Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 10 / Friday, January 15, 2021 / Notices 3995 

Crace, IC Liaison, Bureau of Industry 

and Security, phone 202–482–8093 or 

by email at mark.crace@bis.doc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract 

This information collection comprises 

two rarely used short supply activities: 

‘‘Registration of U.S. Agricultural 

Commodities for Exemption from Short 

Supply Limitations on Export (USAG)’’, 

and ‘‘Petitions for the Imposition of 

Monitoring or Controls on Recyclable 

Metallic Materials; Public Hearings 

(Petitions).’’ Under provisions of 

sections 754.6 and 754.7 of the Export 

Administration Regulations (EAR), 

agricultural commodities of U.S. origin 

purchased by or for use in a foreign 

country and stored in the United States 

for export at a later date may voluntarily 

be registered with the Bureau of 

Industry and Security for exemption 

from any quantitative limitations on 

export that may subsequently be 

imposed under the EAR for reasons of 

short supply. 

II. Method of Collection 

Any entity, including a trade 

association, firm or certified or 

recognized union or group of workers, 

which is representative of an industry or 

a substantial segment of an industry 

which processes metallic materials 

capable of being recycled with respect 

to which an increase in domestic prices 

or a domestic shortage, either of which 

results from increased exports, has or 

may have a significant adverse effect on 

the national economy or any sector 

thereof, may submit a written petition to 

BIS requesting the monitoring of 

exports, or the imposition of export 

controls, or both, with respect to such 

materials. 

III. Data 

OMB Control Number: 0694–0102. 

Form Number(s): None. 

Type of Review: Extension of a current 

information collection. 

Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 2. 

Estimated Time per Response: 100.5 

hours. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 201. 

Estimated Total Annual Cost to 

Public: 0. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. 

Legal Authority: 754.6 and 754.7 of 

the Export Administration Regulations 

(EAR). 

IV. Request for Comments 

We are soliciting public comments to 

permit the Department/Bureau to: (a) 

Evaluate whether the proposed 

information collection is necessary for 

the proper functions of the Department, 

including whether the information will 

have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the 

accuracy of our estimate of the time and 

cost burden for this proposed collection, 

including the validity of the 

methodology and assumptions used; (c) 

Evaluate ways to enhance the quality, 

utility, and clarity of the information to 

be collected; and (d) Minimize the 

reporting burden on those who are to 

respond, including the use of automated 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology. 

Comments that you submit in 

response to this notice are a matter of 

public record. We will include or 

summarize each comment in our request 

to OMB to approve this ICR. Before 

including your address, phone number, 

email address, or other personal 

identifying information in your 

comment, you should be aware that 

your entire comment—including your 

personal identifying information—may 

be made publicly available at any time. 

While you may ask us in your comment 

to withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of 

the Chief Information Officer, Commerce 

Department. 

[FR Doc. 2021–00931 Filed 1–14–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–33–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

International Trade Administration 

Notice of Discontinuation of Policy To 

Issue Liquidation Instructions After 15 

Days in Applicable Antidumping and 

Countervailing Duty Administrative 

Proceedings 

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, 

International Trade Administration, 

Department of Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; discontinuance. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of 

Commerce (Commerce) is announcing 

that, effective immediately upon 

publication of this notice, it is 

discontinuing its policy to issue 

liquidation instructions in certain 

segments of antidumping duty (AD) and 

countervailing duty (CVD) 

administrative proceedings to U.S. 

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 15 

days after publication or mailing, 

whichever applies, of final 

administrative determinations where no 

statutory injunction was requested, 

which was announced on its website 

August 14, 2002, revised in November 

2006, and again modified by an 

announcement on its website November 

9, 2010. Such timeframes for AD/CVD 

administrative proceedings involving 

subject merchandise from Canada and 

Mexico were not affected by the 15-day 

policy. 

