Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 130 / Friday, July 6, 2018 / Notices 31629 

increasing the capacity and 

independence of the judiciary and the 

Office of the Attorney General; 

• Implement a policy to ensure that 

local communities, civil society 

organizations (including indigenous and 

other marginalized groups), private 

sector, faith-based organizations, and 

local governments are consulted in the 

design and participate in the 

implementation and evaluation of 

activities of the Plan that affect such 

communities, organizations, and 

governments; 

• Counter the activities of criminal 

gangs, drug traffickers, and organized 

crime; 

• Investigate and prosecute in the 

civilian justice system government 

personnel, including military and police 

personnel, who are credibly alleged to 

have violated human rights and to 

ensure that such personnel are 

cooperating in such cases; 

• Cooperate with commissions 

against corruption and impunity and 

with regional human rights entities; 

• Support programs to reduce 

poverty, expand education and 

vocational training for at-risk youth, 

create jobs, and promote equitable 

economic growth particularly in areas 

contributing to large numbers of 

migrants; 

• Implement a plan that includes 

goals, benchmarks, and timelines to 

create a professional, accountable 

civilian police force and end the role of 

the military in internal policing, and to 

make such plan available to the 

Department of State; 

• Protect the rights of all citizens, 

including protection of freedom of the 

press; 

• Increase government efficiencies, 

including implementing tax reforms and 

strengthening customs agencies to 

promote a more stable economy and job 

creation; 

• Resolve commercial disputes, 

including the confiscation of real 

property, between U.S. entities and such 

government. 

This certification shall be published 

in the Federal Register and, along with 

the accompanying Memorandum of 

Justification, shall be reported to 

Congress. 

Dated: June 28, 2018. 

Michael R. Pompeo, 

Secretary of State. 

[FR Doc. 2018–14614 Filed 7–5–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4710–29–P 

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD 

[Docket No. FD 36204] 

Cairo Public Utility Company— 

Acquisition and Operation 

Exemption—Rail Line of Alabama 

Railroad Co., Inc., d/b/a Shawnee 

Terminal Railroad Co. 

Cairo Public Utility Company (CPUC), 

a non-carrier, has filed a verified notice 

of exemption under 49 CFR 1150.31 to 

acquire and operate 2.5 miles of rail 

lines owned by Alabama Railroad Co., 

Inc. d/b/a Shawnee Terminal Railway 

Co. (STR), between milepost 256.9 and 

milepost 259.4 in or near Cairo, in 

Alexander County, Ill. (the Line). 

CPUC states that it has reached an 

agreement with STR for CPUC to 

acquire the Line. CPUC further states 

that the acquisition is part of a longterm goal of creating a transload facility 

along the Mississippi River. According 

to CPUC, the proposed acquisition and 

operation of the Line does not involve 

a provision or agreement that would 

limit future interchange with a thirdparty connecting carrier. 

CPUC certifies that the proposed 

transaction will not result in CPUC 

becoming a Class II or Class I rail carrier 

and that the projected annual revenue of 

CPUC will not exceed $5 million. 

CPUC states that the transaction is 

scheduled to be consummated on or 

before September 15, 2018. The earliest 

this transaction may be consummated is 

July 20, 2018, the effective date of the 

exemption (30 days after the verified 

notice was filed). 

If the verified notice contains false or 

misleading information, the exemption 

is void ab initio. Petitions to revoke the 

exemption under 49 U.S.C. 10502(d) 

may be filed at any time. The filing of 

a petition to revoke will not 

automatically stay the effectiveness of 

the exemption. Petitions for stay must 

be filed no later than July 13, 2018 (at 

least seven days before the exemption 

becomes effective). 

An original and 10 copies of all 

pleadings, referring to Docket No. 

36204, must be filed with the Surface 

Transportation Board, 395 E Street SW, 

Washington, DC 20423–0001. In 

addition, one copy of each pleading 

must be served on Richard H. Streeter, 

Law Office of Richard H. Streeter, 5255 

Partridge Lane NW, Washington, DC 

20016. 

According to CPUC, this action is 

categorically excluded from 

environmental review under 49 CFR 

1105.6(c) and from historic reporting 

requirements under 49 CFR 1105.8(b). 

Board decisions and notices are 

available on our website at 

WWW.STB.GOV. 

Decided: June 29, 2018. 

By the Board, Scott M. Zimmerman, 

Acting Director, Office of Proceedings. 

