Department of Commerce December 4, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On April 23, 2007, NMFS published in the Federal Register a final rule to implement measures requiring observers for participating hagfish vessels in the Federal Register as part of the hagfish information collection program. On June 13, 2007, NMFS published a separate final rule that inadvertently deleted these regulations implemented in the April 23, 2007, rule. This correcting amendment corrects this error by reinstating the language regarding hagfish observer requirements.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) proposes to provide to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data collected from several surveys that it conducts on U.S. direct investment abroad, foreign direct investment in the United States, and U.S. international services transactions for statistical purposes exclusively. In accordance with the requirement of Section 524(d) of the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA), we are providing the opportunity for public comment on this data-sharing action. The data provided to BLS will be used for two purposes: (1) The BLS International Price Program is researching the feasibility of producing price indexes for imports and exports of services, such as financial services, film and tape rentals, and royalties and license fees. BLS will use data from BEA surveys to develop sample frames of companies that trade these services and to directly collect price information from the selected companies. BLS will also use BEA data as weighting sources for the price indexes. Should it prove feasible to produce price indexes for international services, BEA will share data collected in its direct investment and international services surveys with BLS each time BLS draws a new sample and reweights the indexes. BLS will share sample frame and revenue information that it collects with BEA, which will allow BEA to identify errors or omissions in the data collected on its surveys. This data sharing effort will improve the quality of price indexes for imported and exported services that BEA uses in compiling the National Income and Product Accounts. (2) The BLS Division of Foreign Labor Statistics will use BEA data collected on employment, compensation, and (as available) hours worked at the foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational companies to estimate their hourly compensation costs for research comparing the levels and trends of hourly compensation costs of foreign affiliates with the average costs for establishments in the same industries and same host countries as the affiliates.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has issued an amended Export Trade Certificate of Review (``Certificate'') to the U.S. Shippers Association (``USSA'') on November 27, 2007. USSA's application to amend its Certificate was announced in the Federal Register on September 14, 2007 (72 FR 52552), and an amended notice of application for amendment was published on October 4, 2007 (72 FR 56727). The original Certificate No. 85-00018 was issued to USSA on June 3, 1986, and announced in the Federal Register on June 9, 1986 (51 FR 20873). The previous amendment (No. 85-12A018) was issued to USSA on April 6, 2006, and announced in the Federal Register April 12, 2006 (71 FR 18721).

On September 12, 2007, the Department of Commerce published the preliminary results of an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on stainless steel wire rods from India and a notice of intent to rescind the antidumping duty administrative review in part. The administrative review currently covers one manufacturer/exporter, Mukand Ltd., and the review period is December 1, 2005, through November 30, 2006. We stated our intent to rescind the review with respect to the manufacturer/exporter Sunflag Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., in our preliminary results.We have received no comments from interested parties on our preliminary results. We have made no changes to our calculations for the final results of review and, accordingly, have found that Mukand Ltd. made sales at less than normal value in the U.S. market. The final weighted-average dumping margin for this company is listed below in the section entitled ``Final Results of the Review.'' In addition, we have rescinded the administrative review of sales of stainless steel wire rods made by Sunflag Iron & Steel Co., Ltd.