DATES: Applicable January 15, 2021. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Wendy Frankel, Director, Customs 

Liaison Unit, Enforcement & 

Compliance, Department of Commerce, 

(202) 482–5849, or Elisabeth Urfer, 

Associate Director, Customs Liaison 

Unit, Enforcement & Compliance, 

Department of Commerce (202) 482– 

0414. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In 2002, 

Commerce instituted its 15-day policy 

in response to International Trading Co. 

v. United States, 281 F.3d 1268 (Fed. 

Cir. 2002), in which the six-month 

deemed liquidation deadline in 19 

U.S.C. 1504(d) was made applicable to 

administrative reviews of AD/CVD 

orders. The policy, as modified, has 

required parties to seek consent from 

the government for statutory injunctions 

under section 516A(c)(2) of the Tariff 

Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), no 

later than 15 days after publication or 

mailing of applicable final 

administrative determinations by 

Commerce, or Commerce will issue 

liquidation instructions to CBP. The 

policy has provided CBP with over five 

months to ensure liquidation at the 

assessed rate, lessening the risk that 

entries will be deemed liquidated. Since 

2002, parties challenging Commerce’s 

final determinations in AD/CVD 

administrative proceedings conducted 

under applicable provisions of Title VII 

of the Act at the U.S. Court of 

International Trade who missed the 15- 

day deadline have run the risk that 

some or all of their entries would 

liquidate before receiving any courtordered statutory injunction. 

Notwithstanding any language in 

preliminary determinations in 

applicable AD/CVD administrative 

proceedings indicating Commerce’s 

intent to apply the 15-day policy in 

corresponding final determinations that 

have not yet been issued, Commerce is 

discontinuing this policy immediately 

upon publication of this notice to 

effectively administer and enforce the 

AD/CVD laws. Because the 15-day 

policy has not applied to AD/CVD 

administrative proceedings involving 

subject merchandise from Canada and 

Mexico, this notice has no effect on AD/ 

3996 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 10 / Friday, January 15, 2021 / Notices 

CVD proceedings involving subject 

merchandise from those countries. 

Dated: January 11, 2021. 

Jeffrey I. Kessler, 

Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and 

Compliance. 

[FR Doc. 2021–00884 Filed 1–14–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 

[RTID 0648–XY117] 

Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic 

Zone off Alaska; Application for an 

Exempted Fishing Permit 

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries 

Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice; receipt of application for 

exempted fishing permit. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces NMFS’ 

receipt of an application and the public 

comment period for an exempted 

fishing permit (EFP) from the Alaska 

Seafood Cooperative. If issued, this 

permit would allow the applicant to test 

methods to minimize bycatch of halibut 

using an excluder device in the North 

Pacific’s Amendment 80 flatfish fishery. 

The objective of this EFP, if issued, 

would be to develop a halibut excluder 

design that avoids high target species 

losses with more significant reductions 

in halibut bycatch. Field testing would 

be conducted between August 2021 and 

December 2022. This experiment would 

have the potential to promote the 

objectives of the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act. 

DATES: Comments on this EFP 

application must be submitted to NMFS 

on or before February 12, 2021. The 

North Pacific Fishery Management 

Council (Council) will consider the 

application at its meeting from February 

1, 2021 through February 12, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: The Council meeting will be 

held virtually. The agenda for the 

Council meeting is available at http://

www.npfmc.org. In addition to 

submitting public comments during the 

Council meeting through the Council 

website, you may submit your 

comments, identified by NOAA–NMFS– 

2020–0156, by either of the following 

methods: 

• Electronic Submission: Submit all 

electronic public comments via the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal. Go to 

www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2020- 

0156, click the ‘‘Comment Now!’’ icon, 

complete the required fields, and enter 

or attach your comments. 

• Mail: Submit written comments to 

Glenn Merrill, Assistant Regional 

Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries 

Division, Alaska Region NMFS, Attn: 

Records Office. Mail comments to P.O. 

Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802–1668. 

Instructions: Comments sent by any 

other method, to any other address or 

individual, or received after the end of 

the comment period, may not be 

considered. All comments received are 

a part of the public record and will 

generally be posted for public viewing 

on www.regulations.gov without change. 

