Direct Investment Surveys: Raising Exemption Level for Annual Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States

These final rules amend 15 CFR Part 806.15 by raising the exemption level for reporting in the Annual Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (Form BE-15. The survey is a mandatory survey conducted by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), U.S. Department of Commerce, under the authority of the International Investment and Trade in Services Survey Act. These changes bring the survey into conformity with the Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States--1997 (Form BE-12) and reduce reporting burden on small respondents. The revised rules raise the exemption level for the survey to $30 million on the BE-15(SF) short form, up from $10 million (measured by the Company's total assets, sales, or net income or loss); on the survey's long form, the exemption level is raised to $100 million, up from $50 million. In addition, the revised survey bases industry coding on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) in place of the U.S. Standard Industrial Classification system that was formerly used, and modifies the detail collected on the composition of external financing of the reporting enterprise, on research and development expenditures, and on the operations of foreign-owned businesses in individual States.