Department of Commerce April 2, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the Swiss Administration have committed to implement an arbitration mechanism as set forth in Annex I, to provide Swiss individuals with the ability to invoke binding arbitration to determine, for residual claims, whether an organization has violated its obligations under the Privacy Shield Framework. The DOC and the Swiss Administration will work together to implement the arbitration mechanism, including by jointly developing a list of up to five arbitrators with European or Swiss expertise to supplement the list of arbitrators developed under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. Parties to a binding arbitration under this Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield mechanism may only select arbitrators from the list developed under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework to be supplemented by this list. This notice announces the opportunity to apply for inclusion on the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Supplemental List of Arbitrators developed by the DOC and the Swiss Administration.

Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (CEQ), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announces its intention to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to evaluate potential environmental effects associated with continued implementation of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program (MMHSRP). In addition, this PEIS will address changes to increase efficiencies made in the program since the initial MMHSRP PEIS was published in 2009. These updates include changes to the Best Practices for Marine Mammal Stranding Response, Rehabilitation and Release (Policies and Practices), as well as other aspects of the program including large whale entanglement response, health surveillance, research, morbidity and mortality investigations, and assessments.

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.

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 February 2017 Australia Group (AG) Intersessional Implementation Meeting, and later adopted pursuant to the AG silent approval procedure, and the recommendations made at the June 2017 AG Plenary Implementation Meeting and adopted by the AG Plenary. This rule amends the following Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) on the Commerce Control List (CCL) to reflect the February 2017 Intersessional Implementation Meeting recommendations that were adopted by the AG: ECCN 2B350 (by adding certain prefabricated repair assemblies, and specially designed components therefor, that are designed for attachment to glass-lined reaction vessels, reactors, storage tanks, containers or receivers controlled by this entry); ECCN 2B351 (by clarifying that toxic gas monitoring equipment includes toxic gas monitors and monitoring systems, as well as their dedicated detecting components); and ECCN 2B352 (by adding certain nucleic acid assemblers and synthesizers to this entry and clarifying how the capacity of certain fermenters should be measured for purposes of determining whether they are controlled under this entry). Consistent with the June 2017 AG Plenary Implementation Meeting recommendations that were adopted by the AG, this rule amends the following ECCNs on the CCL: ECCN 1C353 (to clarify that genetically modified organisms include organisms in which the nucleic acid sequences have been created or altered by deliberate molecular manipulation and that inactivated organisms containing recoverable nucleic acids are considered to be genetic elements) and ECCN 1C350 (by adding N,N-Diisopropylamino ethanethiol hydrochloride). This rule also corrects several typographical errors in a note to ECCN 1C351 and updates the advance notification requirements in the EAR that apply to certain exports of saxitoxin. Finally, this rule amends the EAR to reflect the addition of India as a participating country in the AG.