Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 159 / Thursday, August 16, 2018 / Notices 40821 

25 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(12). 

only one method. The Commission will 

post all comments on the Commission’s 

internet website (http://www.sec.gov/ 

rules/sro.shtml). Copies of the 

submission, all subsequent 

amendments, all written statements 

with respect to the proposed rule 

change that are filed with the 

Commission, and all written 

communications relating to the 

proposed rule change between the 

Commission and any person, other than 

those that may be withheld from the 

public in accordance with the 

provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be 

available for website viewing and 

printing in the Commission’s Public 

Reference Room, 100 F Street NE, 

Washington, DC 20549, on official 

business days between the hours of 

10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of the 

filing also will be available for 

inspection and copying at the principal 

office of FINRA. All comments received 

will be posted without change. Persons 

submitting comments are cautioned that 

we do not redact or edit personal 

identifying information from comment 

submissions. You should submit only 

information that you wish to make 

available publicly. All submissions 

should refer to File Number SR–FINRA– 

2018–028, and should be submitted on 

or before September 6, 2018. 

For the Commission, by the Division of 

Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated 

authority.25

Robert W. Errett, 

Deputy Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2018–17631 Filed 8–15–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

[Public Notice 10506] 

Notice of Public Meeting 

The Department of State will conduct 

an open meeting at 10:30 a.m. on 

Friday, September 14, 2018, in Room 

5Y23–21 of the Douglas A. Munro Coast 

Guard Headquarters Building at St. 

Elizabeth’s, 2703 Martin Luther King Jr. 

Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20593. The 

primary purpose of the meeting is to 

prepare for the fifth Session of the 

International Maritime Organization’s 

(IMO) Sub-Committee on 

Implementation of IMO Instruments (III 

5) to be held at the IMO headquarters, 

London, United Kingdom, on September 

24–28, 2018. 

The agenda items to be considered 

include: 

—Decisions of other IMO bodies; 

—Consideration and analysis of reports 

on alleged inadequacy of port 

reception facilities; 

—Lessons learned and safety issues 

identified from the analysis of marine 

safety investigation reports; 

—Measures to harmonize port state 

control (PSC) activities and 

procedures worldwide; 

—Identified issues related to the 

implementation of IMO instruments 

from the analysis of PSC data; 

—Analysis of consolidated audit 

summary reports; 

—Updated survey guidelines under the 

Harmonized System of Survey and 

Certification (HSSC); 

—Non-exhaustive list of obligations 

under the instruments relevant to the 

IMO Instruments Implementation 

Code (III Code); and 

—Unified interpretation of provisions of 

IMO safety, security, and environment 

related conventions. 

—Review the Model Agreement for the 

authorization of recognized 

organizations acting on behalf of the 

Administration. 

The public meeting will focus on 

answering any questions from the 

public that are directly related to the 

meeting documents submitted for this 

meeting. The public may attend this 

meeting up to the seating capacity of the 

room. However, due to the size of the 

room and security protocols at Coast 

Guard Headquarters, members of the 

public are encouraged to participate via 

teleconference. To access the 

teleconference line or request physical 

access to the meeting, participants 

should contact the meeting coordinator, 

Mr. Christopher Gagnon, by email at 

christopher.j.gagnon@uscg.mil or by 

phone at (202) 372–1231. Physical 

access to the meeting requires that all 

attendees respond to the meeting 

coordinator not later than September 5, 

2018, seven working days prior to the 

meeting. Responses made after 

September 5, 2018 might result in not 

being able to participate in person at the 

meeting. Please note that due to security 

considerations, two valid, government 

issued photo identifications must be 

presented to gain entrance to the Coast 

Guard Headquarters building. The 

building is accessible by public 

transportation or taxi. 

Joel C. Coito, 

Coast Guard Liaison Officer, Office of Ocean 

and Polar Affairs, Department of State. 

[FR Doc. 2018–17701 Filed 8–15–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4710–09–P 

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES 

TRADE REPRESENTATIVE 

[Docket No. USTR–2018–0027] 

2018 Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review 

of Notorious Markets: Comment 

Request 

AGENCY: Office of the United States 

Trade Representative. 

ACTION: Request for comments. 

SUMMARY: The Office of the United 

States Trade Representative (USTR) 

requests written comments that identify 

online and physical markets based 

outside the United States that should be 

included in the 2018 Notorious Markets 

List (List). Conducted under the 

auspices of the Special 301 program, the 

List identifies online and physical 

marketplaces that reportedly engage in 

and facilitate substantial copyright 

piracy and trademark counterfeiting. In 

2010, USTR began publishing the 

Notorious Markets List separately from 

the annual Special 301 Report as an 

‘‘Out-of-Cycle Review.’’ 

