11908 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 53 / Friday, March 20, 2009 / Notices 

In accordance with the Board’s 

regulations, Diane Finver of the FTZ 

staff is designated examiner to 

investigate the application and report to 

the Board. 

Public comment is invited from 

interested parties. Submissions (original 

and 3 copies) shall be addressed to the 

Board’s Executive Secretary at the 

address below. The closing period for 

their receipt is May 19, 2009. Rebuttal 

comments in response to material 

submitted during the foregoing period 

may be submitted during the subsequent 

15-day period (to June 3, 2009). 

A copy of the request will be available 

for public inspection at the Office of the 

Executive Secretary, Foreign-Trade 

Zones Board, Room 2111, U.S. 

Department of Commerce, 1401 

Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, 

DC 20230–0002, and in the ‘‘Reading 

Room’’ section of the Board’s Web site, 

which is accessible via www.trade.gov/ 

ftz. For further information, contact 

Diane Finver at 

Diane_Finver@ita.doc.gov, or (202) 482– 

1367. 

Dated: March 12, 2009. 

Andrew McGilvray, 

Executive Secretary. 

[FR Doc. E9–6162 Filed 3–19–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Bureau of Industry and Security 

[Docket No. 090129078–9079–01] 

Request for Public Comments on the 

Utilization Rate of Export Licenses 

Issued by the Bureau of Industry and 

Security 

AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and 

Security, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of inquiry. 

SUMMARY: A significant percentage of 

the export licenses issued by the Bureau 

of Industry and Security (BIS) appear to 

be unused or used for less than the 

quantity or value limits authorized by 

the license. BIS seeks public comment 

to help it ascertain the reasons for such 

lack of use or under use. BIS is 

particularly interested in whether 

characteristics of the export license 

application review process induce 

applicants to apply for greater 

authorizations than they need and, if 

such is the case, any costs associated 

with such applications. 

DATES: Comments must be received no 

later than May 4, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: Comments may be 

submitted via e-mail to 

publiccomments@bis.doc.gov. Please 

refer to ‘‘Utilization Rate of Export 

Licenses Issued’’ in the subject line. 

Comments may also be sent to 

Utilization Rate Study, Office of 

Technology Evaluation, Room 2705, 

U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th 

Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., 

Washington, DC 20230. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jennifer Watts, Office of Technology 

Evaluation, Bureau of Industry and 

Security, telephone: 202–482–8343; fax: 

202–482–5361; e-mail 

jwatts@bis.doc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

BIS, among its other activities, issues 

licenses for export of items that are 

subject to the Export Administration 

Regulations. Most such licenses are 

valid for two years. A recent BIS review 

of export data from the Automated 

Export System (AES), which is used to 

record actual exports from the United 

States, indicated that by the end of 

calendar year 2007, forty-eight percent 

of the licenses issued in calendar year 

2005 for the export of commodities had 

not been used at all. In addition, some 

licenses may have been used for less 

than the full quantity or value 

authorized. Finally, BIS has no basis for 

estimating whether similar lack of use 

or under utilization exists with respect 

to licenses for the export of software or 

technology because such exports are 

often intangible and, therefore, not 

reported in AES. BIS is seeking 

information that would help it 

determine: 

• Whether software and technology 

export licenses also are not used or are 

underused; 

• The reasons that export licenses 

sometimes are not used or are 

underused; and 

• Whether characteristics of the 

export licensing process (e.g., ease or 

difficulty of use, processing times, 

degree of communication between the 

government and the applicant, license 

conditions, etc.) contribute to the 

practice of not using or under-using 

export licenses. 

The scope of this inquiry is limited to 

export licenses. It does not encompass 

reexports, deemed exports or deemed 

reexports. 

The following kinds of information 

would be useful to BIS’s assessment: 

• Whether exporters seek an export 

license prior to receipt of a purchase 

order or letter of intent, and examples 

of typical business cases for seeking a 

license absent such documentation; 

• Detailed information concerning 

instances when exporters have obtained 

an export license from BIS but then did 

not use it or used it for less than the 

quantity or value authorized, including 

information on whether the export 

licensing process impacted the 

transaction, whether sales were lost due 

to the licensing process and the dollar 

amount of any such lost sales that are 

directly attributable to the licensing 

process; 

• Specific information about whether 

licenses for the export of software or 

technology are not used or are under 

used; 

• Whether an extension of the 

validity period of export licenses issued 

by BIS would increase the probability of 

the utilization of licenses; and 

• Process improvements that BIS 

could make to enhance the utilization of 

export licenses (e.g., expedited 

treatment for applications under 

specific circumstances). 

In the future BIS may seek a more 

systematic approach (e.g., surveys) to 

contact exporters and document the 

reasons impacting licensing utilization 

rates to further facilitate the utilization 

of export licenses. 

How To Comment 

All comments must be in writing and 

submitted to one of the addresses 

indicated above. Comments must be 

received by BIS no later than May 4, 

2009. BIS may consider comments 

received after that date if feasible to do 

so, but such consideration can not be 

assured. All comments submitted in 

response to this notice will be made a 

matter of public record, and will be 

available for public inspection and 

copying. Anyone submitting business 

confidential information should clearly 

identify the business confidential 

portion of the submission and also 

provide a non-confidential submission 

that can be placed in the public record. 

BIS will seek to protect business 

confidential information from public 

disclosure to the extent permitted by 

law. 

Dated: March 16, 2009. 

Matthew S. Borman, 

Acting Assistant Secretary for Export 

Administration. 

[FR Doc. E9–6164 Filed 3–19–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–JT–P