Brendetta Jones, 

Clearance Clerk. 

[FR Doc. 2018–14470 Filed 7–5–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4915–01–P 

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES 

TRADE REPRESENTATIVE 

[Docket Number USTR–2018–0022] 

Annual Review of Country Eligibility 

for Benefits Under the African Growth 

and Opportunity Act 

AGENCY: Office of the United States 

Trade Representative. 

ACTION: Notice of initiation of review, 

public hearing, and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

initiation of the annual review of the 

eligibility of the sub-Saharan African 

countries to receive the benefits of the 

African Growth and Opportunity Act 

(AGOA). The AGOA Implementation 

Subcommittee of the Trade Policy Staff 

Committee (Subcommittee) is 

developing recommendations for the 

President on AGOA country eligibility 

for calendar year 2019. The 

Subcommittee is requesting written 

public comments for this review and 

will conduct a public hearing on this 

matter. The Subcommittee will consider 

the written comments, written 

testimony, and oral testimony in 

developing recommendations for the 

President. Comments received related to 

the child labor criteria also may be 

considered by the Secretary of Labor in 

the preparation of the U.S. Department 

of Labor’s report on child labor as 

required under the Trade Act of 1974. 

This notice identifies the eligibility 

criteria that must be considered under 

AGOA, and lists those sub-Saharan 

African countries that are currently 

eligible for the benefits of AGOA and 

those that were ineligible for such 

benefits in 2018. 

DATES: 

August 1, 2018: Deadline for filing 

requests to appear at the August 16, 

2018 public hearing, and for filing prehearing briefs, statements, or comments 

on sub-Saharan African countries’ 

AGOA eligibility. 

August 16, 2018: The Subcommittee 

will convene a public hearing on AGOA 

country eligibility. 


daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES
31630 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 130 / Friday, July 6, 2018 / Notices 

August 23, 2018: Deadline for filing 

post-hearing briefs, statements, or 

comments on this matter. 

ADDRESSES: The Office of the U.S. Trade 

Representative (USTR) strongly prefers 

electronic submissions made through 

the Federal eRulemaking portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

submission instructions in sections II 

and III below. The docket number is 

USTR–2018–0022. For alternatives to 

on-line submissions, please contact 

Yvonne Jamison at (202) 395–3475. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

procedural questions, please contact 

Yvonne Jamison at (202) 395–3475. 

Direct all other questions to Alan Treat, 

Director for African Affairs, at (202) 

395–9514. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

AGOA (Title I of the Trade and 

Development Act of 2000, Public Law 

106–200) (19 U.S.C. 2466a et seq.), as 

amended, authorizes the President to 

designate sub-Saharan African countries 

as beneficiaries eligible for duty-free 

treatment for certain additional 

products not included for duty-free 

treatment under the Generalized System 

of Preferences (GSP) (Title V of the 

Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2461 et 

seq.) (1974 Act)), as well as for the 

preferential treatment for certain textile 

and apparel articles. The President may 

designate a country as a beneficiary subSaharan African country eligible for 

AGOA benefits if he determines that the 

country meets the eligibility criteria set 

forth in section 104 of AGOA (19 U.S.C. 

3703) and section 502 of the 1974 Act 

(19 U.S.C. 2462). 

Section 104 of AGOA includes 

requirements that the country has 

established or is making continual 

progress toward establishing, among 

other things: a market-based economy; 

the rule of law, political pluralism, and 

the right to due process; the elimination 

of barriers to U.S. trade and investment; 

economic policies to reduce poverty; a 

system to combat corruption and 

bribery; and the protection of 

internationally recognized worker 

rights. In addition, the country may not 

engage in activities that undermine U.S. 

national security or foreign policy 

interests or engage in gross violations of 

internationally recognized human 

rights. Section 502 of the 1974 Act 

provides for country eligibility criteria 

under GSP. For a complete list of the 

AGOA eligibility criteria and more 

information on the GSP criteria, see 

section 104 of the AGOA and section 

502 of the 1974 Act. 

Section 506A of the 1974 Act requires 

the President to monitor and review 

annually the progress of each subSaharan African country in meeting the 

foregoing eligibility criteria in order to 

determine if each beneficiary subSaharan African country should 

continue to be eligible, and if each subSaharan African country that currently 

is not a beneficiary, should be 

designated as a beneficiary. If the 

President determines that a beneficiary 

sub-Saharan African country is not 

making continual progress in meeting 

the eligibility requirements, he must 

terminate the designation of the country 

as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African 

country. The President also may 

withdraw, suspend, or limit the 

application of duty-free treatment with 

respect to specific articles from a 

country if he determines that it would 

be more effective in promoting 

compliance with AGOA eligibility 

requirements than terminating the 

designation of the country as a 

beneficiary sub-Saharan African 

country. 

