Department of Commerce September 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The 96th meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council's (Council) Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will convene Tuesday, September 25, 2007, through Thursday September 27, 2007(see SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for specific times, dates, and agenda items).

The Department of Commerce (the Department) is rescinding in part the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on honey from Argentina for the period December 1, 2005, to November 30, 2006 with respect to Mielar S.A. (Mielar)/ Compania Apicola Argentina (CAA).\1\ This partial rescission is based on the withdrawal of the requests for review by the interested parties that requested the review. Additionally, the Department is extending the preliminary results of this administrative review to no later than December 20, 2007.

In accordance with section 751(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (``the Act''), the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') is automatically initiating a five-year (``Sunset Review'') of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders listed below. The International Trade Commission (``the Commission'') is publishing concurrently with this notice its notice of Institution of Five-year Review which covers the same orders.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will convene a joint meeting of its Ecosystem Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), Standing and Special Reef Fish SSC and Reef Fish Advisory Panel, in St. Petersburg, FL, on September 24 - 28, 2007.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) will hold a two-day Council meeting on September 18-19, 2007, to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

NMFS issues a final rule to implement Amendment 85 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area (FMP) as partially approved by NMFS, and to implement recent changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). This final rule modifies the current allocations of Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) Pacific cod total allowable catch (TAC) among various harvest sectors and seasonal apportionments thereof, establishes a hierarchy for reallocating projected unharvested amounts of Pacific cod from certain sectors to other sectors, revises catcher/processor (CP) sector definitions, modifies the management of Pacific cod incidental catch that occurs in other groundfish fisheries, eliminates the Pacific cod nonspecified reserve, subdivides the annual prohibited species catch (PSC) limits currently apportioned to the Pacific cod hook-and-line gear fisheries between the catcher vessel (CV) and CP sectors, and modifies the sideboard restrictions for American Fisheries Act (AFA) CP vessels. In addition, this final rule increases the percentage of the BSAI Pacific cod TAC apportioned to the Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program. The proposed rule for Amendment 85 included regulations that would have subdivided the annual PSC limits currently apportioned to the Pacific cod trawl fisheries among trawl sectors. However, NMFS disapproved these regulations. Therefore, this final rule does not subdivide the annual PSC limits for Pacific cod trawl fisheries among trawl sectors. This final rule is necessary to implement Amendment 85 and reduce uncertainty about the availability of yearly harvests within sectors caused by reallocations and maintain stability among sectors in the BSAI Pacific cod fishery. This final rule also is necessary to partially implement recent changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Act that require a total allocation of 10.7 percent of the TAC of each directed fishery to the CDQ Program starting January 1, 2008. This final rule is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the FMP, and other applicable laws.