Summary of Commission Practice Relating to Administrative Protective Orders

Since February 1991, the U.S. International Trade Commission (``Commission'') has issued an annual report on the status of its practice with respect to violations of its administrative protective orders (``APOs'') under title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930, in response to a direction contained in the Conference Report to the Customs and Trade Act of 1990. Over time, the Commission has added to its report discussions of APO breaches in Commission proceedings other than under title VII and violations of the Commission's rules including the rule on bracketing business proprietary information (``BPI'') (the ``24-hour rule''), 19 CFR 207.3(c). This notice provides a summary of breach investigations completed during calendar year 2014. This summary addresses one proceeding under title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 and four proceedings under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. There were no rules violation investigations completed in 2014. The Commission intends that this report inform representatives of parties to Commission proceedings as to some specific types of APO breaches encountered by the Commission and the corresponding types of actions the Commission has taken.