bahrain Supporting Statement

Supporting Statement

U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement

1651-____

1. Justification

1. On January 11, 2006 the United States-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (US-BFTA) was signed into law. The provisions of the US-BFTA were adopted with the enactment of the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (“the Act”, Public Law 109-169). The Act implemented the agreement on August 1, 2006. The objectives of the US-BFTA are to establish free trade through the reduction and elimination of barriers, strengthen and develop economic relations, and to lay the foundation for further cooperation to expand and enhance benefits of the agreement. The collection identifies the country of origin and related rules that apply for purposes of duty-free or reduced-duty treatment on imported goods under the US-BFTA.

2. The information is to be used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to document preferential tariff treatment under the provisions of the US-BFTA.

3. The data elements may be transmitted electronically. CBP allows the submission of these elements on disc in an electronic format. The electronic submission must contain a signature and be in an inalterable format. This is a new information collection, so we cannot yet determine the percentage of respondents submitting their information electronically.

4. Since each document is unique, this information is not duplicated elsewhere.

3. This collection of information does not significantly impact small businesses or entities.

4. If this information was not collected, CBP would not be able to ensure that duty-free or reduced-duty treatment is provided on imported goods under the US-BFTA and specifies the documentary and other procedural requirements which apply to any claim for such preferential tariff treatment under the US-BFTA.

5. This information collection is conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(c)(2).

6. Public comments will be solicited through a Federal Register along with interim regulations administering the US-BFTA.

7. There is no offer of a monetary or material value for this information collection.

8. The US-BFTA information may contain trade secrets and commercial and financial information relating to the confidential business of private parties. This information will be contained in a safe location and only CBP officers with a “need to know” basis will have access.

9. This information collection does not involve questions of a personal or sensitive nature.

10. Estimated Annualized Burden on the Public. The estimated burden for this information collection is 100 hours, based on an estimated 500 respondents filing a total of 500 annual responses. Each response requires an estimated .2 hours (12 minutes) to complete.

Estimated Annualized Cost to the Public. The estimated cost to the respondents is $2,500 based on 100 burden hours at an average rate of $25.00 per hour.

11. Estimated Record Keeping Burden on the Public. There is no record keeping burden requirement associated with this collection.

Estimated Capitalization Cost Burden on the Public. There are no capitalization costs associated with this information collection.

12. Estimated Cost to the Federal Government. The estimated annual cost to the Federal Government in handling, processing and recording the information collected with regard to this collection is $3,000 based on an estimated 100 hours expended at an average rate of $30.00.

13. This is a new information collection request, therefore the burden on the public and the Federal Government, associated with the US-BFTA, are estimates.

14. This information will not be published for statistical purposes.

15. There is no form associated with this collection.

16. No exceptions are requested.

2. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods

No statistical methods were employed.

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