Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 214 / Friday, November 5, 2004 / Notices 64621

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES 

TRADE REPRESENTATIVE 

Generalized System of Preferences 

(GSP): Initiation of a Review To 

Consider the Designation of Azerbaijan 

as a Beneficiary Developing Country 

Under the GSP

AGENCY: Office of the United States 

Trade Representative.

ACTION: Notice and solicitation of public 

comment with respect to the eligibility 

of Azerbaijan for the GSP program. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

initiation of a review to consider the 

designation of Azerbaijan as a 

beneficiary developing country under 

the GSP program and solicits public 

comment relating to the designation 

criteria. Comments are due on December 

10th, 2004 in accordance with the 

requirements for submissions, explained 

below.

ADDRESSES FOR SUBMISSIONS: Submit 

comments by electronic mail (e-mail) to: 

FR0440@ustr.gov. For assistance or if 

unable to submit comments by e-mail, 

contact the GSP Subcommittee, Office of 

the United States Trade Representative; 

USTR Annex, Room F–220; 1724 F 

Street, NW., Washington, DC 20508 

(Tel. 202–395–6971).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Contact the GSP Subcommittee, Office 

of the United States Trade 

Representative; USTR Annex, Room F–

220; 1724 F Street, NW., Washington, 

DC 20508 (Telephone: 202–395–6971, 

Facsimile: 202–395–9481).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The GSP 

Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff 

Committee (TPSC) has initiated a review 

in order to make a recommendation to 

the President as to whether Azerbaijan 

meets the eligibility criteria of the GSP 

statute, as set out below. After 

considering the eligibility criteria, the 

President is authorized to designate 

Azerbaijan as a beneficiary developing 

country for purposes of the GSP. 

Interested parties are invited to 

submit comments regarding the 

eligibility of Azerbaijan for designation 

as a GSP beneficiary developing 

country. Documents not submitted in 

accordance with the below instructions 

might not be considered in this review. 

If unable to provide submissions by email, please contact the GSP 

Subcommittee to arrange for an 

alternative method of transmission. 

Eligibility Criteria 

The trade benefits of the GSP program 

are available to any country that the 

President designates as a GSP 

‘‘beneficiary developing country.’’ In 

designating countries as GSP beneficiary 

developing countries, the President 

must consider the criteria in sections 

502(b)(2) and 502(c) of the Trade Act of 

1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2462(b)(2), 

2462(c)) (‘‘the Act’’). Section 502(b)(2) 

provides that a country is ineligible for 

designation if: 

1. Such country is a Communist 

country, unless—

(a) The products of such country 

receive nondiscriminatory treatment, (b) 

Such country is a WTO Member (as 

such term is defined in section 2(10) of 

the Uruguay Round Agreements Act) (19 

U.S.C. 3501(10)) and a member of the 

International Monetary Fund, and (c) 

Such country is not dominated or 

controlled by international communism. 

2. Such country is a party to an 

arrangement of countries and 

participates in any action pursuant to 

such arrangement, the effect of which 

is—

(a) To withhold supplies of vital 

commodity resources from international 

trade or to raise the price of such 

commodities to an unreasonable level, 

and (b) To cause serious disruption of 

the world economy. 

3. Such country affords preferential 

treatment to the products of a developed 

country, other than the United States, 

which has, or is likely to have, a 

significant adverse effect on United 

States commerce. 

4. Such country—

(a) Has nationalized, expropriated, or 

otherwise seized ownership or control 

of property, including patents, 

trademarks, or copyrights, owned by a 

United States citizen or by a 

corporation, partnership, or association 

which is 50 percent or more beneficially 

owned by United States citizens, (b) Has 

taken steps to repudiate or nullify an 

existing contract or agreement with a 

United States citizen or a corporation, 

partnership, or association which is 50 

percent or more beneficially owned by 

United States citizens, the effect of 

which is to nationalize, expropriate, or 

otherwise seize ownership or control of 

property, including patents, trademarks, 

or copyrights, so owned, or (c) Has 

imposed or enforced taxes or other 

exactions, restrictive maintenance or 

operational conditions, or other 

measures with respect to property, 

including patents, trademarks, or 

copyrights, so owned, the effect of 

which is to nationalize, expropriate, or 

otherwise seize ownership or control of 

such property, unless the President 

determines that—

(i) Prompt, adequate, and effective 

compensation has been or is being made 

to the citizen, corporation, partnership, 

or association referred to above, (ii) 

