Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 156 / Friday, August 12, 2011 / Notices 50287 

entity submitting the comments. 

Electronic submissions should not 

attach separate cover letters; rather, 

information that might appear in a cover 

letter should be included in the 

comments you submit. Similarly, to the 

extent possible, please include any 

exhibits, annexes, or other attachments 

to a submission in the same file as the 

submission itself and not as separate 

files. 

We strongly urge submitters to use 

electronic filing. If an on-line 

submission is impossible, alternative 

arrangements must be made with Ms. 

Newport prior to delivery for the receipt 

of such submissions. Ms. Newport may 

be contacted at (202) 395–3475. 

General information concerning USTR 

may be obtained by accessing its 

Internet Web site (http://www.ustr.gov). 

Donald W. Eiss, 

Acting Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee. 

[FR Doc. 2011–20483 Filed 8–11–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3190–W1–P 

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES 

TRADE REPRESENTATIVE 

Request for Public Comments To 

Compile the National Trade Estimate 

Report on Foreign Trade Barriers and 

Reports on Sanitary and Phytosanitary 

and Standards-Related Foreign Trade 

Barriers 

AGENCY: Office of the United States 

Trade Representative. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 181 of the 

Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 

U.S.C. 2241), the Office of the United 

States Trade Representative (USTR) is 

required to publish annually the 

National Trade Estimate Report on 

Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE). With this 

notice, the Trade Policy Staff Committee 

(TPSC) is requesting interested persons 

to submit comments to assist it in 

identifying significant barriers to U.S. 

exports of goods, services, and U.S. 

foreign direct investment for inclusion 

in the NTE. 

Once again, the TPSC is requesting 

that comments on standards-related 

measures and sanitary and 

phytosanitary (SPS) measures that 

create barriers to U.S. exports be 

submitted separately from other NTE 

comments. This will assist USTR in 

updating two reports issued in 2011 in 

conjunction with the release of the NTE 

highlighting SPS and standards-related 

measures that may be inconsistent with 

international trade agreements to which 

the United States is a party or that 

otherwise act as significant barriers to 

U.S. exports. These reports were 

published as the 2011 Report on 

Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures 

(2011 SPS Report) and the 2011 Report 

on Technical Barriers to Trade (2011 

TBT Report) respectively. 

The TPSC invites written comments 

from the public on issues that USTR 

should examine in preparing the NTE 

and the reports on SPS and standardsrelated measures. 

DATES: Public comments are due not 

later than October 4, 2011. 

ADDRESSES: Submissions should be 

made via the Internet at http:// 

www.regulations.gov under the 

following dockets (based on the subject 

matter of the submission): 

SPS Measures: USTR–2011–0006. 

Standards-Related Measures: USTR– 

2011–0007. 

All Other Measures: USTR–USTR– 

2011–0008. 

For alternatives to on-line 

submissions please contact Laura 

Newport at USTR (202–395–3475). The 

public is strongly encouraged to file 

submissions electronically rather than 

by facsimile or mail. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Questions regarding the NTE or on 

submitting comments in response to this 

notice should be directed to Laura 

Newport at (202) 395–3475. Questions 

regarding the SPS report or substantive 

questions concerning comments on SPS 

measures should be directed to Jane 

Doherty, Director of Sanitary and 

Phytosanitary Affairs, USTR (202–395– 

6127). Questions regarding the report on 

standards-related measures or 

substantive questions concerning 

comments on those measures should be 

directed to Jeff Weiss, Senior Director, 

Technical Barriers to Trade, USTR (202– 

395–4498). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NTE 

sets out an inventory of the most 

important foreign barriers affecting U.S. 

exports of goods and services, U.S. 

foreign direct investment, and 

protection of intellectual property 

rights. The inventory facilitates U.S. 

negotiations aimed at reducing or 

eliminating these barriers. The report 

also provides a valuable tool in 

enforcing U.S. trade laws and 

strengthening the rules-based trading 

system. The 2011 NTE, SPS, and TBT 

Reports may be found on USTR’s 

Internet Home Page (http:// 

www.ustr.gov) under the tab ‘‘Reports’’. 

To ensure compliance with the NTE’s 

statutory mandate and the Obama 

Administration’s commitment to focus 

on the most significant foreign trade 

barriers, USTR will be guided by the 

existence of active private sector interest 

in deciding which restrictions to 

include in the NTE and the reports on 

SPS and standards-related measures. 

