Department of Commerce June 17, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In response to allegations of circumvention from the Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood (the petitioner), the Department of Commerce (Commerce) is initiating country-wide anti-circumvention inquiries to determine whether certain hardwood plywood products (plywood) completed in Vietnam using plywood components (face veneer, back veneer, and/or either an assembled core or individual core veneers) manufactured in the People's Republic of China (China), or Chinese components (assembled cores, multi-ply core panels, or individual core veneers) combined in Vietnam with other components (face and/or back veneers) manufactured in Vietnam or third countries, are circumventing the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on plywood from China. We are also initiating scope inquiries to determine whether any of the products produced under various production scenarios alleged by the petitioner are covered by the scope of the AD/CVD orders on plywood from China. Finally, we are aligning the deadline for the scope inquiries associated with a covered merchandise referral from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under the Enforce and Protect Act of 2015 (EAPA) with the anticircumvention inquiries.

NMFS announces a consolidation of the public meeting of the Scientific Advisory Subcommittee (SAS) to the General Advisory Committee (GAC) scheduled on June 17, 2020, with the public meeting of the GAC to the U.S. Section to the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) scheduled on June 18, 2020. This newly consolidated SAS and GAC meeting will be held on June 18, 2020, via webinar. The meeting topics are described under the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.

On November 29, 1999, the President signed into law the Patent and Trademark Office Efficiency Act (``1999 Act''), which, among other things, established two Public Advisory Committees to review the policies, goals, performance, budget, and user fees of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) with respect to patents, in the case of the Patent Public Advisory Committee, and trademarks, in the case of the Trademark Public Advisory Committee, and to advise the Director on these matters (now codified in the United States Code). The America Invents Act Technical Corrections Act made several amendments to the 1999 Act, including the requirement that the terms of the USPTO Public Advisory Committee members be realigned by 2014 so that December 1 would be used as the start and end date, with terms staggered so that each year, three existing terms expire and three new terms begin on December 1. With this notice, the USPTO is requesting nominations for up to three members of the Patent Public Advisory Committee and for up to three members of the Trademark Public Advisory Committee, for terms of three years beginning on December 1, 2020.

The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment preceding submission of the collection to OMB.

NMFS has received a request from Dominion Energy Virginia (Dominion) for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to marine site characterization surveys in the areas of the Commercial Lease of Submerged Lands for Renewable Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Offshore Virginia (Lease No. OCS-A-0483) as well as in coastal waters where an export cable corridor will be established in support of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial (CVOW Commercial) Project. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS is also requesting comments on a possible one-year renewal that could be issued under certain circumstances and if all requirements are met, as described in Request for Public Comments at the end of this notice. NMFS will consider public comments prior to making any final decision on the issuance of the requested MMPA authorizations and agency responses will be summarized in the final notice of our decision.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) publishes this final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the decisions made at the February 2020 Australia Group (AG) Intersessional Implementation Meeting, and those later adopted pursuant to the AG's silence procedure. Specifically, this rule amends Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) 1C350, 1C351 and 2B352 on the Commerce Control List (CCL) to reflect these AG changes. ECCN 1C350 is amended by adding twenty-four precursor chemicals, as well as mixtures in which at least one of these chemicals constitutes 30 percent or more of the weight of the mixture, to ECCN 1C350.d. ECCN 1C351 is amended to add Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-related coronavirus). ECCN 2B352 is amended by adding a Technical Note to indicate that cultivation chamber holding devices controlled in 2B352.b.2.b include single-use cultivation chambers with rigid walls. The items addressed by this final rule were not previously listed on the CCL or controlled multilaterally. BIS, consistent with the interagency process described in the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA), identified the precursor chemicals and single-use cultivation chambers addressed by this final rule as emerging technologies that are essential to U.S. national security and for which effective controls can be implemented. The inclusion of such items in this final rule is consistent with the requirements of ECRA and the decision of the AG to add such items to its common control lists, thereby making exports of such items subject to multilateral control (following the implementation of these changes by individual AG participating countries, including the United States).