POINT OF CONTACT: General Services Administration FAR Secretariat (MVA) 1800 F Street, NW, Room 4035 Attn: Ms. Laurie Duarte Washington, DC 20405. Submit electronic comments via the Internet to—
[email protected] For questions concerning the status, contact the FAR Secretariat at (202) 501-4755. For clarification of content, contact Ms. Cecelia Davis, Procurement Analyst, at (202) 219-0202. DESCRIPTION: The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (the Councils) are posting this notice on FedBizOpps seeking information that will assist in identifiying domestic capabilities and for evaluating whether some articles on the list of nonavailable articles at FAR 25.104(a) are now mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities and of a satisfactory quality. This notice was also published in the Federal Register on May 18, 2004 (69 FR 28104). The Buy American Act (41 U.S.C. 10a-10d) generally requires that only domestically mined, produced, or 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 demand and the quality of domestically-produced items would be most helpful in determining whether articles should remain on or be removed from the list. The FAR’s current nonavailable listing is as follows: 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 pound 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