Topics on which the TPSC Seeks 

Information: To assist USTR in 

preparing the NTE and the reports on 

SPS and standards-related measures, 

commenters should submit information 

related to one or more of the following 

categories of foreign trade barriers: 

(1) Import policies (e.g., tariffs and 

other import charges, quantitative 

restrictions, import licensing, and 

customs barriers); 

(2) SPS measures; 

(3) Standards-related measures 

(including standards, technical 

regulations, and conformity assessment 

procedures); 

(4) Government procurement 

restrictions (e.g., ’’buy national policies’’ 

and closed bidding); 

(5) Export subsidies (e.g., export 

financing on preferential terms and 

agricultural export subsidies that 

displace U.S. exports in third country 

markets); 

(6) Lack of intellectual property 

protection (e.g., inadequate patent, 

copyright, and trademark regimes); 

(7) Services barriers (e.g., limits on the 

range of financial services offered by 

foreign financial institutions, regulation 

of international data flows, restrictions 

on the use of data processing, quotas on 

imports of foreign films, and barriers to 

the provision of services by 

professionals); 

(8) Investment barriers (e.g., 

limitations on foreign equity 

participation and on access to foreign 

government-funded R&D consortia, local 

content, technology transfer and export 

performance requirements, and 

restrictions on repatriation of earnings, 

capital, fees, and royalties); 

(9) Government-tolerated 

anticompetitive conduct of state-owned 

or private firms that restricts the sale or 

purchase of U.S. goods or services in the 

foreign country’s markets; 

(10) Trade restrictions affecting 

electronic commerce (e.g., tariff and 

non-tariff measures, burdensome and 

discriminatory regulations and 

standards, and discriminatory taxation); 

and 

(11) Other barriers (e.g., barriers that 

encompass more than one category, 

such as bribery and corruption, or that 

affect a single sector). 

Reports on SPS and StandardsRelated Measures: On March 30, 2011, 

USTR published two reports in 

conjunction with the release of the NTE 

focusing on foreign trade barriers—one 

on SPS measures and the other on 

standards-related measures. These 

reports serve as tools to bring greater 

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50288 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 156 / Friday, August 12, 2011 / Notices 

attention and focus to resolving SPS and 

standards-related measures that may be 

inconsistent with international trade 

agreements to which the United States 

is a party or that otherwise act as 

significant foreign barriers to U.S. 

exports. USTR plans to use comments 

on SPS and standards-related measures 

(items 2 and 3 in the list above) 

submitted pursuant to this notice in 

producing these two reports once again. 

To help USTR identify SPS and 

standards-related measures to include in 

the reports, comments concerning those 

measures should be submitted 

separately from those addressing other 

foreign trade barriers. (See below). 

The following information describing 

SPS and standards-related measures 

may help commenters to file 

submissions on particular foreign trade 

barriers under the appropriate docket. 

SPS Measures: Generally, SPS 

measures are measures applied to 

protect the life or health of humans, 

animals, and plants from risks arising 

from additives, contaminants, pests, 

toxins, diseases, or disease-carrying and 

causing organisms. SPS measures can 

take such forms as specific product or 

processing standards, requirements for 

products to be produced in disease-free 

areas, quarantine regulations, 

certification or inspection procedures, 

sampling and testing requirements, 

health-related labeling measures, 

maximum permissible pesticide residue 

levels, and prohibitions on certain food 

additives. 

Standards-Related Measures: 

Standards-related measures comprise 

standards, technical regulations, and 

conformity assessment procedures, such 

as mandatory process or design 

standards, labeling or registration 

requirements, and testing or 

certification procedures. Standardsrelated measures can be applied not 

only to industrial products but to 

agricultural products as well, such as 

food nutrition labeling schemes and 

food quality or identity requirements. 

For further information on SPS and 

standards-related measures and 

additional detail on the types of 

comments that would assist USTR in 

identifying and addressing significant 

trade-restrictive SPS and standardsrelated measures, please see 

‘‘Supporting & Related Materials’’ under 

dockets USTR–USTR–2011–0006 and 

USTR–USTR–2011–0007 at http:// 

www.regulations.gov. The 2011 SPS and 

TBT Reports also contain extensive 

information on SPS and standardsrelated measures that commenters may 

find useful in preparing comments in 

response to this notice. 

In responding to this notice with 

respect to any of the three reports, 

commenters should place particular 

emphasis on any practices that may 

violate U.S. trade agreements. The TPSC 

is also interested in receiving new or 

updated information pertinent to the 

barriers covered in the 2011 NTE and 

the reports on SPS and standardsrelated measures as well as information 

on new barriers. If USTR does not 

include in the NTE or the reports on 

SPS and standards-related measures 

information that it receives pursuant to 

this notice, it will maintain the 

information for potential use in future 

discussions or negotiations with trading 

partners. 

