

accessibility is a concern of emergency 

service providers. For the land uses 

within the project area, the incomplete 

road network often results in long and 

circuitous trip patterns. The lack of 

connectivity also hampers 

neighborhood access to residential areas 

and truck access to industrial areas. 

These problems add to traffic congestion 

on the adjacent street network. The 

project is identified in Anchorage’s 

long-range transportation plan. As such, 

the improvement is an important 

component of maintaining compliance 

with federal carbon monoxide (CO) 

standards (Anchorage was recently 

reclassified from nonattainment to 

maintenance for CO). 

A number of alternatives have been 

identified through a planning and 

scoping process. The EIS will examine 

the No-Build alternative and three build 

alternatives. 

Project planning for the West Dowling 

Road Connection Project has been 

underway since 2002 with preliminary 

engineering and a public and agency 

scoping process. Stakeholder interviews 

held in August of 2002 provided an 

early, informal opportunity to meet with 

agency representatives to assess their 

expectations for involvement and to 

begin identifying agency-specific issues/

concerns regarding the project. An 

initial round of public and agency 

scoping meetings was held on October 

30, 2002. The second set of public and 

agency scoping meetings was held on 

May 14, 2003. A scoping summary 

report summarizing the public and 

agency scoping was published in 

November of 2003 and is available at the 

following Web site: http://www. 

dowlingroad.com.

Based on project issues and on public 

and agency involvement to date, the 

FHWA has determined an EIS is 

required. Official notice of agency and 

public scoping for the EIS will be issued 

in the near future. A public hearing will 

be held following the publication of the 

Draft EIS. Notice of the availability of 

the Draft EIS and date and location of 

the hearing will be published in the 

Federal Register and in the Anchorage 

Daily News. Comments or questions 

concerning this proposed action and the 

EIS should be directed to the FHWA 

address provided above.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Program Number 20.205, Highway Research, 

Planning and Construction. The regulations 

implementing Executive Order 12372 

regarding intergovernmental consultation on 

Federal programs and activities apply to this 

program.) 

Issued on: September 28, 2004. 

David C. Miller, 

Division Administrator, Juneau, Alaska.

[FR Doc. 04–22533 Filed 10–6–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–22–M

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Surface Transportation Board 

[STB Finance Docket No. 34545] 

Genesee & Wyoming, Inc.—

Continuance in Control Exemption–

Tazewell & Peoria Railroad, Inc.

AGENCY: Surface Transportation Board.

ACTION: Notice of Exemption.

SUMMARY: The Board grants an 

exemption, under 49 U.S.C. 10502, from 

the prior approval requirements of 49 

U.S.C. 11323–25 for Genesee & 

Wyoming, Inc. (GWI), a noncarrier, to 

continue in control of Tazewell & Peoria 

Railroad, Inc. (TPR), upon TPR’s 

becoming a rail carrier pursuant to a 

related transaction involving the lease 

and operation of a line of the Peoria and 

Pekin Union Railway Company.1 GWI is 

a holding company that directly or 

indirectly controls 1 Class II rail carrier, 

21 operating Class III rail carriers, and 

4 non-operating Class III rail carriers. A 

line of one of GWI’s subsidiaries, 

Illinois & Midland Railroad, Inc., 

connects at Pekin, IL, with the line to be 

leased by TPR in the related transaction.

DATES: This exemption will be effective 

on October 28, 2004. Petitions to stay 

must be filed by October 15, 2004. 

Petitions to reopen must be filed by 

October 22, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Send an original and 10 

copies of all pleadings, referring to STB 

Finance Docket No. 34545, to: Surface 

Transportation Board, 1925 K Street, 

NW., Washington, DC 20423–0001. In 

addition, send one copy of pleadings to 

Jo A. DeRoche, Weiner Brodsky Sidman 

Kider PC, 1300 19th Street, NW., Fifth 

Floor, Washington, DC 20036–1609.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eric 

S. Davis, (202) 565–1600 [Assistance for 

the hearing impaired is available 

through the Federal Information Relay 

Service (FIRS) at 1–800–877–8339].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Additional information is contained in 

the Board’s decision. To purchase a 

copy of the full decision, write to,

e-mail or call: ASAP Document 

Solutions, 9332 Annapolis Rd., Suite 

103, Lanham, MD 20706; e-mail 

asapdc@verizon.net; telephone (301) 

577–2600. [Assistance for the hearing 

impaired is available through FIRS at 1–

800–877–8339.] 

Board decisions and notices are 

available on our Web site at 

www.stb.dot.gov.