For 2018, 40 countries were 

designated as beneficiary sub-Saharan 

African countries. These countries, as 

well as the countries currently 

designated as ineligible, are listed 

below. The Subcommittee is seeking 

public comments in connection with the 

annual review of sub-Saharan African 

countries’ eligibility for AGOA’s 

benefits. The Subcommittee will 

consider any comments in developing 

recommendations to the President 

related to this review. Comments related 

to the child labor criteria may also be 

considered by the Secretary of Labor in 

making the findings required under 

section 504 of the 1974 Act. 

The following sub-Saharan African 

countries were designated as beneficiary 

sub-Saharan African countries in 2018: 

Angola 

Benin 

Botswana 

Burkina Faso 

Cabo Verde 

Cameroon 

Central African Republic 

Chad 

Comoros 

Republic of Congo 

Cote d’Ivoire 

Djibouti 

Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) 

Ethiopia 

Gabon 

The Gambia 

Ghana 

Guinea 

Guinea-Bissau 

Kenya 

Lesotho 

Liberia 

Madagascar 

Malawi 

Mali 

Mauritania 

Mauritius 

Mozambique 

Namibia 

Niger 

Nigeria 

Rwanda 

Sao Tome & Principe 

Senegal 

Sierra Leone 

South Africa 

Tanzania 

Togo 

Uganda 

Zambia 

The following sub-Saharan African 

countries were not designated as 

beneficiary sub-Saharan African 

countries for 2018: 

Burundi 

Democratic Republic of Congo 

Equatorial Guinea (graduated from GSP) 

Eritrea 

Seychelles (graduated from GSP) 

Somalia 

South Sudan 

Sudan 

Zimbabwe 

II. Notice of Public Hearing 

In addition to written comments from 

the public on the matters listed above, 

the Subcommittee will convene a public 

hearing at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, 

August 16, 2018, to receive testimony 

related to sub-Saharan African 

countries’ eligibility for AGOA’s 

benefits. USTR must receive requests to 

present oral testimony at the hearing 

and pre-hearing briefs, statements, or 

comments must be received by noon 

August 1, 2018. 

The hearing will be held at 1724 F 

Street NW Washington DC 20508, and 

will be open to the public and to the 

press. USTR will make a transcript of 

the hearing available on 

www.regulations.gov within 

approximately two weeks of the hearing. 

USTR must receive your written 

requests to present oral testimony at the 

hearing and pre-hearing briefs, 

statements, or comments by noon on 

Wednesday, August 1, 2018. You must 

make the intent to testify notification in 

the ‘‘type comment’’ field under docket 

number USTR–2018–0022 on the 

www.regulations.gov website and you 

should include the name, address, 

telephone number and email address, if 

available, of the person presenting the 

testimony. You should attach a 

summary of the testimony by using the 


daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 130 / Friday, July 6, 2018 / Notices 31631 

‘‘upload file’’ field. The name of the file 

also should include who will be 

presenting the testimony. Remarks at 

the hearing should be limited to no 

more than five minutes to allow for 

possible questions from the 

Subcommittee. You should submit all 

documents in accordance with the 

instructions in section III below. 

III. Requirements for Submissions 

In order to be assured of 

consideration, persons submitting a 

notification of intent to testify and/or 

written comments must do so in English 

by noon on Wednesday, August 1, 2018. 

USTR strongly encourages commenters 

to make on-line submissions, using the 

www.regulations.gov website. To submit 

comments via www.regulations.gov, 

enter docket number USTR–2018–0022 

on the home page and click ‘‘search.’’ 

The site will provide a search-results 

page listing all documents associated 

with this docket. Find a reference to this 

notice and click on the link entitled 

‘‘comment now!’’ For further 

information on using the 

www.regulations.gov website, please 

consult the resources provided on the 

website by clicking on ‘‘How to Use 

Regulations.gov’’ on the bottom of the 

home page. We will not accept handdelivered submissions. 

For any comments submitted 

electronically containing business 

confidential information, the file name 

of the business confidential version 

should begin with the characters ‘‘BC’’. 

