Summary of Commission Practice Relating to Administrative Protective Orders

Since February 1991, the U.S. International Trade Commission/ (``Commission'') has published in the Federal Register reports 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''). This notice provides a summary of breach investigations (APOB investigations) completed during calendar year 2015. This summary addresses one APOB investigation related to a proceeding under title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 and four APOB investigations related to proceedings under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, two of which were related to the same proceedings and were combined. The Commission investigated rules violations as part of one of the APOB investigations. 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.