In Proclamation 7529 of March 5, 2002, the President announced temporary safeguards on imports of steel products as a result of the Section 201 investigation of steel imports. Proclamation 7529 states that within 120 days of March 5, the USTR is authorized to further consider requests to exclude certain products from the safeguard remedy that were submitted in accordance with the procedures set out in 66 Fed. Reg. 54321, 54322-54323 (October 26, 2001). If the USTR determines that a product should be excluded, he will modify the HTS provisions created by the Annex to Proclamation 7529 to exclude the particular product from the safeguard remedy. The following is an outline of the process by which product exclusion requests will be considered:

• Interested persons that submitted exclusion requests in accordance with 66 Fed. Reg. 54321, and that received an "X" number listed here on the USTR website will be required to respond to a series of questions. These questions are designed to elicit information that clearly identifies the product under consideration, and to provide detailed information on the requestor's situation. Parties must respond to the requestor questionnaire by April 23, 2002. No further analysis of the request will be made unless a complete response to the questionnaire is received. Short product descriptions for complete questionnaire responses will be posted on the website by April 30, 2002.

• After the filing of responses to the questionnaire, interested persons that wish to continue to object to a particular request will be required to answer a series of questions aimed to substantiate fully their objection. Parties must submit a complete objector questionnaire by May 13, 2002.

• Each request will then be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We will grant only those exclusions that do not undermine the objectives of the safeguard measures. In analyzing the requests, we will consider whether it is currently being produced in the United States, whether substitution of the product is possible, whether qualification requirements affect the requestor's ability to use domestic products, inventories, whether the requested product is under development by a U.S. producer who will imminently be able to produce it in marketable quantities, and any other relevant factors. Where necessary, we will meet with parties to discuss the information that was submitted and/or to gain additional information.

• Every effort will be made to process requests as soon as possible consistent with resources and the quality of information that is received. Requests that were properly submitted in accordance with 66 Fed. Reg. 54321 and for which a completed requestor questionnaire has been received will receive primary consideration.

• Interested persons who wish to request exclusion of a product that has not received an "X" number must respond to the requestor questionnaire by May 20, 2002. The procedures for submitting such additional requests for exclusion will be announced in a Federal Register notice to be issued shortly.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has granted approval for OMB Control Number-0350-0011, Requestor Questionnaire. It is expected that the collection of information burden will be no more than 20 hours.

USTR has submitted the Objector Questionnaire to OMB for approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act. It is expected that the collection of information burden will be no more than 20 hours. This notice, as well as the information provided in the link below, is intended to provide parties with advance notice of the process that USTR and the Department of Commerce intend to follow, pending review of the collection of information by OMB. Comments on this process should be submitted to the Office of Industry, Office of the United States Trade Representative, 600 17th Street, NW, Room 501, Washington DC, 20508. Telephone (202) 395-5656.

Click here for information pertaining to the steps that parties must follow to fully participate in this process.