Beverage Importers Trade Group Argues USTR Should Retain Free-Form Commenting

The second round of comment collections on retaliatory tariffs in the Airbus agreement should be free-form, as the first set was, the National Association of Beverage Importers said in June 9 comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The trade group said the fact that almost 26,000 comments were submitted in the last round shows strong public interest, and the pull-down menus in the online form that the USTR has offered is confusing. “The form portal approach does not minimize the burden on the public; rather, it reduces the review burden on USTR. The latter is not the goal of the Paperwork Reduction Act,” NABI President Robert Tobiassen said. The association “respectfully requests that the existing process is maintained as it is, and that this emergency information collection request be approved only as a non-mandatory option for those who are willing and able to provide the information in the format USTR is seeking to receive,” it said. The USTR requested comments about the coming portal changes last month (see 2005260026).