(a) Process and certification. When you apply for a commitment to execute Guarantees, you must:

(1) Complete Form MA-163 and send it to the Secretary, Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20590. [Note: MARAD will accept electronic options (such as facsimile and Internet) for transmission of required information (excluding closing documents and documents submitted in connection with defaults) to MARAD, if practicable.]

(2) Certify the application in the manner that Form MA 163 prescribes.

(b) Required information. You must include all required information on Form MA 163 or in attached exhibits and schedules submitted with the application. You must also include the following regarding the Vessel or Vessels, if applicable:

(1) Any demise charters,

(2) Time charters in excess of six months,

(3) Contracts of affreightment,

(4) Drilling contracts, and/or

(5) Other contractual arrangements.

(c) Declaration of Lobbying form. You must also file the Declaration of Lobbying form as required by 31 U.S.C. 1352 with the initial application as part of the formal submission.

(d) Attachments. Each exhibit, schedule, and attachment must contain a statement, on the first page clearly identifying the document as an attachment to the application. You must state on each attachment the:

(1) Name of the applicant; and

(2) Date of the application.

(e) Amendment. You must mark “Amendment,” on any amendment of data contained in the application. Each first page must contain a statement clearly identifying the document as an amendment to your application and must include the:

(1) Name of the applicant;

(2) Date of application; and

(3) Certification required on Form MA 163.

(f) Application time schedule. You must submit each application to us at least four (4) months prior to the anticipated date by which you require a Letter Commitment.

(1) We may consider applications with less than four (4) months notice, prior to the anticipated date by which you require a Letter Commitment, if you submit written documentation to us that extenuating circumstances exist.

(2) During the first fifteen (15) calendar days after you submit your application, we will preliminarily review your application for adequacy and completeness.

(i) If we find that your application is incomplete, or if we require additional data, we will notify you promptly in writing, and you will have fifteen (15) calendar days, from the date of each request for additional information, to correct deficiencies.

(ii) If you have not corrected the deficiencies or have not made substantial progress toward correcting them, within the 15 calendar days, then we may terminate the processing of your application without prejudice.

(3) Once we consider your Title XI application complete, we will act on the application within a period of 60 calendar days, unless for good cause, we find it necessary to extend the 60 day period.

(4) If you do not complete your application and we do not act upon your application within four (4) months from the submission date, unless we extend the time period, we will notify you in writing that processing of the application is terminated and that you may reapply at a later date.

(i) If we terminate your application without prejudice, we will not require you to pay a new filing fee for a later application for a similar project that you file within one year of the termination date.

(ii) If you submit an application for a substantially different project, you must pay a new filing fee. We will determine whether the application is substantially different on a case-by-case basis.

(5) If we issue you a Letter Commitment, you must submit two (2) sets of the Closing documentation to us for review at least six (6) weeks prior to the anticipated Closing. The six weeks time period will give us time to complete an adequate review of the documentation. You must use our standard form of documentation.

(g) Degrees of risk. When processing applications, we will consider the different degrees of risk involved with different applications.

(h) Additional assurances. Before we approve your application, we may require additional assurances if you are not a well established firm with strong financial qualifications and strong market shares seeking financing guarantees for replacement vessels in an established market in which projected demand exceeds supply. The additional assurances may include:

(1) Firm charter commitments;

(2) Parent company guarantees;

(3) Greater equity participation;

(4) Private financing participation;

(5) Security interest on other property; and

(6) Similar arrangements to any of these additional assurances.

(i) Filing Fee. When you submit your application, you must include a $5,000 filing fee, which will be non-refundable, irrespective of whether we issue a Letter Commitment. However, the $5,000 filing fee is credited toward the investigation fee described in §298.15(b).

(j) Confidential Information.

(1) If we receive a request for release of your information, we will notify you. If you believe that your application, including attachments, contains information you consider to be trade secrets or commercial or financial information and privileged or confidential, or otherwise exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552), you may assert a claim of confidentiality. When submitting your application, you should mark “Confidential” on the pages that you consider confidential. The same requirement applies to any amendment to the application.

(2) FOIA requests. We will apply the procedures contained in the Department of Transportation's regulations at 49 CFR 7.17 regarding FOIA requests for information that the submitter has designated as confidential. We will consider your claim of confidentiality at the time someone requests the information under FOIA.

(3) Statement of objections. If we receive a request for release of your information, we will notify you. We will give you a reasonable period of time to give us a written, detailed statement explaining your objections to our release of the information. We will not give you notice if:

(i) We determine that we should not disclose the information;

(ii) The information has been lawfully published or made available to the public; or

(iii) Law (other than 5 U.S.C. 552) requires us to disclose the information.

(4) Our notification of intent to disclose. If your objections to release of the information do not persuade us, we will notify you of our intent to disclose in a reasonable number of days before we intend to disclose the information. The written notice will include:

(i) A statement explaining our reasons for not accepting the submitter's disclosure objections;

(ii) A description of the business information that we will disclose; and

(iii) A specific disclosure date.

(k) Priority. We will give priority for processing applications to:

(1) Vessels capable of serving as a United States naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency,

(2) Requests for financing construction of equipment or vessels less than one year old as opposed to the refinancing of existing equipment or vessels that are one year old or older,

(3) Any applications involving the purchase of vessels currently financed under Title XI if the purpose is to process the assumption of the obligations,

(4) Applications from those willing to take guarantees for less than the normal term for that class of vessel.

(5) Eligible Export Vessels. We may issue a commitment to guarantee Obligations for an Eligible Export Vessel if we determine, in our sole discretion, that the issuance of a commitment to guarantee Obligations for an Eligible Export Vessel will not cause us to deny an economically sound application to issue a commitment to guarantee Obligations for vessels documented under the laws of the United States operating in the domestic or foreign commerce of the United States, after considering:

(i) The status of pending applications for commitments to guarantee obligations for vessels documented under the laws of the United States and operating or to be operated in the domestic or foreign commerce of the United States;

(ii) The economic soundness of the applications referred to in paragraph (k)(5)(i) of this section; and

(iii) The amount of guarantee authority available.

(Unless indicated otherwise in this part 298, information collection requirements have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 2133-0018.)

[65 FR 45152, July 20, 2000, as amended at 68 FR 62538, Nov. 5, 2003; 69 FR 61451, Oct. 19, 2004]