Res Communis

USTR Report to Congress on U.S. Equipment Industry Access to the Galileo Program and Markets

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

The Department of Commerce Office of Space Commercialization points to a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Report to Congress on U.S. Equipment Industry Access to the Galileo Program and Markets. The introduction to the report reads:

In the Joint Explanatory Statement to accompany the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-008), Congress requested that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) report on the status of U.S. equipment industry access to the European Community (EC) Galileo program and European markets for related goods and services, in order to assess EC compliance with the Agreement on the Promotion, Provision and Use of Galileo and GPS Satellite-Based Navigation Systems and Related Applications (the “GPS-Galileo Agreement”).

To collect information on this subject from U.S. industry and other interested parties, USTR published a request for public comments in the Federal Register on April 15, 2009. USTR received submissions from the United States GPS Industry Council (“Council”) and the European Commission. The Council, a trade association representing several major U.S. manufacturers of satellite navigation user equipment and services, also filed supplementary comments during the reply comment phase of this process. These public comments are posted on the www.regulations.gov website, under docket number USTR-2009-0010.