INVESTIGATIONS, DETERMINATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION.

SEC. 301. INVESTIGATIONS, DETERMINATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION. (a) Treatment of Confidential Information.—Section 202(a)(8) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252(a)(8)) is amended by adding at the end the following: “The Commission may request that parties providing confidential business information furnish nonconfidential summaries thereof or, if such parties indicate that the information in the submission cannot be summarized, the reasons why a summary cannot be provided. If the Commission finds that a request for confidentiality is not warranted and if the party concerned is either unwilling to make the information public or to authorize its disclosure in generalized or summarized form, the Commission may disregard the submission.”. (b) Administrative Protective Orders.—Section 202 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252) is amended by adding at the end the following: “(i) Limited Disclosure of Confidential Business Information Under Protective Order.—The Commission shall promulgate regulations to provide access to confidential business information under protective order to authorized representatives of interested parties who are parties to an investigation under this section.”. (c) Notice of Proceedings.—Section 202(b) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252(b)) is amended by striking paragraphs (3) and (4) and inserting the following: “(3) The Commission shall publish notice of the commencement of any proceeding under this subsection in the Federal Register and shall, within a reasonable time thereafter, hold public hearings at which the Commission shall afford interested parties and consumers an opportunity to be present, to present evidence, to comment on the adjustment plan, if any, submitted under subsection (a), to respond to the presentations of other parties and consumers, and otherwise to be heard.”. (d) Critical Circumstances.— (1) In general.—Section 202(d)(2) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252(d)(2)) is amended to read as follows: “(2)(A) When a petition filed under subsection (a) alleges that critical circumstances exist and requests that provisional relief be provided under this subsection with respect to imports of the article identified in the petition, the Commission shall, not later than 60 days after the petition containing the request was filed, determine, on the basis of available information, whether— “(i) there is clear evidence that increased imports (either actual or relative to domestic production) of the article are a substantial cause of serious injury, or the threat thereof, to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article; and 108 STAT. 4933 “(ii) delay in taking action under this chapter would cause damage to that industry that would be difficult to repair. “(B) If the determinations under subparagraph (A)(i) and (ii) are affirmative, the Commission shall find the amount or extent of provisional relief that is necessary to prevent or remedy the serious injury. In carrying out this subparagraph, the Commission shall give preference to increasing or imposing a duty on imports, if such form of relief is feasible and would prevent or remedy the serious injury. “(C) The Commission shall immediately report to the President its determinations under subparagraph (A)(i) and (ii) and, if the determinations are affirmative, the finding under subparagraph (B). “(D) Within 30 days after receiving a report from the Commission under subparagraph (C) containing an affirmative determination under subparagraph (A)(i) and (ii), the President, if he considers provisional relief to be warranted and after taking into account the finding of the Commission under subparagraph (B), shall proclaim, for a period not to exceed 200 days, such provisional relief that the President considers necessary to prevent or remedy the serious injury. Such relief shall take the form of an increase in, or the imposition of, a duty on imports, if such form of relief is feasible and would prevent or remedy the serious injury.”. (2) Time limits for determinations.—Section 202 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252) is amended— (A) in subsection (b)(2)— (i) in subparagraph (A) by inserting “(180 days if the petition alleges that critical circumstances exist)” after “120 days”; and (ii) in subparagraph (B) by inserting “(210 days if the petition alleges that critical circumstances exist)” after “150 days”; and (B) in subsection (f)(1) by inserting “(240 days if the petition alleges that critical circumstances exist)” after “180 days”. (3) Action by the president.—Section 203(a)(4) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2253(a)(4)) is amended— (A) by striking “The” and inserting “(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), the”; (B) by inserting after “60 days” the following: “(50 days if the President has proclaimed provisional relief under section 202(d)(2)(D) with respect to the article concerned)”; and (C) by striking “; except that” and all that follows through “received?’ and inserting a period and the following: “(B) If a supplemental report is requested under paragraph (5), the President shall take action under paragraph (1) within 30 days after the supplemental report is received, except that, in a case in which the President has proclaimed provisional relief under section 202(d)(2)(D) with respect to the article concerned, action by the President under paragraph (1) may not be taken later than the 200th day after the provisional relief was proclaimed.”. 108 STAT. 4934 (4) Conforming amendments.—Section 202(d) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252(d)) is amended— (A) in paragraph (3)— (i) by striking “(2)(B)” and inserting “(2)(D)”; and (ii) by striking “subsection (b)(1)” and inserting “paragraph (2)(A)”; and (B) in paragraph (4)(A)(i) by inserting “or (2)(D)” after “(1)(G)”. (e) Factors in Making Determinations.—Section 202(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252(c)) is amended— (1) in paragraph (l)(B)(i) by inserting “productivity,” after “wages,”; and (2) in paragraph (6)— (A) by amending subparagraph (A) to read as follows: “(A)(i) The term ‘domestic industry’ means, with respect to an article, the producers as a whole of the like or directly competitive article or those producers whose collective production of the like or directly competitive article constitutes a major proportion of the total domestic production of such article. “(ii) The term ‘domestic industry’ includes producers. located in the United States insular possessions.”; and (B) by adding at the end the following: “(C) The term ‘serious injury’ means a significant overall impairment in the position of a domestic industry. “(D) The term ‘threat of serious injury’ means serious injury that is clearly imminent. (f) Limitations on Investigations.—Section 202(h) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252(h)) is amended by adding at the end the following: “(3) (A) Not later than the date on which the Textiles Agreement enters into force with respect to the United States, the Secretary of Commerce shall publish in the Federal Register a list of all articles that are subject to the Textiles Agreement. An investigation may be conducted under this section concerning imports of any article that is subject to the Textiles Agreement only if the United States has integrated that article into GATT 1994 pursuant to the Textiles Agreement, as set forth in notices published in the Federal Register by the Secretary of Commerce, including the notice published under section 331 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. “(B) For purposes of this paragraph: “(i) The term Textiles Agreement’ means the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing referred to in section 101(d)(4) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. “(ii) The term ‘GATT 1994’ has the meaning given that term in section 2(1)(B) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act.”.