Good faith negotiations to provide 

prompt, adequate, and effective 

compensation under the applicable 

provisions of international law are in 

progress, or the country is otherwise 

taking steps to discharge its obligations 

under international law with respect to 

such citizen, corporation, partnership, 

or association, or (iii) A dispute 

involving such citizen, corporation, 

partnership, or association over 

compensation for such a seizure has 

been submitted to arbitration under the 

provisions of the Convention for the 

Settlement of Investment Disputes, or in 

another mutually agreed upon forum, 

and the President promptly furnishes a 

copy of such determination to the 

Senate and House of Representatives. 

5. Such country fails to act in good 

faith in recognizing as binding or in 

enforcing arbitral awards in favor of 

United States citizens or a corporation, 

partnership, or association which is 50 

percent or more beneficially owned by 

United States citizens, which have been 

made by arbitrators appointed for each 

case or by permanent arbitral bodies to 

which the parties involved have 

submitted their dispute. 

6. Such country aids or abets, by 

granting sanctuary from prosecution to, 

any individual or group which has 

committed an act of international 

terrorism or the Secretary of State makes 

a determination with respect to such 

country under section 6(j)(1)(A) of the 

Export Administration Act of 1979 (50 

U.S.C. Appx. section 2405(j)(1)(A)) or 

such country has not taken steps to 

support the efforts of the United States 

to combat terrorism. 

7. Such country has not taken or is 

not taking steps to afford internationally 

recognized worker rights to workers in 

the country (including any designated 

zone in that country). 

8. Such country has not implemented 

its commitments to eliminate the worst 

forms of child labor. 

Section 502(c) provides that, in 

determining whether to designate any 

country as a GSP beneficiary developing 

country, the President shall take into 

account: 

1. An expression by such country of 

its desire to be so designated; 

2. The level of economic development 

of such country, including its per capita 

gross national product, the living 

standards of its inhabitants, and any 

other economic factors which the 

President deems appropriate; 

3. Whether or not other major 

developed countries are extending 

generalized preferential tariff treatment 

to such country; 

4. The extent to which such country 

has assured the United States that it will 

64622 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 214 / Friday, November 5, 2004 / Notices 

provide equitable and reasonable access 

to the markets and basic commodity 

resources of such country and the extent 

to which such country has assured the 

United States that it will refrain from 

engaging in unreasonable export 

practices; 

5. The extent to which such country 

is providing adequate and effective 

protection of intellectual property 

rights; 

6. The extent to which such country 

has taken action to—

(a) Reduce trade distorting investment 

practices and policies (including export 

performance requirements); and (b) 

Reduce or eliminate barriers to trade in 

services; and 

7. Whether or not such country has 

taken or is taking steps to afford to 

workers in that country (including any 

designated zone in that country) 

internationally recognized worker 

rights. Note that the Trade Act of 2002 

amended paragraph (D) of the definition 

of the term ‘‘internationally recognized 

worker rights,’’ which now includes: (A) 

The right of association; (B) the right to 

organize and bargain collectively; (C) a 

prohibition on the use of any form of 

forced or compulsory labor; (D) a 

minimum age for the employment of 

children and a prohibition on the worst 

forms of child labor as defined in 

paragraph (6) of section 507(4) of the 

Act; and (E) acceptable conditions of 

work with respect to minimum wages, 

hours of work, and occupational safety 

and health. 

Requirements for Submissions 

Comments must be submitted to the 

Chairman of the GSP Subcommittee, 

Trade Policy Staff Committee. 

Comments, in English, must be received 

no later than 5 p.m. on December 10th, 

2004. 

In order to facilitate prompt 

consideration of submissions, USTR 

strongly urges and prefers electronic 

mail (e-mail) submissions in response to 

this notice. Hand delivered submissions 

and facsimile submissions will not 

normally be accepted. 

Persons who make submissions by email should not provide separate cover 

letters or messages in the message area 

of the e-mail; information that might 

appear in any cover letter should be 

included directly in the attached file 

containing the submission. The name 

and organization of the submitter, 

address, telephone, facsimile and e-mail 

address, should be included in the 

attached file itself.