Any page containing business 

confidential information must be clearly 

marked ‘‘BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL’’ 

on the top of that page. Filers of 

submissions containing business 

confidential information also must 

submit a public version of their 

comments that we will place in the 

docket for public inspection. The file 

name of the public version should begin 

with the character ‘‘P’’. The ‘‘BC’’ and 

‘‘P’’ should be followed by the name of 

the person or entity submitting the 

comments or reply comments. Filers 

submitting comments containing no 

business confidential information 

should name their file using 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. 

As noted, USTR strongly urges 

submitters to file comments through 

www.regulations.gov. You must make 

any alternative arrangements with 

Yvonne Jamison at (202) 395–3475 in 

advance of transmitting a comment. 

General information concerning USTR 

is available at www.ustr.gov. 

We will post comments in the docket 

for public inspection, except business 

confidential information. You can view 

comments on the www.regulations.gov 

website by entering the relevant docket 

number in the search field on the home 

page. 

IV. Petitions 

15 CFR part 2017 permits any 

interested party to submit a petition to 

USTR, at any time, with respect to 

whether a beneficiary sub-Saharan 

African country is meeting the AGOA 

eligibility requirements. An interested 

party may file a petition through 

www.regulations.gov, under docket 

number USTR–2018–0022. 

Edward Gresser, 

Chair of the Trade Policy Staff Committee, 

Office of the United States Trade 

Representative. 

[FR Doc. 2018–14098 Filed 7–5–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3290–F8–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration 

[Docket No. FMCSA—2017–0196] 

60-Day Notice of Proposed Information 

Collection: Pilot Program To Allow 18- 

to 21-Year-Old Persons With Military 

Driving Experience To Operate 

Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs) in 

Interstate Commerce 

AGENCY: Federal Motor Carrier Safety 

Administration (FMCSA), Department 

of Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: FMCSA is seeking approval 

from the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) for the information 

collection described below. In 

accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act, FMCSA is requesting 

comment from all interested parties on 

the proposed collection of information. 

The purpose of this notice is to allow for 

60 days of public comment. 

Pursuant to Section 5404 of the Fixing 

America’s Surface Transportation Act, 

2015 (FAST Act), FMCSA proposes a 3- 

year period of information collection to 

determine whether the safety outcomes 

(to include crashes, moving violations, 

inspection violations, and safety critical 

events as available) of drivers under the 

age of 21 with military experience in the 

operation of heavy vehicles (i.e., 

‘‘covered drivers’’) participating in 

interstate commerce are similar to the 

safety outcomes of commercial motor 

vehicle drivers (CMV) drivers between 

the ages of 21 and 24 operating freightcarrying CMVs, and how training and 

experience impact the safety of the 18- 

to 20-year-old driving population. 

FMCSA proposed this pilot program 

and solicited public comment on 

August 22, 2016. The prior 60-day 

notice sought comment on program 

operations, including whether any 

additional safeguards are needed to 

ensure that the pilot program provides 

a level of safety equivalent to current 

safety levels. Additional details on the 

broader pilot program are available 

through a separate notice published in 

today’s Federal Register. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before September 4, 2018. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

bearing the Federal Docket Management 

System (FDMS) Docket ID FMCSA– 

2017–0196 using any of the following 

methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http:// 

www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 

instructions for submitting comments. 

• Fax: 1–202–493–2251. 

• Mail: Docket Operations, U.S. 

Department of Transportation, 1200 

New Jersey Ave. SE, West Building, 

Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 

Washington, DC 20590–0001. 

• Hand Delivery or Courier: 1200 

New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, 

Ground Floor, Room W12–140, 

Washington, DC 20590 between 9 a.m. 

and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 

except Federal holidays. 

Instructions: All submissions must 

include the Agency name and the 

docket number. For detailed 

instructions on submitting comments, 

see the Public Participation heading 

below. Note that all comments received 

will be posted without change to http:// 

www.regulations.gov, including any 

personal information provided. Please 

see the Privacy Act heading below. 

Docket: For access to the docket to 

read background documents or 

comments received, go to http://

www.regulations.gov and follow the 

online instructions for accessing the 

dockets, or go to the street address listed 

above. 

Privacy Act: In accordance with 5 

U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments 

from the public to better inform its 

rulemaking process. DOT posts these 

comments, without edit, including any 

personal information the commenter 

provides, to www.regulations.gov, as 


daltland on DSKBBV9HB2PROD with NOTICES