Department of Commerce November 8, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In conformance with the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, 5 U.S.C. 4314(c)(4), the United States Patent and Trademark Office announces the appointment of persons to serve as members of its Performance Review Board.

The Departments of Commerce and the Interior (the Departments) amend their regulations governing watch duty-exemption allocations and the watch and jewelry duty-refund benefits for producers in the United States insular possessions (the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). The rule amends the regulations by making technical changes required by passage of the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2004; extending the duty refund benefits to include the value of usual and customary health insurance, life insurance and pension benefits; raising the ceiling on the amount of jewelry that qualifies for the duty refund benefit; allowing new insular jewelry producers to assemble jewelry and have such jewelry treated as an article of the insular possessions for up to 18 months after the jewelry company commences assembly operations; allowing duty refund certificate holders to secure a duty refund on any articles that are imported into the customs territory of the United States by the certificate holder duty paid; providing a more comprehensive definition of ``unit;'' adjusting the amount of watch repairs that are eligible for the duty refund; providing compensation to insular watch producers if tariffs on watches and watch movements are reduced; and clarifying which wages are eligible for purposes of determining the duty refund and identifying which records are needed for the audit.

On May 6, 2005, the Department of Commerce (the Department) published the preliminary results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain steel concrete reinforcing bars (rebar) from Turkey (70 FR 23990). This review covers four producers/ exporters of the subject merchandise to the United States. The period of review (POR) is April 1, 2003, through March 31, 2004. We are rescinding the review with respect to 18 companies because they had no shipments of subject merchandise to the United States during the POR. In addition, we have determined to revoke the antidumping duty order with respect to an additional exporter, ICDAS Celik Enerji Tersane ve Ulasim Sanayi, A.S. (ICDAS). Based on our analysis of the comments received, we have made changes in the margin calculations. Therefore, the final results differ from the preliminary results. The final weighted-average dumping margins for the reviewed firms are listed below in the section entitled ``Final Results of Review.''

On behalf of the New Bedford Harbor Trustee Council (Council), NMFS, serving as the Administrative Trustee, publishes this notice to see comment on its proposed funding of six restoration projects for possible implementation through funding from the AVX Natural Resource Damages Trust Account (Trust Account). The Council, through an earlier published Federal Register notice requested grant applications for projects to restore natural resources that were injured by the release of hazardous substances and materials, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), in the New Bedford Harbor Environment (Harbor Environment). Nineteen grant applications for natural resource restoration projects were submitted for consideration by the Council. The Council is now seeking public comment on the preferred projects to assist in making a final decision on projects eligible for funding.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is seeking public comments on the impact that implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention has had on commercial activities involving ``Schedule 1'' chemicals through calendar year 2005. This notice of inquiry is part of an effort to collect information to assist in the preparation of the annual certification required under Condition 9 of Senate Resolution 75, April 24, 1997, in which the Senate gave its advice and consent to the ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention.