Department of Commerce December 23, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Commerce (the Department) preliminarily determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of certain oil tubular goods (OCTG) from India. The period of investigation is January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is providing notification that the agency will not identify additional fisheries to observe on the Annual Determination (AD) for 2014, pursuant to its authority under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Through an AD, NMFS identifies U.S. fisheries operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific Ocean that will be required to take observers upon NMFS' request. The purpose of observing identified fisheries is to learn more about sea turtle interactions in a given fishery, evaluate existing measures to prevent or reduce prohibited sea turtle takes, and to determine whether additional measures to implement the prohibition against sea turtle takes may be necessary. Fisheries identified in the 2010 AD (see Table 1) remain on the AD for a five year period and are therefore required to carry observers upon NMFS' request until December 31, 2014.

Applications are being solicited for appointment to a Recreational Fisheries Working Group of the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee (MAFAC). The members will be appointed by MAFAC in consultation with NOAA and will serve for an initial term of up to two years, with the option to apply for re-appointment. The term would begin in February 2014. Nominees should possess demonstrable expertise in one or more of the following: The management or business of recreational fishing and/or fisheries science; a well-informed background in recreational fisheries issues; an operational knowledge of federal agencies and interactions with the Fishery Management Councils and/or regional and state partners; and be able to fulfill the time commitments required for up to one annual meeting, and conference calls quarterly.

On August 1, 2013, the Department of Commerce (the Department) published the initiation of the first sunset reviews of the antidumping duty orders on raw flexible magnets from the People's Republic of China and Taiwan pursuant to section 751(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (the Act), as amended.\1\ The Department finds that revocation of these antidumping duty orders would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping as indicated in the ``Final Results of Sunset Reviews'' section of this notice.

The Manufacturing Council will hold a meeting to discuss the work the Council will focus on in 2014. At the meeting, the Council will hear updates from its four subcommittees on workforce development and public perception of manufacturing; manufacturing energy policy; tax policy and export growth; and innovation, research and development. The Council will discuss current workforce development efforts by the federal government, the opportunities for increasing alternative energy efforts in manufacturing, and specific ideas for innovation improvements in manufacturing. The Council will also discuss and deliberate a letter of recommendation on corporate tax reform. A final agenda will be available on the Council's Web site one week prior to the meeting. The Council was re-chartered on April 5, 2012, to advise the Secretary of Commerce on government programs and policies that affect U.S. manufacturing and provide a means of ensuring regular contact between the U.S. Government and the manufacturing sector.

NMFS has received an application from the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Study of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) at the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz for an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to rocky intertidal monitoring surveys. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an IHA to PISCO to incidentally take, by Level B harassment only, marine mammals during the specified activity.

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.

NMFS is adjusting the Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) General category daily retention limit from the default limit of one large medium or giant BFT to two large medium or giant BFT for the January 2014 subquota period ((i.e., from January 1 through March 31, 2014, or until the available subquota for the period is reached, whichever comes first). This action is based on consideration of the regulatory determination criteria regarding inseason adjustments, and applies to Atlantic tunas General category (commercial) permitted vessels and Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Charter/Headboat category permitted vessels when fishing commercially for BFT.