DATES: 

October 1, 2018 at midnight EST: 

Deadline for submission of written 

comments. 

October 15, 2018 at midnight EST: 

Deadline for submission of rebuttal 

comments and other information USTR 

should consider during the review. 

ADDRESSES: You should submit written 

comments through the Federal 

eRulemaking Portal: http://

www.regulations.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments in 

section III below. For alternatives to 

online submissions, please contact 

USTR at Special301@ustr.eop.gov before 

transmitting a comment and in advance 

of the relevant deadline. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Sung Chang, Director for Innovation and 

Intellectual Property, at special301@

ustr.eop.gov. You can find information 

about the Special 301 Review, including 

the Notorious Markets List, at 

www.ustr.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

The United States is concerned with 

trademark counterfeiting and copyright 

piracy on a commercial scale because 

they cause significant financial losses 

for right holders, legitimate businesses 

and governments, undermine critical 

U.S. comparative advantages in 

innovation and creativity to the 

detriment of American workers, and 

potentially pose significant risks to 

consumer health and safety as well as 

privacy and security. The Notorious 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES
40822 Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 159 / Thursday, August 16, 2018 / Notices 

Markets List identifies select online and 

physical marketplaces that reportedly 

engage in or facilitate substantial 

copyright piracy and trademark 

counterfeiting. 

Beginning in 2006, USTR identified 

notorious markets in the annual Special 

301 Report. In 2010, pursuant to the 

Administration’s 2010 Joint Strategic 

Plan on Intellectual Property 

Enforcement, USTR announced that it 

would publish the List as an Out-ofCycle Review, separate from the annual 

Special 301 Report. USTR published the 

first List in February 2011. USTR 

develops the annual List based upon 

public comments solicited through the 

Federal Register and in consultation 

with other Federal agencies that serve 

on the Special 301 Subcommittee of the 

Trade Policy Staff Committee. 

The United States encourages owners 

and operators of markets reportedly 

involved in piracy and counterfeiting to 

adopt business models that rely on the 

licensed distribution of legitimate 

content and products and to work with 

right holders and enforcement officials 

to address infringement. USTR also 

encourages responsible government 

authorities to intensify their efforts to 

investigate reports of piracy and 

counterfeiting in such markets, and to 

pursue appropriate enforcement actions. 

The List does not purport to reflect 

findings of legal violations, nor does it 

reflect the United States Government’s 

analysis of the general intellectual 

property (IP) protection and 

enforcement climate in the country or 

countries concerned. For an analysis of 

the IP climate in particular countries, 

please refer to the annual Special 301 

Report, published each spring no later 

than 30 days after USTR submits the 

National Trade Estimate to Congress. 

II. Public Comments 

USTR invites written comments 

concerning examples of online and 

physical notorious markets, including 

foreign trade zones that allegedly 

facilitate substantial trademark 

counterfeiting and copyright piracy. To 

facilitate the review, written comments 

should be as detailed as possible. 

Comments must clearly identify the 

market and the reasons why the 

commenter believes that the market 

should be included in the List. 

Commenters should include the 

following information, as applicable: 

• If a physical market, the market’s 

name and location, e.g., common name, 

street address, neighborhood, shopping 

district, city, etc., and the identity of the 

principal owners/operators. 

• If an online market: 

Æ The domain name(s) past and 

present, available registration 

information, and name(s) and 

location(s) of the hosting provider(s) 

and operator(s). 

Æ Information on the volume of 

internet traffic associated with the 

website, including number of visitors 

and page views, average time spent on 

the site, estimate of the number of 

infringing goods offered, sold, or traded 

and number of infringing files streamed, 

shared, seeded, leeched, downloaded, 

uploaded, or otherwise distributed or 

reproduced, and global or country 

popularity rating (e.g., Alexa rank). 

Æ Revenue sources such as sales, 

subscriptions, donations, upload 

incentives, or advertising and the 

methods by which that revenue is 

collected. 

• Whether the market is owned, 

operated, or otherwise affiliated with a 

government entity. 

• Types of counterfeit or pirated 

products or services sold, traded, 

distributed, or otherwise made available 

at that market. 

• Volume of counterfeit or pirated 

goods or services or other indicia of a 

market’s scale, reach, or relative 

significance in a given geographic area 

or with respect to a category of goods or 

services. 

• Estimates of economic harm to right 

holders resulting from the piracy or 

counterfeiting and a description of the 

methodology used to calculate the harm. 

