[Federal Register: May 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 96)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 28104-28105]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18my04-17]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
48 CFR Part 25
[FAR Notice 2004-N1]
Federal Acquisition Regulation; List of Nonavailable Articles
Under the Buy American Act
AGENCIES: Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration
(GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
ACTION: Request for public comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense
Acquisition Regulations Council (the Councils) are seeking information
that will assist in identifying domestic capabilities and for
evaluating whether some articles on the list of nonavailable articles
at FAR part 25 are now mined, produced, or manufactured in the United
States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities and
of a satisfactory quality.
DATES: Interested parties should submit comments in writing to the FAR
Secretariat at the address shown below on or before July 19, 2004.
ADDRESSES: Submit printed comments to General Services Administration,
FAR Secretariat (MVA), 1800 F Street, NW, Room 4035, ATTN: Laurie
Duarte, Washington, DC 20405. Submit electronic comments via the
Internet to the U.S. Government's Web site at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.regulations.gov
, or to GSA's e-mailbox at farnotice.2004-n1@gsa.gov.
Please submit comments only and cite ``FAR Notice 2004-N01'' in all
correspondence related to this case.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The FAR Secretariat, Room 4035, GS
Building, Washington, DC, 20405, at (202) 501-4755 for information
pertaining to status or publication schedules. The TTY Federal Relay
Number for further information is 1-800-877-8973. For clarification of
content, contact Ms. Cecelia Davis, Procurement Analyst, at (202) 219-
0202. Please cite ``FAR Notice 2004-N1.''
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. The Buy American Act (41 U.S.C. 10a-10d) generally requires that
only domestically mined, produced, or
[[Page 28105]]
manufactured articles be procured for public use in the United States.
The Buy American Act provides an exception for articles not mined,
produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and
reasonably available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory
quality. FAR 25.103(b)(1) provides a determination that articles listed
at FAR 25.104(a) meet the conditions of this exception.
The established list of articles identified in FAR 25.104(a) is a
comprehensive and wide-ranging mix of natural resources, compounds,
materials, and other items of supply. Although some articles on the
list have no known domestic production sources (e.g., quartz crystals
or vanilla beans), many of the articles are known to have some domestic
production sources, but those sources have been determined in the past
to be inadequate to meet U.S. demand. Examples of such articles range
from goat and kidskins (negligible domestic production), to crude
iodine (5 percent of U.S. Government and nongovernment demand), to
bismuth (not in excess of 50 percent of U.S. Government and
nongovernment demand). The list has not been subjected to a thorough
review since 1957. Currently, the procedures for updating articles on
the list rely on a contracting officer's notice to the Defense
Acquisition Regulations (DAR) Council or the Civilian Agency
Acquisition Council (CAAC) (in accordance with agency procedures) for
possible addition or removal of an article from the list (FAR
25.103(b)(2)(ii) and FAR 25.104(b)). With constantly changing market
conditions, the Councils are seeking information to determine whether
some articles should be removed from the list because they are now
mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and
reasonably available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory
quality. Specific information with regard to domestic production
capacity in relation to U.S. Government and nongovernment damand and
the quality of domestically produced items would be most helpful in
determining whether articles should remain on or be removed from the
list. A sources-sought notice will be published in FedBizOpps in an
effort to increase the awareness of this request and to receive greater
responses from interested parties on the nonavailable articles listing.
B. The FAR's current nonavailable listing is as follow:
Acetylene, black.
Agar, bulk.
Anise.
Antimony, as metal or oxide.
Asbestos, amosite, chrysotile, and crocidolite.
Bananas.
Bauxite.
Beef, corned, canned.
Beef extract.
Bephenium hydroxynapthoate.
Bismuth.
Books, trade, text, technical, or scientific; newspapers; pamphlets;
magazines; periodicals; printed briefs and films; not printed in the
United States and for which domestic editions are not available.
Brazil nuts, unroasted.
Cadmium, ores and flue dust.
Calcium cyanamide.
Capers.
Cashew nuts.
Castor beans and castor oil.
Chalk, English.
Chestnuts.
Chicle.
Chrome ore or chromite.
Cinchona bark.
Cobalt, in cathodes, rondelles, or other primary ore and metal
forms.
Cocoa beans.
Coconut and coconut meat, unsweetened, in shredded, desiccated, or
similarly prepared form.
Coffee, raw or green bean.
Colchicine alkaloid, raw.
Copra.
Cork, wood or bark and waste.
Cover glass, microscope slide,
Crane rail (85-pounds per foot).
Cryolite, natural.
Dammar gum.
Diamonds, Industrial, stones and abrasives.
Emetine, bulk.
Ergot, crude.
Erythrityl tetranitrate.
Fair linen, altar.
Fibers of the following types: abaca, abace, agave, coir, flax,
jute, jute burlaps, palmyra, and sisal.
Goat and kidskins.
Graphite, natural, crystalline, crucible grade.
Hand file sets (Swiss pattern).
Handsewing needles.
Hemp yarn.
Hog bristles for brushes.
Hyoscine, bulk.
Ipecac, root.
Iodine, crude.
Kaurigum.
Lac.
Leather, sheepskin, hair type.
Lavender oil.
Manganese.
Menthol, natural bulk.
Mica.
Microprocessor chips (brought onto a Government construction site as
separate units for incorporation into building systems during
construction or repair and alteration of real property).
Nickel, primary, in ingots, pigs, shots, cathodes, or similar forms;
nickel oxide and nickel salts.
Nitroguanidine (also known as picrite).
Nux vomica, crude.
Oiticica oil.
Olive oil.
Olives (green), pitted or unpitted, or stuffed, in bulk.
Opium, crude.
Oranges, mandarin, canned.
Petroleum, crude oil, unfinished oils, and finished products.
Pine needle oil.
Platinum and related group metals, refined, as sponge, powder,
ingots, or cast bars.
Pyrethrum flowers.
Quartz crystals.
Quebracho.
Quinidine.
Quinine.
Rabbit fur felt.
Radium salts, source and special nuclear materials.
Rosettes.
Rubber, crude and latex.
Rutile.
Santonin, crude.
Secretin.
Shellac.
Silk, raw and unmanufactured.
Spare and replacement parts for equipment of foreign manufacture,
and for which domestic parts are not available.
Spices and herbs, in bulk.
Sugars, raw.
Swords and scabbards.
Talc, block, steatite.
Tantalum.
Tapioca flour and cassava.
Tartar, crude; tartaric acid and cream of tartar in bulk.
Tea in bulk.
Thread, metallic (gold).
Thyme oil.
Tin in bars, blocks, and pigs.
Triprolidine hydrochloride.
Tungsten.
Vanilla beans.
Venom, cobra.
Wax, carnauba.
Wire glass.
Woods; logs, veneer, and lumber of the following species: Alaskan
yellow cedar, angelique, balsa, ekki, greenheart, lignum vitae,
mahogany, and teak.
Yarn, 50 Denier rayon.
C. The nonavailable listing will be amended to include the
following articles below once FAR case 2003-007 is published in the
Federal Register as a final rule. The articles are as follows:
Bamboo shoots.
Goat hair canvas.
Grapefruit sections, canned.
Modacrylic fur ruff.
Water chestnuts.
List of Subjects in 48 CFR Part 25
Government procurement.
Dated: May 12, 2004.
Laura Auletta,
Acting Director, Acquisition Policy Division.
[FR Doc. 04-11209 Filed 5-17-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6820-EP-M