83 FR 48413 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Federal Register Volume 83, Issue 186 (September 25, 2018)

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 186 (Tuesday, September 25, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 48413-48414]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2018-20785]



[[Page 48413]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. Chapter 35).
    Agency: Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Department of Commerce.
    Title: Quarterly Survey of Transactions in Selected Services and 
Intellectual Property with Foreign Persons.
    OMB Control Number: 0608-0067.
    Form Number: BE-125.
    Type of Request: Regular submission.
    Number of Responses: 8,800 annually (2,200 filed each quarter; 
1,700 reporting mandatory data, and 500 that would file other 
responses).
    Average Hours per Response: 21 hours is the average for those 
reporting data, and one hour is the average for those filing an 
exemption or providing voluntary responses, but hours may vary 
considerably among respondents because of differences in company size 
and complexity.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 144,800.
    Needs and Uses: The Quarterly Survey of Transactions in Selected 
Services and Intellectual Property with Foreign Persons (BE-125) is a 
survey that collects data from U.S. persons who engage in covered 
transactions with foreign persons in selected services or intellectual 
property. A U.S. Person means any individual, branch, partnership, 
associated group, association, estate, trust, corporation, or other 
organization (whether or not organized under the laws of any State), 
resident in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the 
United States. A U.S. person must report if they had sales of covered 
services or intellectual property to foreign persons that exceeded $6 
million for the previous fiscal year, or are expected to exceed that 
amount during the current fiscal year, or if they had purchases of 
covered services or intellectual property from foreign persons that 
exceeded $4 million for the previous fiscal year, or are expected to 
exceed that amount during the current fiscal year.
    The data are needed to monitor U.S. trade in services, to analyze 
the impact of these cross-border services and intellectual property 
transactions on the U.S. and foreign economies, to compile and improve 
the U.S. economic accounts, to support U.S. commercial policy on trade 
in services, to conduct trade promotion, and to improve the ability of 
U.S. businesses to identify and evaluate market opportunities. The data 
are used in estimating the services component of the U.S. international 
transactions accounts (ITAs) and national income and product accounts 
(NIPAs).
    The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is implementing one change to 
the reporting requirements and several modifications to the data 
collected on the BE-125 survey, beginning with reporting for first 
quarter 2019. These modifications will allow BEA to align its 
statistics more closely with international economic accounting 
guidelines, increasing the quality and usefulness of BEA's published 
statistics on trade in services.
    BEA will adjust the reporting requirements of the survey so they 
are applied based on ``combined'' thresholds. Currently, the reporting 
requirements for the BE-125 survey are applied based on the dollar 
amount of each covered transaction type collected on the survey. For 
example, a reporter with transactions in several of the services and 
intellectual property categories covered by the survey, may only exceed 
the threshold for mandatorily reporting additional detail by country, 
and by relationship to the foreign transactor (foreign affiliate, 
foreign parent group, or unaffiliated) for a single transaction type. 
Under this approach, the reporter is only required to report this 
additional detail, on the mandatory schedule(s), for the single 
transaction type in excess of the $6 million (sales) or $4 million 
(purchases) threshold.
    The change will modify the reporting threshold to be applied based 
on a ``combined'' threshold for sales or purchases of the covered types 
of services and intellectual property transactions. U.S. persons with 
combined sales in excess of $6 million or with combined purchases in 
excess of $4 million, are required to disaggregate all transaction 
types by country and by relationship to the foreign transactor on the 
mandatory schedule(s). Because the combined thresholds are applied 
separately to sales and to purchases, the mandatory reporting 
requirements may apply only to sales, only to purchases, or to both.
    BEA will make the following modifications to the data collection 
instrument:
    (1) Research and development services will be broken out into two 
categories: (1) Provision of customized and non-customized R&D services 
and (2) other R&D services, including testing.
    (2) Engineering, architectural, and surveying services will be 
broken out into three categories: (1) Architectural services; (2) 
engineering services; and (3) surveying, cartography, certification, 
testing, and technical inspection services.
    (3) Management, consulting, and public relation services will be 
broken out into three categories: (1) Market research services; (2) 
public opinion polling services; and (3) other management, consulting, 
and public relations services. Trade exhibition and sales convention 
services will be collected separately.
    (4) Database and other information services will be broken out into 
two components: (1) News agency services and (2) other information 
services.
    (5) Computer services will be expanded into three categories: (1) 
Computer software, including end-user licenses and customization 
services; (2) cloud computing and data storage services; and (3) other 
computer services.
    (6) Several service categories previously collected under ``Other 
selected services'' will be collected separately. These services 
include contract manufacturing services, disbursements for sales 
promotion and representation, photographic services (including 
satellite photography), space transport services, trade exhibition and 
sales convention services, agricultural services, and waste treatment 
and depollution services.
    (7) Mandatory Schedule C will be modified to only collect related 
goods details for construction services. On the current BE-125 survey, 
exports (sales) of three service types are collected on a separate 
schedule, Schedule C, to allow for reporting of information on the 
gross operating revenues and related goods exports and foreign 
expenses. The three categories are: (1) Construction services; (2) 
engineering, architectural, and surveying services; and (3) mining 
services. Beginning with reporting for first quarter 2019, only 
construction services will be collected on Schedule C. Mining services, 
as well as the three new categories that will replace engineering, 
architectural, and surveying services, will be collected on Schedule A.
    BEA estimates the proposed changes, being implemented beginning 
with reporting for first quarter 2019, will increase the average number 
of hours per response from 19 hours to 21 hours for those reporting 
data. The reporting thresholds of the current BE-125 survey will be 
retained. The effort to keep

[[Page 48414]]

current reporting thresholds unchanged is intended to minimize 
respondent burden while considering the needs of data users. Existing 
language in the instructions and definitions will be reviewed and 
adjusted as necessary to clarify survey requirements.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit organizations.
    Frequency: Quarterly.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    OMB Desk Officer: Robert Sivinski, (202) 395-1205.
    This information collection request may be viewed at reginfo.gov 
http://www.reginfo.gov/public/. Follow the instructions to view 
Department of Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected].

Sheleen Dumas,
Department Lead PRA Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-20785 Filed 9-24-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-06-P