Department of Commerce 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS is opening directed fishing for Atka mackerel in the Eastern Aleutian District and the Bering Sea subarea of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) for vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access fishery. This action is necessary to fully use the 2009 total allowable catch (TAC) of Atka mackerel in these areas specified for vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access fishery.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has prepared interim examination instructions for evaluating patent subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101 (Interim Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Examination Instructions) pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos, and invited the public to submit written comments on the Interim Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Examination Instructions. The USPTO is extending the comment period to ensure that members of the public have sufficient opportunity to submit comments on the Interim Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Examination Instructions. The USPTO will revise the instructions as appropriate based on comments received.

We, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), designate critical habitat for the threatened Southern distinct population segment of North American green sturgeon (Southern DPS of green sturgeon) pursuant to section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Specific areas proposed for designation include: Coastal U.S. marine waters within 60 fathoms (fm) depth from Monterey Bay, California (including Monterey Bay), north to Cape Flattery, Washington, including the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington, to its United States boundary; the Sacramento River, lower Feather River, and lower Yuba River in California; the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun, San Pablo, and San Francisco bays in California; the lower Columbia River estuary; and certain coastal bays and estuaries in California (Humboldt Bay), Oregon (Coos Bay, Winchester Bay, Yaquina Bay, and Nehalem Bay), and Washington (Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor). This rule designates approximately 515 kilometer (km) (320 miles (mi)) of freshwater river habitat, 2,323 km\2\ (897 mi\2\) of estuarine habitat, 29,581 km\2\ (11,421 mi\2\) of marine habitat, 784 km (487 mi) of habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and 350 km\2\ (135 mi\2\) of habitat within the Yolo and Sutter bypasses (Sacramento River, CA) as critical habitat for the Southern DPS of green sturgeon.

On September 24, 2009, the Department of Commerce published in the Federal Register the preliminary results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain cut-to-length carbon- quality steel plate from the Republic of Korea for the period of review February 1, 2008, through January 31, 2009. The notice contained two incorrect citations to memoranda. The correct citations are indicated below.

Notice is hereby given that the Oregon Coast Aquarium, 2820 S.E. Ferry Slip Road, Newport, OR 97365, has applied in due form for a permit to import up to eight non-releasable harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) for the purposes of public display.

The ONMS is seeking applications for the following vacant seats on the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council: Agriculture, At-Large (2), Business/Industry, Commercial Fishing, Recreation (Non extractive), Recreational Fishing, Research, and Conservation. Applicants are chosen based upon their particular expertise and experience in relation to the seat for which they are applying; community and professional affiliations; philosophy regarding the protection and management of marine resources; and possibly the length of residence in the area affected by the sanctuary. Applicants who are chosen should expect to serve until February 2013.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) Enforcement Consultants Committee (EC) will hold a working meeting, which is open to the public.

The Department of Commerce (``Department''') has a longstanding practice of calculating expected non-market economy (``NME'') wages for use as the surrogate value for direct labor in antidumping proceedings involving NME countries. These expected NME wages are calculated annually in accordance with the Department's regulations, see 19 CFR 351.408(c)(3). This notice constitutes the Department's 2009 expected NME wages, which were calculated from 2007 data made available in 2009 according to the Department's revised methodology described in the Federal Register notice entitled Antidumping Methodologies: Market Economy Inputs, Expected Non-Market Economy Wages, Duty Drawback; and Request for Comments, 71 FR 61716, Oct. 19, 2006 (hereafter, the Antidumping Methodologies notice). The Department further provides the public with an opportunity to comment on potential clerical errors in the calculation. Id.

Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(b)(2), Zhucheng Taisheng Chemcial Co., Ltd. (``Zhucheng Taisheng''), submitted a timely request for an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on chlorinated isocyanurates from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') purporting to be a producer and exporter of subject merchandise. We initiated this review on July 29, 2009. See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Administrative Reviews and Request for Revocation in Part, 74 FR 37690 (July 29, 2009) (``Initiation Notice''). In a letter dated August 24, 2009, Zhucheng Taisheng explained that, in the process of preparing the section A questionnaire response for this review, it discovered that the actual producer and exporter of the subject merchandise was Zhucheng Taisheng Angmu Chemical Co., Ltd. (``Zhucheng Taisheng Angmu''), with whom Zhucheng Taisheng claims to be affiliated.\1\ Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(b)(2), only a producer or an exporter of the subject merchandise may request an administrative review. Because Zhucheng Taisheng is not an exporter or producer of subject merchandise, we intend to rescind the administrative review for Zhucheng Taisheng.