Estimate of Increase in Exports: Each 

comment should include an estimate of 

the potential increase in U.S. exports 

that would result from removing any 

foreign trade barrier the comment 

identifies, as well as a description of the 

methodology the commenter used to 

derive the estimate. Estimates should be 

expressed within the following value 

ranges: Less than $5 million; $5 to $25 

million; $25 million to $50 million; $50 

million to $100 million; $100 million to 

$500 million; or over $500 million. 

These estimates will help USTR 

conduct comparative analyses of a 

barrier’s effect over a range of 

industries. 

Requirements for Submissions: 

Commenters providing information on 

foreign trade barriers in more than one 

country should, whenever possible, 

provide a separate submission for each 

country. Comments addressing SPS or 

standards-related measures should be 

submitted separately from comments on 

other trade barriers. 

In order to ensure the timely receipt 

and consideration of comments, USTR 

strongly encourages commenters to 

make on-line submissions, using the 

http://www.regulations.gov Web site. 

Comments should be submitted under 

one of the following dockets (depending 

on the subject of the comment): 

SPS Measures: USTR–USTR–2011– 

0006. 

Standards-Related Measures: USTR– 

2011–0007. 

All Other Measures: USTR–2011– 

0008. 

To find these dockets, enter the 

pertinent 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 ‘‘Notices’’ under ‘‘Document 

Type’’ on the search-results page, and 

click on the link entitled ‘‘Submit a 

Comment.’’ (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.) 

The http://www.regulations.gov Web 

site provides the option of making 

submissions by filling in a comments 

field, or by attaching a document. USTR 

prefers submissions to be provided in an 

attached document. If a document is 

attached, please identify the name of the 

country to which the submission 

pertains in the ‘‘Comments’’ field. For 

example: ‘‘See attached comment for 

(name of country)’’. If the comment is 

related to SPS or standards-related 

measures, type ‘‘See attached comment 

on SPS measures for (name of country)’’ 

or ‘‘See attached comment on standardsrelated measures for (name of country)’’. 

USTR prefers submissions in Microsoft 

Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf). If 

the submission is in an application 

other than those two, please indicate the 

name of the application in the 

‘‘Comments’’ field. 

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 

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. 

Public inspection of submissions: 

Comments will be placed in the docket 

and open to public inspection pursuant 

to 15 CFR 2006.13, except confidential 

business information exempt from 

public inspection in accordance with 15 

CFR 2006.15. Comments may be viewed 

on the http://www.regulations.gov Web 

site by entering the relevant docket 

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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 156 / Friday, August 12, 2011 / Notices 50289 

number in the search field on the home 

page. 

Donald W. Eiss, 

Acting Chair, Trade Policy Staff Committee. 

[FR Doc. 2011–20481 Filed 8–11–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3190–W1–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Office of the Secretary of 

Transportation 

[Docket No. DOT–OST–2011–0107] 

Notice of Funding Availability for the 

Department of Transportation’s 

National Infrastructure Investments 

Under the Full-Year Continuing 

Appropriations, 2011; and Request for 

Comments 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary of 

Transportation, DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of Funding Availability, 

Request for Comments. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

availability of funding and requests 

proposals for the Department of 

Transportation’s National Infrastructure 

Investments. In addition, this notice 

announces selection criteria and preapplication and application 

requirements for the National 

Infrastructure Investments. 

On July 1, 2011 the Department of 

Transportation published an interim 

notice announcing the availability of 

funding for the Department of 

Transportation’s National Infrastructure 

Investments, or ‘‘TIGER Discretionary 

Grants,’’ project selection criteria and 

pre-application and application 

requirements for these grants. The 

interim notice also requested comments 

on the project selection criteria and preapplication and application 

requirements. The Department 

considered the comments that were 

submitted in accordance with the 

interim notice and decided to make no 

substantive revisions to the interim 

notice based on those comments. 

However, the Department has decided 

to make minor revisions to the interim 

notice, to provide additional 

information to potential applicants on 

the project readiness characteristics that 

the Department considers when 

evaluating an application (see section 

I(b) and Appendix C). The Department 

has also updated the point-of-contact 

information for program staff that 

should be contacted with any questions 

regarding the application process for 

these grants. 

