Department of Commerce June 16, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Economic and Statistics Administration (ESA) is giving notice of a meeting of Commerce Data Advisory Council (CDAC). The CDAC will address areas such as data management practices; common, open data standards; policy issues related to privacy, latency, and consistency; effective models for public-private partnership; external uses of Commerce data; and, methods to build new feedback loops between the Department and data users. The CDAC will meet in a plenary session on July 30, 2015. Last-minute changes to the schedule are possible, which could prevent giving advance public notice of schedule adjustments.

The Department of Commerce (the Department) is amending its final determination in the less-than-fair-value investigation of certain steel nails from Malaysia, to correct a ministerial error.

In accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) regulations, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued an Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to Shell Gulf of Mexico Inc. (Shell) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to ice overflight surveys in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, Alaska.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) publishes this final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the recommendations presented at the November 2013 Australia Group (AG) intersessional implementation meeting and later adopted pursuant to the AG silent approval procedure. Specifically, this rule amends the Commerce Control List (CCL) entry in the EAR that controls certain human and zoonotic pathogens and toxins, and removes the CCL entry that controls certain animal pathogens to reflect the merger of two AG common control lists based on recommendations presented at the AG intersessional implementation meeting. As a result of these recommendations, the AG ``List of Animal Pathogens for Export Control'' was merged with the AG ``List of Biological Agents for Export Control,'' creating a single AG common control list for these items (i.e., the AG ``List of Human and Animal Pathogens and Toxins for Export Control''). The scope of the controls on these human and animal pathogens and toxins was not affected by the merger of the two lists into a single AG common control list. This rule also makes conforming amendments to other provisions in the EAR to reflect these changes. In addition, this rule amends the CCL entry that controls chemical manufacturing facilities and equipment to reflect changes to the AG ``Control List of Dual-Use Chemical Manufacturing Facilities and Equipment and Related Technology and Software,'' based on the November 2013 AG intersessional recommendation to revise controls on certain valves, casings (valve bodies) designed for such valves, and preformed casing liners designed for such valves. This rule also amends this CCL entry to add a Technical Note clarifying how the terms ``multi-seal'' and ``seal-less'' are used with respect to the controls on pumps. In a change unrelated to any revisions to the AG common control lists or guidelines, this rule also amends this CCL entry to authorize the use of License Exception LVS for specified shipments. This rule does not contain changes based on the understandings reached at the June 2014 AG Plenary meeting, because no amendments to the EAR were required as a result of these understandings.