Department of Commerce June 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Council) Golden King Crab Price Formula Committee is holding a meeting at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council office, Room 205.

On May 30, 2012, the United States Court of International Trade (``CIT'') sustained the Department of Commerce's (``the Department'') results of redetermination pursuant to the CIT's remand order in Amanda Foods (Vietnam) Ltd., et al. v. United States, 807 F. Supp. 2d 1332 (CIT 2011) (``Amanda 2011'').\1\ Consistent with the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (``CAFC'') in Timken Co. v. United States, 893 F.2d 337 (Fed. Cir. 1990) (``Timken''), as clarified by Diamond Sawblades Mfrs. Coalition v. United States, 626 F.3d 1374 (Fed. Cir. 2010) (``Diamond Sawblades''), the Department is notifying the public that the final judgment in this case is not in harmony with the Department's final results and is amending the final results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam covering the period of review (``POR'') of February 1, 2007 through January 31, 2008, with respect to the margins assigned to the following litigants: Amanda Foods (Vietnam) Ltd.; Bac Lieu Fisheries Joint Stock Company; Cadovimex Seafood Import- Export and Processing Joint Stock Company; Cafatex Fishery Joint Stock Corporation; Cam Ranh Seafoods Processing Enterprise Company; Cuulong Seaproducts Company; Danang Seaproducts Import Export Corporation; Minh Hai Export Frozen Seafood Processing Joint Stock Company (``Minh Hai Jostoco''); Minh Hai Joint-Stock Seafoods Processing Company (``Seaprodex Minh Hai''); Minh Hai Sea Products Import Export Company (``Seaprimex Co''); Ngoc Sinh Private Enterprise; Nha Trang Seaproduct Company; Phu Cuong Seafood Processing and Import-Export Co., Ltd.; Sao Ta Foods Joint Stock Company; Soc Trang Aquatic Products and General Import Export Company; and UTXI Aquatic Products Processing Company.\2, 3\

On May 30, 2012, the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) published a notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments regarding a petition received on January 11, 2012 from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) requesting formal designation of Arab-Americans as a minority group that is socially or economically disadvantaged pursuant to 15 CFR part 1400. The Notice includes a thirty-day comment deadline of June 29, 2012, but also states that MBDA will make a decision on the petition no later than June 27, 2012. Due to the complexity of the subject matter, the Department finds that it is not practicable to complete an in depth review of the issues involved in the petition, give adequate consideration to all comments, and make a reasoned determination on the petition by June 27, 2012. Therefore, the Department has determined that it is necessary to extend the time in which it will make its decision on the petition until July 30, 2012. This extension will not prejudice the petitioner. The deadline for the comments on the petition remains unchanged, and continues to be June 29, 2012.

On May 9, 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced the availability for public review of four Hatchery and Genetic Management Plans (HGMPs) submitted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) pursuant to the protective regulations promulgated for Pacific salmon and steelhead under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The HGMPs specify the operations of four hatchery programs rearing salmon and steelhead in the Sandy River subbasin within the State of Oregon. The availability of a draft environmental assessment, evaluating the anticipated effects of NMFS' proposed approval of those HGMPs pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), was included in the announcement. The announcement opened a 30-day public comment period. In this notice, NMFS is re-opening the public comment period on these four HGMPs and the associated draft EA to July 9, 2012.

NMFS will host a meeting to conduct a panel review by experts contracted through the Center for Independent Experts (CIE) related to NMFS's November 2010 Biological Opinion on the effects of the Alaska groundfish fisheries on Steller sea lions and other endangered species (Final Biop). The meeting will provide an opportunity for the CIE reviewers to receive presentations from NMFS, the State of Alaska, the State of Washington, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the public concerning new and relevant scientific information that has become available since NMFS issued the Final Biop. NMFS requests that parties interested in presenting such information to the CIE reviewers submit a statement of interest including an abstract of the information to be presented.

This final rule modifies certain boundaries of the large fishing vessel prohibited area around Tutuila, the Manua Islands, and Rose Atoll in American Samoa to align with the boundaries of the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument. This rule simplifies enforcement and administration of the management areas.