On April 15, 2011, the President 

signed the Full-Year Continuing 

Appropriations, 2011 (Div. B of the 

Department of Defense and Full-Year 

Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 

(Pub. L. 112–010, Apr. 15, 2011)) (‘‘FY 

2011 Continuing Appropriations Act’’). 

The FY 2011 Continuing Appropriations 

Act appropriated $526.944 million to be 

awarded by the Department of 

Transportation (‘‘DOT’’) for National 

Infrastructure Investments. This 

appropriation is similar, but not 

identical to the appropriation for the 

Transportation Investment Generating 

Economic Recovery, or ‘‘TIGER 

Discretionary Grant’’, program 

authorized and implemented pursuant 

to the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the 

‘‘Recovery Act’’), and the National 

Infrastructure Investments or ‘‘TIGER II 

Discretionary Grant’’ program under the 

Transportation, Housing and Urban 

Development, and Related Agencies 

Appropriations Act for 2010 (‘‘FY 2010 

Appropriations Act’’). Because of the 

similarity in program structure, DOT 

has referred to the grants for National 

Infrastructure Investments under the FY 

2010 Appropriations Act as ‘‘TIGER II 

Discretionary Grants’’. Given that funds 

have now been appropriated for these 

similar programs in three separate 

statutes, DOT is referring to the grants 

for National Infrastructure Investments 

under the FY 2011 Continuing 

Appropriations Act simply as ‘‘TIGER 

Discretionary Grants.’’ As with the 

TIGER and TIGER II programs, funds for 

the FY2011 TIGER program are to be 

awarded on a competitive basis for 

projects that will have a significant 

impact on the Nation, a metropolitan 

area or a region. Through this notice, 

DOT is soliciting applications for TIGER 

Discretionary Grants. 

In the event that this solicitation does 

not result in the award and obligation of 

all available funds, DOT may decide to 

publish an additional solicitation(s). 

DATES: Pre-applications must be 

submitted by October 3, 2011, at 5 p.m. 

EDT (the ‘‘Pre-Application Deadline’’). 

Final applications must be submitted 

through Grants.gov by October 31, 2011, 

at 5 p.m. EDT (the ‘‘Application 

Deadline’’). The DOT pre-application 

system will open on or before 

September 9, 2011, to allow prospective 

applicants to submit pre-applications. 

Subsequently, the Grants.gov ‘‘Apply’’ 

function will open on October 5, 2011, 

allowing applicants to submit 

applications. While applicants are 

encouraged to submit pre-applications 

in advance of the Pre-Application 

Deadline, pre-applications will not be 

reviewed until after the pre-application 

deadline. Similarly, while applicants 

are encouraged to submit applications 

in advance of the Application Deadline, 

applications will not be evaluated, and 

awards will not be made, until after the 

Application Deadline. 

ADDRESSES: Pre-applications must be 

submitted electronically to DOT and 

applications must be submitted 

electronically through Grants.gov. Only 

pre-applications received by DOT and 

applications received through 

Grants.gov will be deemed properly 

filed. Instructions for submitting preapplications to DOT and applications 

through Grants.gov are included in 

Section VII (Pre-Application and 

Application Cycle). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

further information concerning this 

notice please contact the TIGER 

Discretionary Grant program staff via email at TIGERGrants@dot.gov, or call 

Howard Hill at 202–366–0301. A TDD is 

available for individuals who are deaf or 

hard of hearing at 202–366–3993. In 

addition, DOT will regularly post 

answers to questions and requests for 

clarifications on DOT’s Web site at 

http://www.dot.gov/TIGER. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

notice is substantially similar to the 

Final notice published for the TIGER II 

Discretionary Grant program in the 

Federal Register on June 1, 2010. 

However, there are a few significant 

differences that applicants should be 

aware of. These differences are as 

follows: 

1. Unlike the FY 2010 Appropriations 

Act, the FY 2011 Continuing 

Appropriations Act does not provide 

any funding for projects solely for the 

planning, preparation, or design of 

capital projects (‘‘TIGER Planning 

Grants’’); however these activities may 

be eligible to the extent that they are 

part of an overall construction project 

that receives TIGER Discretionary 

Grants funding. 

2. As specified in section VI of this 

notice, any applicant that is applying for 

a TIGER TIFIA Payment must also 

submit a TIFIA letter of interest along 

with their application. 

3. As specified in section VII(A) of 

this notice, eligible applicants may 

submit, as a lead applicant, no more 

than three applications for 

consideration. However, multistate 

applications will not count towards the 

lead applicant’s three application limit. 

Additionally, applicants may be 

identified as a partnering agency on the 

application of another lead applicant 

and such an application will not count 

towards a partnering applicant’s three 

application limit as a lead applicant. 

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