Department of Commerce June 12, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publish this notice to announce the availability of draft Prospectuses for three of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Synthesis and Assessment Products (Products) for public comment. These draft Prospectuses address the following CCSP Topics: Product 4.4 Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate- Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources; Product 4.6 Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems; and Product 5.2 Best Practice Approaches for Characterizing, Communicating and Incorporating Scientific Uncertainty in Climate Decision Making. After consideration of comments received on the draft Prospectuses, the final Prospectuses along with the comments received will be published on the CCSP web site.

On May 16, 2006, the Court of International Trade (CIT) sustained the Department of Commerce's (Department's) redetermination regarding the 2002-2003 antidumping duty administrative review of certain welded carbon steel pipes and tubes (pipes and tubes) from Thailand. Pursuant to the Court's remand order, in its redetermination the Department deducted section 201 duties from export price in accordance with 19 U.S.C. Sec. 1677a(c)(2)(A). Consistent with the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) in The Timken Company v. United States and China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation, 893 F.2d 337 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (Timken), the Department is publishing this notice of the CIT's decision which is not in harmony with the Department's determination in the 2002-2003 antidumping duty administrative review of pipes and tubes from Thailand.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is publishing this final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to expand export and reexport controls on certain biological agents and toxins (referred to, herein, as ``select agents and toxins'') that have been determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Department of Agriculture, to have the potential to pose a severe threat to human, animal and plant life, as well as certain sectors of the U.S. economy (e.g., agriculture). Prior to the publication of this rule, twenty-two of these agents were not listed on the Commerce Control List (CCL) and one of these agents was incompletely specified therein. By amending the EAR to add a new CCL entry that controls CDC and/or APHIS select agents and toxins (including associated genetic elements, recombinant nucleic acids, and recombinant organisms) not previously specified on the CCL, this rule complements the controls that CDC and AHPIS have imposed on the possession, use, and transfer of these select agents and toxins within the United States. The addition of these items to the CCL is expected to have a minimal impact on U.S. industry, since the volume of exports and reexports is extremely limited. This rule also amends the EAR to clarify controls on certain medical products containing AG-controlled toxins, other than ricin or saxitoxin, by revising the definition of such products to clearly indicate that they include pharmaceutical formulations, prepackaged for distribution as clinical or medical products, that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use as an ``Investigational New Drug'' (IND). Specifically, this rule clarifies that FDA-approved IND products containing AG-controlled toxins (except ricin or saxitoxin) are considered to be ``medical products'' as described in the CCL entry that controls vaccines, immunotoxins, medical products, and diagnostic and food testing kits. BIS is making this clarification because the previous revision to the definition of medical products inadvertently failed to specify that such products include IND items. Furthermore, this clarification is consistent with the language in the AG exemption for clinical and medical products containing botulinum toxins and conotoxins, since the AG exemption applies when such products are designed for ``testing,'' as well as human administration, in the treatment of medical conditions. In addition, this rule removes the license requirements for exports and reexports to St. Kitts and Nevis of items that require a license for export or reexport only to countries of concern for chemical and biological weapons proliferation (CB) reasons. This change is being made because St. Kitts and Nevis is not listed in Country Group D:3. As a result of this change, there is now a one-to-one correspondence between the countries included in Country Group D:3 and the countries for which a license requirement is indicated under CB Column 3 of the Commerce Country Chart. Finally, this rule updates the list of countries that currently are States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by adding Antigua and Barbuda, Bhutan, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Grenada, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, and Vanuatu, which recently became States Parties. As a result of this change, the CW (Chemical Weapons) license requirements and policies in the EAR that apply to these countries now conform with those applicable to other CWC States Parties.

The Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain softwood lumber products from Canada for the period May 1, 2004, to April 30, 2005 (the POR). We preliminarily determine that sales of subject merchandise made by Blanchette & Blanchette Inc. (Blanchette), International Forest Products Ltd. (Interfor), Rene Bernard Inc. (Rene Bernard), Tembec Inc. (Tembec), Tolko Industries Ltd. (Tolko), West Fraser Mills Ltd. (West Fraser), Western Forest Products Inc. (WFP) and Weyerhaeuser Company Limited \1\ (Weyerhaeuser) have been made below normal value. In addition, based on the preliminary results for these respondents selected for individual review, we have preliminarily determined a weighted-average margin for those companies for which a review was requested, but that were not selected for individual review. If these preliminary results are adopted in our final results, we will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess antidumping duties on appropriate entries. Furthermore, twenty-eight companies have reported no shipments during the period of review. If we determine that the companies did not ship subject merchandise to the United States during the POR, we will rescind the review for these companies for the final results. Finally, requests for review of the antidumping order for thirty-two companies were withdrawn. Because the withdrawal requests were timely and there were no other requests for review of the companies, we are rescinding the review for these companies. See 19 CFR 351.213(d)(1). Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary results and partial rescission.