NMFS issues regulations to provide harvesting cooperatives, crab processing quota share holders, and Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) groups with the option to make intercooperative transfers, crab individual processing quota transfers, and inter-group transfers through an automated, web-based process. To facilitate web- based transfers, NMFS removes the requirement for notarized signatures for all crab non-permanent leases of individual fishing quota and individual processor quota and removes unnecessary quota share price- related questions. The purpose of this action is to reduce paperwork burdens on the fishing industry by providing the option of electronic transfer through the Internet. This action allows cooperatives, processors, and CDQ groups to shorten response time to management, market, weather, and other fishery and operational conditions and to increase harvesting and processing efficiency. This action also removes detailed description of information required on application forms from regulatory text; removes detailed NMFS mail, fax, and delivery

The Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain lined paper products (CLPP) from India. For the period September 1, 2007, through August 31, 2008, we have preliminarily determined that U.S. sales have been made below normal value (NV) by Navneet Publications (India) Limited (Navneet) and Blue Bird India Ltd. (Blue Bird). Because Blue Bird is a selected mandatory respondent and was not responsive to the Department's requests for information, we have preliminarily assigned to Blue Bird a margin based on adverse facts available (AFA). If these preliminary results are adopted in our final results, we will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess antidumping duties based on the difference between the export price (EP) and NV. See ``Preliminary Results of Review'' section of this notice. Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary results.

NMFS announces the closure of the scup commercial coastwide fishery from Maine through North Carolina for the remainder of the Summer Period. Regulations governing the scup fishery require publication of this notification to advise the coastal states from Maine through North Carolina that this quota has been harvested and to advise Federal vessel permit holders and Federal dealer permit holders that no commercial quota is available for landing scup in these states. Federally permitted commercial vessels may not land scup in these states for the remainder of the 2009 Summer quota period (through October 31, 2009).

NMFS apportions amounts of the non-specified reserve to the initial total allowable catch (ITAC) of Greenland turbot in the Aleutian Islands subarea. This action is necessary to allow the fisheries to continue operating. It is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the fishery management plan for the BSAI.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pollock in Statistical Area 630 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2009 total allowable catch (TAC) of pollock for Statistical Area 630 in the GOA.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) will host a half-day ``Energy for Manufacturing Roundtable'' on October 20, 2009. This event is intended for members of the manufacturing industry and energy suppliers to the manufacturing industry. Participants will learn about and discuss the consequences that energy consumption and workforce education have on competitiveness; how energy efficiency models can strengthen competition and innovation; and how energy consumption patterns are spurring greater implementation of industrial energy efficient technologies. U.S. leadership in industrial energy efficiency technologies being deployed worldwide will be highlighted.

NMFS is closing the commercial sandbar shark research fishery. This action is necessary because NMFS estimated that landings in this fishery have exceeded 80 percent of the available quota.

NMFS is implementing, through this emergency rule, a closure of the recreational black sea bass fishery in the Federal waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from 3 to 200 nautical miles offshore, north of Cape Hatteras, NC. This action is necessary because the best available information for black sea bass recreational landings indicates that the 2009 recreational harvest limit established for the black sea bass fishery is projected to have been exceeded. NMFS is effecting this closure to mitigate the magnitude of the recreational overage because the established mortality objective for 2009 has been exceeded.

The Department of Commerce (Department) is conducting the new shipper reviews (NSRs) of the antidumping duty order on fresh garlic from the People's Republic of China (PRC) covering the periods of review (PORs) of November 1, 2007 through April 30, 2008 and November 1, 2007 through June 9, 2008.\1\ As discussed below, we determine that sales have been made in the United States at prices below normal value (NV) with respect to two exporters who participated fully and have demonstrated their eligibility for separate rates in the NSR: Chengwu County Yuanxiang Industry & Commerce, Ltd. (Yuanxiang) and Jinxiang Hejia Co., Ltd. (Hejia). In the preliminary results of this review, we found Yuanxiang's and Hejia's POR sales were made on a bona fide basis. See Fresh Garlic From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Results of New Shipper Reviews, 74 FR 20452 (May 4, 2009) (Preliminary Results). We are continuing to find Yuanxiang's and Hejia's sales to be bona fide for the final results of this review. In addition, we are rescinding the NSRs for four companies: Weifang Chenglong Import & Export Co., Ltd. (Chenglong), Jinxiang Tianheng Trade Co., Ltd. (Tianheng), Jinxiang Zhengyang Import & Export Co., Ltd. (Zhengyang), and Juye Homestead Fruits and Vegetables Co., Ltd. (Juye). We intend to instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess antidumping duties on entries of subject merchandise during the POR for which importer-specific assessment rates are above de minimis.

NMFS announces the availability for public review and comment of proposed Fishery Ecosystem Plans (FEPs) for American Samoa, Hawaii, Mariana Archipelago, Pacific remote island areas, and western Pacific pelagic fisheries. The FEPs would incorporate and reorganize elements of five existing western Pacific fishery management plans from a species- or fishery-basis, to one that is founded on geography. The FEPs would not change current management measures. The objectives of the FEPs are to be consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) through the incorporation of ecosystem-based goals and principles in fishery management.

The Estuarine Reserves Division, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce has approved the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve Management Plan Revision.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service publishes this notice of exception to the Final Guidelines for the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP). For those grants issued in fiscal year 2006 that are due to expire on September 30, 2009, NOAA may extend the financial assistance award period for up to 6 additional months, providing for a potential maximum award duration of three years and six months.