The e-mail submissions should be 

single copy transmissions in English 

with the total submission, including 

attachments, not to exceed 50 doublespaced, standard-size pages (81⁄2 × 11 

inch) in 12 point type as a digital file, 

not exceeding 1 megabyte in size, 

attached to an e-mail transmission. 

Persons making submissions by email should use the following subject 

line: ‘‘Azerbaijan GSP Eligibility 

Review.’’ Documents must be 

submitted, in English, as either 

WordPerfect (‘‘.WPD’’), MSWord 

(‘‘.DOC’’), or text (‘‘.TXT’’) files. 

Documents shall not be submitted as 

electronic image files or contain large 

imbedded images (for example, ‘‘.JPG’’, 

‘‘.PDF’’, ‘‘.BMP’’, ‘‘.TIF’’, or ‘‘.GIF’’), as 

these types of files are generally 

excessively large. 

Any supporting documentation 

submitted as spreadsheets is acceptable 

as Quattro Pro or Excel, preformatted for 

printing on 81⁄2 × 11 inch paper. To the 

extent possible, any data attachments to 

the submission should be included in 

the same file as the submission itself 

and not as separate files, and should not 

cause the entire submission to exceed 

the 50 page and 1 megabyte size limits. 

Information and comments submitted 

will be subject to public inspection by 

appointment with the staff of the USTR 

Public Reading Room, except for 

information granted ‘‘business 

confidential’’ status pursuant to 15 CFR 

2003.6. If the submission contains 

business confidential information, a 

non-confidential version of the 

submission must also be submitted that 

indicates where confidential 

information was redacted by inserting 

asterisks where material was deleted. In 

addition, the confidential submission 

must be clearly marked ‘‘BUSINESS 

CONFIDENTIAL’’ at the top and bottom 

of each and every page of the document. 

The public version that does not 

contain business confidential 

information must also be clearly marked 

at the top and bottom of each and every 

page (either ‘‘PUBLIC VERSION’’ or 

‘‘NONCONFIDENTIAL’’). Documents 

that are submitted without any marking 

might not be accepted or will be 

considered public documents. 

For any document containing 

business confidential information 

submitted as an electronic attached file 

to an e-mail transmission, 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. 

Public versions of all documents 

relating to this review will be available 

for review approximately 30 days 

shortly after the due date by 

appointment in the USTR public 

reading room, 1724 F Street NW., 

Washington, DC. Appointments may be 

made from 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. 

to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday by 

calling (202) 395–6186.

H.J. Rosenbaum, 

Acting Executive Director GSP; Acting 

Chairman, GSP Subcommittee of the Trade 

Policy Staff Committee.

[FR Doc. 04–24776 Filed 11–4–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3190–W5–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Office of the Secretary 

Aviation Proceedings, Agreements 

Filed the Week Ending October 22, 

2004

The following Agreements were filed 

with the Department of Transportation 

under the provisions of 49 U.S.C. 

Sections 412 and 414. Answers may be 

filed within 21 days after the filing of 

the application. 

Docket Number: OST–2004–19457. 

Date Filed: October 20, 2004. 

Parties: Members of the International 

Air Transport Association. 

Subject: CTC COMP 0505 dated 22 

October 2004, Mail Vote 416, Special 

Cargo Amending Resolution, Add-On 

Resolution r1–r2, Minutes: CTC COMP 

0504 dated 15 October 2004, Intended 

effective date: 1 February 2005.

Docket Number: OST–2004–19459. 

Date Filed: October 20, 2004. 

Parties: Members of the International 

Air Transport Association. 

Subject: PTC2 EUR0 586 dated 22 

October 2004, PTC2 Within Europe 

Expedited Resolutions r1–r12, Intended 

effective date: 1 December 2004.

Docket Number: OST–2004–19475. 

Date Filed: October 22, 2004. 

Parties: Members of the International 

Air Transport Association. 

Subject: Mail Vote 417, PTC COMP 

1197 dated 22 October 2004, Resolution 

010a—Special Passenger Amending, 

Resolution r1–r2, Intended effective 

date: 1 November 2004.

Andrea M. Jenkins, 

Program Manager, Federal Register Liaison.

[FR Doc. 04–24683 Filed 11–4–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–62–P