• Whether the volume of counterfeit 

or pirated goods or estimates of harm 

has increased or decreased from 

previous years, and an approximate 

calculation of that increase or decrease 

for each year. 

• Whether the infringing goods or 

services sold, traded, distributed, or 

made available pose a risk to public 

health or safety. 

• Any known contractual, civil, 

administrative, or criminal enforcement 

activity against the market and the 

outcome of that enforcement activity. 

• Additional actions taken by right 

holders against the market such as 

takedown notices, requests to sites to 

remove URLs or infringing content, 

cease and desist letters, warning letters 

to landlords and requests to enforce the 

terms of their leases, requests to 

providers to enforce their terms of 

service or terms of use, and the outcome 

of these actions. 

• Additional actions taken by the 

market owners or operators to remove, 

limit, or discourage the availability of 

counterfeit or pirated goods or services, 

including policies to prevent or remove 

access to such goods or services, or to 

disable seller or user accounts, the 

effectiveness of market policies and 

guidelines in addressing counterfeiting 

and piracy, and the level of cooperation 

with right holders and law enforcement. 

• Any other additional information 

relevant to the review. 

III. Submission Instructions 

All submissions must be in English 

and sent electronically via 

www.regulations.gov. To submit 

comments, locate the docket (folder) by 

entering the docket number USTR– 

2018–0027 in the ‘‘Enter Keyword or IP’’ 

window at the regulations.gov 

homepage and click ‘‘Search.’’ The site 

will provide a search-results page listing 

all documents associated with this 

docket. Locate the reference to this 

notice by selecting ‘‘Notice’’ under 

‘‘Document Type’’ on the left side of the 

search-results page, and click on the 

link entitled ‘‘Comment Now!’’ You 

should provide comments in an 

attached document, and name the file 

according to the following protocol, as 

appropriate: Commenter Name or 

Organization_2018 Notorious Markets 

OCR. Please include the following 

information in the ‘‘Type Comment’’ 

field: 2018 Out-of-Cycle Review of 

Notorious Markets. USTR prefers 

submissions in Microsoft Word (.doc) or 

Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. If the 

submission is in another file format, 

please indicate the name of the software 

application in the ‘‘Type Comment’’ 

field. For further information on using 

the www.regulations.gov website, please 

select ‘‘How to Use Regulations.gov’’ on 

the bottom of any page. 

Please do not attach separate cover 

letters to electronic submissions. 

Instead, 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 comment itself, 

rather than submitting them as separate 

files. 

For any comment submitted 

electronically that contains 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 and the 

submission should clearly indicate, via 

brackets, highlighting, or other means, 

the specific information that is business 

confidential. A filer requesting business 

confidential treatment must certify that 

the information is business confidential 

and would not customarily be released 

to the public by the submitter. 

Additionally, the submitter should type 


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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 159 / Thursday, August 16, 2018 / Notices 40823 

‘‘Business Confidential 2018 Out-ofCycle Review of Notorious Markets’’ in 

the ‘‘Comment’’ field. 

Filers of comments containing 

business confidential information also 

must submit a public version of their 

comments. The file name of the public 

version should begin with the character 

‘‘P’’. The non-business confidential 

version will be placed in the docket at 

www.regulations.gov and be available 

for public inspection. 

As noted, USTR strongly urges 

submitters to file comments through 

www.regulations.gov. You must make 

any alternative arrangements in advance 

of the relevant deadline and before 

transmitting a comment by contacting 

USTR at Special301@ustr.eop.gov. 

We will post comments in the docket 

for public inspection, except business 

confidential information. You can view 

comments on the https://

www.regulations.gov website by 

entering docket number USTR–2018– 

0027 in the search field on the home 

page. 

Daniel Lee, 

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for 

Innovation and Intellectual Property (Acting), 

Office of the United States Trade 

Representative. 

[FR Doc. 2018–17649 Filed 8–15–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3290–F8–P 

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES 

TRADE REPRESENTATIVE 

Notice of Action Pursuant to Section 

301: China’s Acts, Policies, and 

Practices Related to Technology 

Transfer, Intellectual Property, and 

Innovation 

AGENCY: Office of the United States 

Trade Representative. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Trade 

Representative (Trade Representative) 

has determined that appropriate action 

in this investigation includes the 

imposition of an additional ad valorem 

duty of 25 percent on products from 

China classified in the subheadings of 

the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the 

United States (HTSUS) set out in Annex 

A of this notice. The Trade 

Representative has further determined 

to establish a process by which U.S. 

stakeholders may request that particular 

products classified within a covered 

tariff subheading in Annex A be 

excluded from these additional duties. 

