Department of Commerce May 8, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Bureau of Industry and Security published a final rule in the Federal Register on April 18, 2008 (73 FR 21035), that amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to make various technical corrections and clarifications to the EAR as a result of a systematic review of the CCL. The amendments in that final rule included a revision to the ``Unit'' paragraph in the List of Items Controlled section of Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 9A004. However, because of an inadvertent formatting error in a rule published on March 18, 1999 (64 FR 13338), the ``Related Controls'' paragraph in that CCL entry appeared to be a part of the ``Unit'' paragraph. This resulted in the inadvertent removal of the ``Related Controls'' paragraph in the List of Items Controlled section of that ECCN entry when the ``Unit'' paragraph was revised with the publication of the April 18, 2008, rule. Today's rule corrects that inadvertent removal by adding the ``Related Controls'' paragraph back into that ECCN entry.

On April 3, 2008, the Department of Commerce (the Department) published in the Federal Register the final results of the antidumping duty changed circumstances review and reinstatement of the antidumping order on polyethylene terephthalate film, sheet, and strip from Korea. The review covered a single firm, Kolon Industries, Inc. (Kolon) and the period July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006. See Polyethylene Terephthalate Film, Sheet, and Strip from the Republic of Korea; Final Results of Antidumping Duty Changed Circumstances Review and Reinstatement of the Antidumping Duty Order, 73 FR 18259 (April 3, 2008) (Final Results). We are amending the Final Results to correct a ministerial error in the calculation of the cash deposit rate for Kolon pursuant to 19 CFR 351.224(e).

The Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) Board is inviting public comment on a staff proposal to make available an alternative framework for participating grantees to designate and manage their general-purpose FTZ sites. A key result of this proposal, which stems from a series of regional and state-level discussions with FTZ grantees that began in April 2007, would be greater flexibility and predictability for a participating grantee to use administrative ``minor boundary modifications'' (MBMs) to modify FTZ sites. The greater flexibility would be made possible by participating grantees' increased focus on the FTZ sites needed for current or near-term zone activity, with a resulting improvement in the efficiency of FTZ oversight by government agencies. The availability of this alternative framework would affect only participating FTZ grantees and would occur within the existing statutory and regulatory context (including the role of the local CBP port director relative to any application for Board action or MBM request).

As a result of the determinations by the Department of Commerce (the Department) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) that revocation of the antidumping duty orders on polyethylene terephthalate film, sheet, and strip (PET film) from India and Taiwan would likely lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping and material injury to an industry in the United States, the Department is publishing a notice of continuation for these antidumping duty orders.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.