On August 21, 2017, the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) published a Federal Register notice requesting comments on the costs and benefits to U.S. industry of U.S. international government procurement obligations. This information gathering process is being conducted pursuant to Section 3(e) of the Presidential Executive Order on Buy American and Hire American (“Buy American and Hire American Executive Order”).

Written comments must be filed by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September 18, 2017. This deadline overlaps with, and extends beyond, the September 15 due date for an initial assessment by Commerce and USTR of “the impacts of all United States free trade agreements and the World Trade Organization (“WTO”) Agreement on Government Procurement (“GPA”) on the operation of Buy American Laws, including their impacts on the implementation of domestic procurement preferences.” Thus, comments that are filed before September 15 are more likely to have an impact on the initial assessment. Comments filed by the September 18 deadline will be considered by the agencies in advance of the transmission of a final report to President Trump by November 24, 2017. Any submissions containing business confidential information may be exempted from public disclosure.