All personal identifying information 

(e.g., name, address) submitted 

voluntarily by the sender will be 

publicly accessible. NMFS will accept 

anonymous comments (enter ‘‘N/A’’ in 

the required fields if you wish to remain 

anonymous). 

Electronic copies of the EFP 

application and the basis for a 

categorical exclusion under the National 

Environmental Policy Act may be 

obtained from www.regulations.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Megan Mackey, 907–586–7228. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NMFS 

manages the domestic groundfish 

fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian 

Islands (BSAI) management area under 

the Fishery Management Plan for 

Groundfish of the BSAI Management 

Area (FMP), which the Council 

prepared under the Magnuson-Stevens 

Fishery Conservation and Management 

Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act). 

Regulations governing the BSAI 

groundfish fisheries appear at 50 CFR 

parts 600 and 679. The FMP and the 

implementing regulations at 

§§ 600.745(b) and 679.6 allow the NMFS 

Regional Administrator to authorize, for 

limited testing and experimental 

purposes, fishing or target or incidental 

harvest of species managed under an 

FMP that would otherwise be 

prohibited. Procedures for issuing EFPs 

are contained in the implementing 

regulations. 

Background and Need for Exempted 

Fishing Permit 

Flatfish fishing is a significant 

component of the Bering Sea groundfish 

fishery, annually producing 

approximately 200,000 metric tons of 

sole, founders, and plaice. Amendment 

80, implemented in 2008, allocates 

BSAI yellowfin sole, flathead sole, rock 

sole, Atka mackerel, and Aleutian 

Islands Pacific ocean perch to trawl 

catcher processor sector, and allows 

qualified vessels to form cooperatives. 

Prior to 2008, halibut prohibited species 

catch bycatch tended to constrain 

harvest of much of the total allowable 

flatfish catches. Bycatch or incidental 

catch include fish species that are not 

targeted but are caught and discarded. 

Certain species taken incidentally in 

Alaska’s groundfish fisheries are called 

Prohibited Species Catch (PSC). Since 

2008, the Amendment 80 sector has 

been able to make significant 

improvements to reduce halibut and 

other bycatch and has increased target 

fish yields. This has been achieved 

because the new management program 

allows fishermen to fish when and 

where it makes most sense and to make 

better use of bycatch reduction tools like 

sharing information to avoid bycatch 

‘‘hot spots,’’ bycatch avoidance 

agreements, and gear modifications. 

In 2015, following the sector’s success 

under Amendment 80 and in response 

to a decline in halibut biomass in the 

Bering Sea, the Council approved a 25 

percent reduction in the sector’s halibut 

bycatch mortality cap, which is the total 

amount of permitted halibut bycatch. To 

help prevent a return to leaving a large 

fraction of flatfish un-harvested, the 

Council approved and NMFS 

implemented halibut deck sorting on 

November 14, 2019 (84 FR 55044; 

October 15, 2019). Through this new 

program, savings in halibut mortality 

from deck sorting have been significant. 

However, over the last two fishing years 

(possibly due to warming sea 

temperatures and lack of the cold pool 

thermal front that tended to spatially 

separate flatfish from halibut), 

encounter rates for halibut by the 

Amendment 80 fleet have increased. 

The sector is concerned that its ability 

to continue to fish for flatfish and other 

groundfish could be impacted by 

increasing rates of halibut bycatch. 

Over the last two decades, Bering Sea 

flatfish trawlers have been developing 

and using halibut excluders, which are 

modifications to the intermediate 

section of the trawl intended to allow 

halibut to escape while retaining 

sufficient levels of target species for 

operational efficiency. The design of 

these excluders has been refined over 

time, but now that halibut bycatch rates 

have increased in recent years, the 

sector is interested in further refinement 

and testing of excluder design. 

An initial analysis by the EFP 

applicant of current halibut excluder 

designs indicates current excluders are 

resulting in high loss rates of target fish 

and less reduction in halibut bycatch 

than what might be achieved through an 

improved design. This includes results 

from a 2006 EFP that was issued to