On January 3, 2012, the Department of Commerce (``Department'') published in the Federal Register the preliminary rescission of the ninth administrative review, covering the period December 1, 2009, through November 30, 2010, of the antidumping duty order on honey from the People's Republic of China (``PRC'').\1\ We gave interested parties an opportunity to comment on the Preliminary Rescission. After reviewing interested parties' comments, we made no changes for the final rescission of this review.

NMFS proposes to revise the annual number of allowable incidental interactions that may occur between the Hawaii-based shallow-set pelagic longline fishery and leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles. NMFS also proposes administrative housekeeping changes to the regulations relating to the shallow-set longline fishery. The proposed rule would implement terms and conditions of the current biological opinion on this fishery, and clarify the regulations.

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific ocean perch in the Western Aleutian District of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI) by vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access fishery. This action is necessary to prevent exceeding the 2012 allocation of Pacific ocean perch in this area allocated to vessels participating in the BSAI trawl limited access fishery.

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, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

NMFS has scheduled an additional scoping meeting for Amendment 7 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan, which will focus on management issues related to Atlantic bluefin tuna. A Notice of Intent published on April 23, 2012, which notified the public that NMFS intended to hold public scoping meetings and that it anticipated preparing a draft environmental impact statement. That Federal Register document provided the public with specific dates and times for four scheduled scoping meetings. This notice notifies the public of another scoping meeting on Amendment 7 in Portland, ME.

The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is scheduling a public meeting of its Research Steering Committee (Committee) in June, 2012, 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.

In response to requests from interested parties, the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') is conducting the first administrative review of the antidumping duty order on oil country tubular goods (``OCTG'') from the People's Republic of China (``PRC''), covering the period May 19, 2010, through April 30, 2011.\1\

The Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO), housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), announces the second workshop in a series of public workshops entitled ``Designing for Impact: Workshop on Building the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation.'' This workshop series provides a forum for the AMPNO to introduce the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) and its regional components, Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs) and for public discussion of this new initiative that was announced by President Obama on March 9, 2012 \1\. The discussion at the workshop will focus on the following topics: Technologies with Broad Impact, Institute Structure and Governance, Strategies for Sustainable Institute Operations, and Education and Workforce Development. The Designing for Impact workshop series is organized by representatives from the Department of Commerce, NIST; Department of Defense; Department of Energy; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and National Science Foundation.

NMFS has received an application from the U.S. Navy (Navy) for a Letter of Authorization (LOA) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to conducting training exercises within the Navy's Mariana Islands Range Complex (MIRC) in the Pacific Ocean between August 12, 2012 and August 3, 2015. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS requests comments on its proposal to issue an LOA to the Navy that includes the use of time delayed firing devices (TDFDs), which have not been explicitly addressed previously, to incidentally take marine mammals by harassment during the specified activity.

The ONMS is seeking applications for the following vacant seats on the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council: (2) Education Members; (1) Education Alternate; (1) Whalewatching Member; (2) Fixed Gear Commercial Fishing Member and Alternate; (2) Business and Industry Member and Alternate; (2) Diving Member and Alternate; and, (1) Youth Alternate seat. 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 as members should expect to serve 3-year terms, pursuant to the council's charter.

Notice is hereby given that a permit has been issued to D. Ann Pabst, Ph.D., University of North Carolina Wilmington, to conduct research on marine mammals.

In response to a request from Noksel Celik Boru Sanayi A.S., (Noksel), the Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on light-walled rectangular pipe and tube from Turkey. Atlas Tube, Inc. and Searing Industries, Inc., are petitioners in this case. The review covers exports of the subject merchandise to the United States produced and exported by Noksel. The period of review (POR) is May 1, 2010, through April 30, 2011. We preliminarily find that Noksel did not make sales at less than normal value (NV) during the POR. If these preliminary results are adopted in our final results of this review, we shall instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to liquidate Noksel's entries subject to this administrative review without regard to antidumping duties and to set the cash deposit rate for Noksel to zero.

The panel to review assessment methods for data-moderate stocks will hold a work session that is open to the public.