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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 234 / Thursday, December 9, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
pertaining to the procedures and rules governing the binational panel dispute settlement mechanism to review antidumping duty and countervailing duty determinations issued by the United States as set forth in the USMCA. Because the dispute settlement mechanism in USMCA Article 10.12 is substantively identical to that in NAFTA Article 1904, Commerce is adopting non-substantive amendments to ensure that its rules appropriately reference the USMCA. Commerce is also adopting additional non-substantive amendments, including updating outdated cross-references to Commerces antidumping and countervailing duty regulations 19 CFR
part 351, updating outdated notice, filing, service, and protective order procedures, and adopting other minor corrections and updates. These changes are explained in the preamble of this interim final rule and reflected in the regulatory text below.
Explanation of Regulatory Updates
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1. Updates To Reflect the Enactment of the USMCA
Commerces regulations in 19 CFR
part 356 implement procedures for disputes pursuant to Article 1904 of NAFTA. Because NAFTA was replaced pursuant to the enactment of the USMCA, Commerces regulations in this section require updates to reflect the name of the new agreement and the relevant chapter contained in the new Agreement. Therefore, Commerce is adopting several changes throughout part 356 to replace references to NAFTA
with references to the USMCA.
Commerce is also adopting several changes throughout part 356 to replace references to section 402g of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act of 1993 with reference to section 412g of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act of 2020, which authorizes Commerce to promulgate such regulations as necessary or appropriate to implement its responsibilities under chapter 10 of the USMCA.5
These changes are reflected in the title of part 356 and 356.1, 356.2d, 356.2f, and 356.2kk replacing references to North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA with United States-Mexico-Canada 5 See
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act of 2020, Public Law 116113, 134 Stat. 74 Jan. 29, 2020; 19 U.S.C. 4582 2020.
See also North American Free Trade Agreement Act of 1993, Public Law 103182, 107 Stat. 2135 Dec.
8, 1993 section 402g of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act 19 U.S.C.
3432g.

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Agreement or USMCA; 356.1, 356.2f, 356.2o, 356.2p, 356.2cc3, 356.10b1iiB, 356.11a1i, and 356.11b2ii replacing references to Article 1904 of NAFTA with Article 10.12 of USMCA; 356.2, 356.3, 356.4, 356.10b4i, 356.11a56
replacing references to Article 1904
Panel Rules with Article 10.12
Binational Panel Rules; 356.1
replacing references to section 402g of the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act of 1993
with section 412g of the United StatesMexico-Canada Implementation Act of 2020; 356.2 replacing the signing date of NAFTA, December 17, 1992 with the signing date of the amended USMCA, November 30, 2018;
356.2h, 356.2p, and 356.2w replacing references to Chapter Nineteen with Chapter Ten; 356.2h replacing references to Annex 1901.2
with Annex 10B.1; in 356.2p replacing references to Annex 1904.13
with Annex 10B.3; 356.2q replacing references to Article 1911
with Article 10.8; 356.2ff replacing references to Article 2002 with Article 30.6; and 356.2r replacing references to section 516Af9 of the Act with section 516Af10 of the Act.
Commerce is also removing several references to the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement, which was superseded by NAFTA. Commerces regulations contained provisions governing dispute resolution pursuant to the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement. Because there are no active disputes pursuant to that agreement, Commerce is removing reference to it throughout its regulations. These changes are reflected in 356.2d, 356.10c1ii, and 356.11c1ii.
2. Updates To Address Obsolete Regulatory Cross-References Commerce is also updating outdated regulatory cross-references in 19 CFR
part 356 to 19 CFR parts 353 addressing antidumping duty rules and procedures and 355 addressing countervailing duty rules and procedures which became obsolete when Commerce consolidated parts 353 and 355 into a single part 351
in 1997.6 Despite the 1997
consolidation, references to obsolete parts 353 and 355 remain in part 356.
Therefore, Commerce is removing 6 See 62 FR 27296, 27297 May 19, 1997 final rulemaking to eliminate Parts 353 and 355 and promulgate a single Part 351, 19 CFR 351, in their place; see also 61 FR 7308, 7310 Feb. 27, 1996
In response to the Presidents Regulatory Reform Initiative, to reduce the amount of duplicative material in the regulations, the Department has consolidated the antidumping and countervailing duty regulations into a new Part 351, and is removing Parts 353 and 355..

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obsolete cross-references to parts 353
and 355 and replacing them with updated references to part 351 to reflect the 1997 consolidation of the AD/CVD
regulations and any relevant subsequent regulatory changes Commerce made to part 351 thereafter.7
These changes are reflected in 356.2u replacing cross-references to 19 CFR 353.31e2i through v or 355.31e2i through v with 19 CFR
351.303d2, which outline Commerces current requirements for document submissions with respect to specifications and first page letter of transmittal markings; 356.7b and 356.8d replacing cross-references to 19 CFR 353.31d, e2 and 19 CFR
355.31d, e2 with references to 19
CFR 351.303b and 19 CFR
351.303d2, which outline Commerces current format and filing requirements for document submissions; 356.7c and 356.8d replacing cross-references to 19 CFR
353.31g and 19 CFR 355.31g with reference to current 19 CFR 351.303f which outlines Commerces current service requirements.
3. Updates To Address Outdated Notice, Filing, Service, and Protective Order Procedures Commerce is also updating its regulations relating to certain outdated notice procedures. Specifically, current 356.6 and 356.7 provide that Commerce will notify governments of Free Trade Agreement FTA Countries of scope determinations and contemplate that such determinations not be published in the Federal Register.8 Under current 356.6, when Commerce makes a scope determination, notice of such scope determination shall be deemed received by the Government of an FTA country when a certified copy of the determination is delivered to the chancery of the Embassy of the FTA.
Under Commerces current procedures, scope rulings under 19 CFR
351.225 are a type of class or kind determination, a term that also encompasses circumvention determinations under section 781 of the Act. In some instances, a class or kind determination may be published in the Federal Register. Otherwise, interested parties will be notified of a 7 See, e.g., 62 FR 27296 May 19, 1997; 73 FR
3627 Jan. 22, 2008; 76 FR 39275 July 6, 2011; 80
FR 36473 June 25, 2015; and 85 FR 17007 March 26, 2020.
8 This language originated in the 1988 interim final rule for the United States-Canada Free Trade Agreement. See Panel Review Under Article 1904 of the U.S.-Canada Free-Trade Agreement, 53 FR
53232, 53233 Dec. 30, 1988 interim final rule.

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