31364 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 129 / Thursday, July 5, 2018 / Notices 

Type of Review: Regular submission. 

Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations. 

Estimated Number of Responses: 

2,860 annually (715 filed each quarter: 

580 reporting mandatory data, and 135 

that would file other responses). 

Estimated Time per Response: 10 

hours is the average for those reporting 

data. One hour is the average for those 

filing and exemption. Hours may vary 

considerably among respondents 

because of differences in company size 

and complexity. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 23,740. 

Estimated Total Annual Cost to 

Public: $0. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Mandatory. 

Legal Authority: International 

Investment and Trade in Services 

Survey Act (Pub. L. 94–472, 22 U.S.C. 

3101–3108, as amended) and Section 

5408 of the Omnibus Trade and 

Competitiveness Act of 1988. 

IV. Request for Comments 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the Agency, 

including whether the information will 

have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of 

the Agency’s estimate of the burden 

(including hours and cost) of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including through the 

use of automated collection techniques 

or other forms of information 

technology. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized and/or 

included in the request for OMB 

approval of this information collection; 

they also will become a matter of public 

record. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of 

Chief Information Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2018–14420 Filed 7–3–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–06–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Bureau of Economic Analysis 

Proposed Information Collection; 

Comment Request; Services Surveys: 

BE–125, Quarterly Survey of 

Transactions in Selected Services and 

Intellectual Property With Foreign 

Persons 

AGENCY: Bureau of Economic Analysis, 

Department of Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Department of 

Commerce, as part of its continuing 

effort to reduce paperwork and 

respondent burden, invites the general 

public and other Federal agencies to 

comment on proposed and/or 

continuing information collections, as 

required by the Paperwork Reduction 

Act of 1995. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

submitted on or before September 4, 

2018. 

ADDRESSES: Direct all written comments 

to Jennifer Jessup, Departmental 

Paperwork Clearance Officer, 

Department of Commerce, Room 6616, 

14th and Constitution Avenue NW, 

Washington, DC 20230, or via email at 

PRAcomments@doc.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information or 

copies of the information collection 

instrument and instructions should be 

directed to Christopher Stein, Chief, 

Services Surveys Branch BE–50 (SSB), 

Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. 

Department of Commerce, Washington, 

DC 20233; phone: (301) 278–9189; fax: 

(301) 278–9507; or via email at 

christopher.stein@bea.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract 

The Quarterly Survey of Transactions 

in Selected Services and Intellectual 

Property with Foreign Persons (BE–125) 

is a survey that collects data from U.S. 

persons who engage in covered 

transactions with foreign persons in 

selected services or intellectual 

property. A Person means any 

individual, branch, partnership, 

associated group, association, estate, 

trust, corporation, or other organization 

(whether or not organized under the 

laws of any State), and any government, 

(including a foreign government, the 

United States Government, a State or 

local government, and any agency, 

corporation, financial institution, or 

other entity or instrumentality thereof, 

including a government sponsored 

agency). A U.S. person must report if it 

had sales of covered services or 

intellectual property to foreign persons 

that exceeded $6 million for the 

previous fiscal year, or are expected to 

exceed that amount during the current 

fiscal year, or if it had purchases of 

covered services or intellectual property 

from foreign persons that exceeded $4 

million for the previous fiscal year, or 

are expected to exceed that amount 

during the current fiscal year. 

The data are needed to monitor U.S. 

trade in services, to analyze the impact 

on the U.S. and foreign economies, to 

compile and improve the U.S. economic 

accounts, to support U.S. commercial 

policy on trade in services, to conduct 

trade promotion, and to improve the 

ability of U.S. businesses to identify and 

evaluate market opportunities. The data 

are used in estimating the services 

component of the U.S. international 

transactions accounts (ITAs) and 

national income and product accounts 

(NIPAs). 

The Bureau of Economic Analysis 

(BEA) is proposing one change to the 

reporting requirements and several 

modifications to the data collected on 

the BE–125 survey, beginning with 

reporting for first quarter 2019. These 

modifications would allow BEA to align 

its statistics more closely with 

international economic accounting 

guidelines, increasing the quality and 

usefulness of BEA’s published statistics 

on trade in services: 

BEA proposes to adjust the reporting 

requirements of the survey so they are 

applied based on ‘‘combined’’ 

thresholds. Currently, the reporting 

requirements for the BE–125 survey are 

applied based on the dollar amount of 

each covered transaction type collected 

on the survey. For example, a reporter 

with transactions in several of the 

services and intellectual property 

categories covered by the survey may 

only exceed the threshold for 

mandatorily reporting additional detail 

by country, and by relationship to the 

foreign transactor (foreign affiliate, 

foreign parent group, or unaffiliated), for 

a single transaction type. Under this 

approach, the reporter is only required 

to report this additional detail on the 

mandatory schedule(s) for the single 

transaction type in excess of the $6 

million (sales) or $4 million (purchases) 

threshold. 

The proposed change would modify 

the reporting thresholds such that they 

are applied based on a ‘‘combined’’ 

threshold for sales or purchases of the 

covered types of services and 

intellectual property transactions. U.S. 

persons with combined sales in excess 

of $6 million or combined purchases in 

excess of $4 million would be required 

to disaggregate all transaction types by 


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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 129 / Thursday, July 5, 2018 / Notices 31365 

country and by relationship to the 

foreign transactor on the mandatory 

schedule(s). Because the combined 

thresholds are applied separately to 

sales and to purchases, the mandatory 

reporting requirements may apply only 

to sales, only to purchases, or to both. 

