International Trade Administration July 6, 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Commerce is currently seeking applications for membership on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board (``Board''). The purpose of the Board is to recommend to the Secretary of Commerce the appropriate coordinated activities with regards to funding for the U.S. Travel and Tourism Promotional Campaign (``Campaign''). Pursuant to Public Law 108-7, Division B, Section 210, the Secretary of Commerce shall in consultation with the Board design, develop and implement an international promotional campaign, which seeks to encourage foreign individuals to travel to the United States for the purposes of engaging in tourism related activities. Also, pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 1512 which provides the Department of Commerce the province and duty to foster, promote, and develop foreign and domestic commerce, the Board shall advise the Secretary of Commerce on the development, creation and implementation of a national tourism strategy and shall provide a means of ensuring regular contact between the government and the travel and tourism sector. The Board shall advise the Secretary on government policies and programs that affect the United States travel and tourism industry and provide a forum for discussing and proposing solutions to industry-related problems.

On December 1, 2004, the Department of Commerce (``the Department'') initiated a sunset review of the antidumping duty orders on Granular Polytetrafluoroethylene Resin (``PTFE Resin'') from Italy and Japan, pursuant to section 751(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, (``the Act''). On the basis of the notice of intent to participate and adequate substantive responses filed on behalf of the domestic interested parties and inadequate responses from respondent interested parties, the Department conducted expedited sunset reviews. As a result of these sunset reviews, the Department finds that revocation of the antidumping duty orders would likely lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping at the levels listed below in the section entitled ``Final Results of Reviews.''

The Department has determined that Mittal Steel Point Lisas Limited (Mittal) is the successor-in-interest to Carribbean Ispat Limited (CIL) and, as a result, should be accorded the same treatment previously accorded to CIL in regard to the antidumping order on steel wire rod from Trinidad and Tobago as of the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register.

The Departments of Commerce and the Interior (the Departments) propose amending their regulations governing watch duty-exemption allocations and the watch and jewelry duty-refund benefits for producers in the United States insular possessions (the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). The proposed rule would amend the regulations by making technical changes required by passage of the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2004; extending the duty refund benefits to include the value of usual and customary health insurance, life insurance and pension benefits; raising the ceiling on the amount of jewelry that qualifies for the duty refund benefit; allowing new insular jewelry producers to assemble jewelry and have such jewelry treated as an article of the insular possessions for up to 18 months after the jewelry company commences assembly operations; allowing duty refund certificate holders to secure a duty refund on any articles that are imported into the customs territory of the United States by the certificate holder duty paid; providing a more comprehensive definition of ``unit;'' adjusting the amount of watch repairs that are eligible for the duty refund; providing compensation to insular watch producers if tariffs on watches and watch movements are reduced; and clarifying which wages are eligible for purposes of determining the duty refund and identifying which records are needed for the audit.