DATES: The additional duties set out in 

Annex A to this notice are effective with 

respect to products that are entered for 

consumption, or withdrawn from 

warehouse for consumption, on or after 

August 23, 2018. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

questions about this action, contact 

Assistant General Counsel Arthur Tsao 

or Director of Industrial Goods Justin 

Hoffmann at (202) 395–5725. For 

questions on customs classification or 

implementation of additional duties on 

products identified in Annex A to this 

Notice, contact Traderemedy@

cbp.dhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Proceedings in the Investigation 

On August 18, 2017, the Office of the 

U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) 

initiated an investigation into certain 

acts, policies, and practices of the 

Government of China related to 

technology transfer, intellectual 

property, and innovation (82 FR 40213). 

In a notice published on April 6, 2018 

(83 FR 14906), the Trade Representative 

announced a determination that the 

acts, policies, and practices of the 

Government of China covered in the 

investigation are unreasonable or 

discriminatory and burden or restrict 

U.S. commerce. The April 6 notice also 

invited public comment on a proposed 

action in the investigation, in the form 

of an additional 25 percent ad valorem 

duty on products from China classified 

in a list of 1,333 tariff subheadings, with 

an annual trade value of approximately 

$50 billion. As explained in that notice, 

the level was appropriate both in light 

of the estimated harm to the U.S. 

economy, and to obtain elimination of 

China’s harmful acts, policies, and 

practices. 

The public comment process included 

two opportunities for the submission of 

written comments, and the opportunity 

to participate in a public hearing. USTR 

received thousands of submissions, and 

held a 3-day public hearing with more 

than 100 witnesses. The public versions 

of submissions and a transcript of the 

hearing are available on 

www.regulations.gov in docket number 

USTR–2018–0005. 

USTR and the interagency Section 

301 Committee carefully reviewed the 

public comments and the testimony 

from the public hearing. USTR and the 

Section 301 Committee also carefully 

reviewed the extent to which the tariff 

subheadings in the April 6 notice 

include products containing industrially 

significant technology, including 

technologies and products related to 

China’s ‘‘Made in China 2025’’ 

industrial policy program. 

Based on this review process, the 

Trade Representative determined to take 

an initial action in the investigation, 

and to consider an additional proposed 

action. The Trade Representative 

announced the determination on June 

15, 2018, and published a notice on 

June 20, 2018 (83 FR 28710). The Trade 

Representative narrowed the proposed 

list in the April 6 notice to 818 tariff 

subheadings, with an approximate 

annual trade value of $34 billion. This 

initial action became effective on July 6, 

2018. The additional proposed action 

was an additional ad valorem duty of 25 

percent on products of China classified 

in 284 tariff subheadings, with an 

annual trade value of approximately $16 

billion, as set forth in Annex C to the 

June 20 notice. The June 20 notice 

further explained that including these 

tariff subheadings in the Section 301 

action would maintain the effectiveness 

of a $50 billion trade action. 

The June 20 notice invited public 

comment on the additional proposed 

action. USTR requested that 

commenters address specifically 

whether imposing increased duties on a 

particular listed subheading would be 

practicable or effective to obtain the 

elimination of China’s acts, policies, 

and practices, and whether maintaining 

or imposing additional duties on a 

particular listed product would cause 

disproportionate economic harm to U.S. 

interests, including small or mediumsized businesses and consumers. 

In response to the notice of additional 

proposed action, interested persons 

filed over 700 written submissions. 

USTR and the Section 301 Committee 

held a 2-day public hearing on July 24– 

25, 2018. During the hearing, 82 

witnesses provided testimony and 

responded to questions. Interested 

parties also had the opportunity to 

provide rebuttal submissions. The 

public submissions and a transcript of 

the hearing are available on 

www.regulations.gov in docket number 

USTR–2018–0018. 

B. Determination on Appropriate 

Action 

USTR and the Section 301 Committee 

have carefully reviewed the public 

comments and the testimony from the 

two-day public hearing. In addition, 

USTR and the interagency Section 301 

Committee have carefully reviewed the 

extent to which the tariff subheadings in 

Annex C to the June 20 notice include 

products containing industrially 

significant technology, including 

technologies and products related to the 

‘‘Made in China 2025’’ program. Based 

on this review process, the Trade 

Representative has determined to 

narrow the proposed tariff subheadings 

in Annex C to the June 20 notice to 279 

tariff subheadings. The annual trade 


sradovich on DSK3GMQ082PROD with NOTICES