BEA proposes to make the following 

modifications to the data collection 

instrument: 

(1) Research and development 

services will be broken out into two 

categories: (1) Provision of customized 

and non-customized R&D services and 

(2) other R&D services, including 

testing. 

(2) Engineering, architectural, and 

surveying services will be broken out 

into three categories: (1) Architectural 

services; 2) engineering services; and (3) 

surveying, cartography, certification, 

testing, and technical inspection 

services. 

(3) Management, consulting, and 

public relation services will be broken 

out into three categories: (1) Market 

research services; (2) public opinion 

polling services; and (3) other 

management, consulting, and public 

relations services. Trade exhibition and 

sales convention services will be 

collected separately. 

(4) Database and other information 

services will be broken out into two 

components: (1) News agency services 

and (2) other information services. 

(5) Computer Services will be 

expanded into three categories: (1) 

Computer software, including end-user 

licenses and customization services; (2) 

cloud computing and data storage 

services; and (3) other computer 

services. 

(6) Several service categories 

previously collected under ‘‘Other 

Selected Services’’ will be collected 

separately. These services include 

contract manufacturing services, 

disbursements for sales promotion and 

representation, photographic services 

(including satellite photography), space 

transport services, trade exhibition and 

sales convention services, agricultural 

services, and waste treatment and 

depollution services. 

(7) Mandatory Schedule C will be 

modified to only collect information on 

goods related to construction services. 

On the current BE–125 survey, exports 

(sales) of three service types are 

collected on a separate schedule, 

Schedule C, to allow for reporting of 

information on the gross operating 

revenues and related goods exports and 

foreign expenses. The three categories 

are: (1) Construction services; (2) 

engineering, architectural, and 

surveying services; and (3) mining 

services. Beginning with reporting for 

first quarter 2019, only construction 

services will be collected on Schedule 

C. Mining services, as well as the three 

new categories that will replace 

engineering, architectural, and 

surveying services, will be collected on 

Schedule A. 

BEA estimates the proposed changes, 

which would be implemented beginning 

with reporting for first quarter 2019, 

will increase the average number of 

hours per response from 19 hours to 21 

hours for those reporting data. The total 

respondent burden estimates have been 

increased to reflect this. This change 

represents an estimated 0.75-hour 

increase in burden associated with the 

proposed transaction code expansions 

set forth, as well as an increase in 

burden of 1.25 hours for an estimated 

375 additional reporters that will now 

be required to complete one or more of 

the mandatory schedules as a result of 

the application of a ‘‘combined’’ 

reporting threshold. The reporting 

thresholds of the current BE–125 survey 

will be retained. The effort to keep 

current reporting thresholds unchanged 

is intended to minimize respondent 

burden while considering the needs of 

data users. Existing language in the 

instructions and definitions will be 

reviewed and adjusted as necessary to 

clarify survey requirements. 

II. Method of Collection 

BEA contacts potential respondents 

by mail at the end of each fiscal quarter. 

Respondents must file completed BE– 

125 forms within 45 days after the end 

of each fiscal quarter, or within 90 days 

after the close of the fiscal year. Reports 

are required from each U.S. person that 

had sales of covered services or 

intellectual property to foreign persons 

that exceeded $6 million for the 

previous fiscal year, or are expected to 

exceed that amount during the current 

fiscal year, or that had purchases of 

covered services or intellectual property 

from foreign persons that exceeded $4 

million for the previous fiscal year, or 

are expected to exceed that amount 

during the current fiscal year. Entities 

required to report will be contacted 

individually by BEA. Entities not 

contacted by BEA have no reporting 

responsibilities. 

BEA offers its electronic filing option, 

the eFile system, for use in reporting on 

Form BE–125. For more information 

about eFile, go to www.bea.gov/efile. In 

addition, BEA posts all its survey forms 

and reporting instructions on its 

website, www.bea.gov/ssb. These may 

be downloaded, completed, printed, and 

submitted via fax or mail. 

III. Data 

OMB Control Number: 0608–0067. 

Form Number: BE–125. 

Type of Review: Regular submission. 

Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations. 

Estimated Number of Responses: 

8,800 annually (2,200 filed each quarter; 

1,700 reporting mandatory data, and 500 

that would file other responses). 

Estimated Time per Response: 21 

hours is the average for those reporting 

data. One hour is the average for those 

filing an exemption claim. Hours may 

vary considerably among respondents 

because of differences in company size 

and complexity. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 144,800. 

Estimated Total Annual Cost to 

Public: $0. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Mandatory. 

Legal Authority: International 

Investment and Trade in Services 

Survey Act (Pub. L. 94–472, 22 U.S.C. 

3101–3108, as amended). 

IV. Request for Comments 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the Agency, 

including whether the information will 

have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of 

the Agency’s estimate of the burden 

(including hours and cost) of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including through the 

use of automated collection techniques 

or other forms of information 

technology. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized and/or 

included in the request for OMB 

approval of this information collection; 

they also will become a matter of public 

record. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of 

Chief Information Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2018–14423 Filed 7–3–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–06–P 


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