Department of Commerce March 11, 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

As a result of the determinations by the Department of Commerce (``Department'') and the International Trade Commission (``ITC'') that revocation of the antidumping duty order on magnesium metal from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') 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 of the antidumping duty order.

In response to a request from an interested party, the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') is conducting an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on persulfates from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'') covering the period July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010. This administrative review covers one producer/exporter of the subject merchandise, i.e., United Initiators (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (``United Initiators''). We preliminarily determine that United Initiators does not qualify for a separate rate because it did not respond to the Department's request for information; thus, as adverse facts available, we are assigning to United Initiators, as part of the PRC-wide entity, the PRC-wide rate. If these preliminary results are adopted in our final results of this review, we will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') to assess antidumping duties on all appropriate entries of subject merchandise exported by United Initiators during the period of review (``POR''). We invite interested parties to comment on these preliminary results.

NMFS announces that the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) proposes Amendment 2 to the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for Pelagic Fisheries of the Western Pacific Region (FEP). If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, this amendment would create a 30-nautical mile (nm) longline prohibited area around the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and prohibit purse seine fishing within the entire U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around the Mariana Archipelago, including Guam and the CNMI. The area closures are intended to prevent and minimize gear conflicts and resource competition among the various fishery sectors (troll, longline and purse seine) in the Mariana Archipelago. In addition, this action is intended to facilitate the conservation of important stocks such as bigeye, yellowfin, and skipjack tuna throughout their range in the Pacific Ocean.

NMFS proposes a regulatory amendment that would limit access of Federally permitted pot and hook-and-line catcher/processors (C/P) to the Pacific cod fishery in State of Alaska waters adjacent to the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). The affected fishery is commonly known as the ``parallel'' fishery. The parallel fishery occurs off the coast of Alaska, within 3 nautical miles of shore and is managed by the State of Alaska concurrent with the Federal pot and hook-and-line fishery for Pacific cod in the BSAI. This proposed rule would limit access to the parallel fishery for Pacific cod in three ways. First, it would require that an owner of a Federally permitted pot or hook-and-line C/P vessel used to catch Pacific cod in the State of Alaska parallel fishery be issued the same endorsements on their Federal fisheries permit (FFP) or license limitation program (LLP) license as currently are required for catching Pacific cod in the Federal waters of the BSAI. Second, an operator of any Federally permitted pot or hook-and-line C/P vessel used to catch Pacific cod in the parallel fishery would also be required to comply with the same seasonal closures of Pacific cod that apply in the Federal fishery. Third, an owner of a pot or hook-and-line C/P vessel who surrenders an FFP would not be reissued a new FFP within the 3-year term of the permit. These three measures are necessary to limit some C/Ps from catching a greater amount of Pacific cod in the parallel fishery than have been allocated to their sector from the BSAI Total Allowable Catch. Maintaining Pacific cod catch amounts within sector allocations would also reduce the potential for shortened Pacific cod seasons for C/Ps in the Federal fishery. These three measures also would improve the coverage of NMFS catch accounting and monitoring requirements on vessels participating in the parallel fishery. This action is intended to promote the goals and objectives of the Fisheries Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutians Islands Management Area, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and other applicable laws.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Scientific and Statistical Committee on March 30-31, 2011 to consider actions affecting New England fisheries in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Recommendations from this group will be brought to the full Council for formal consideration and action, if appropriate.

The Department of Commerce (Department) is updating its current FY 2007-2012 Strategic Plan. As part of this process, the Department is inviting comments on its draft FY 2011-2016 Strategic Plan to comply with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), as well as the recently enacted GPRA Modernization Act.