Department of Commerce 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

NMFS issues regulations to implement management measures described in Amendment 46 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico (FMP), as prepared by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) (Amendment 46). For gray triggerfish, this final rule revises the recreational fixed closed season, recreational bag limit, recreational minimum size limit, and commercial trip limit. Additionally, Amendment 46 establishes a new rebuilding time period for the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) gray triggerfish stock. The purpose of this final rule is to implement management measures to assist in rebuilding the Gulf gray triggerfish stock and achieve optimum yield (OY).

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's (Pacific Council) will host the Area 2A Pacific Halibut Managers Coordination Meeting via webinar. The meeting is open to the public.

NMFS is adjusting the Swordfish (SWO) General Commercial permit retention limits for the Northwest Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and U.S. Caribbean regions for January through June of the 2018 fishing year, unless otherwise later noticed. The SWO General Commercial permit retention limit in each of these regions is increased from the regulatory default limits (either two or three fish) to six swordfish per vessel per trip. The SWO General Commercial permit retention limit in the Florida SWO Management Area will remain unchanged at the default limit of zero swordfish per vessel per trip. These adjustments apply to SWO General Commercial permitted vessels and Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Charter/Headboat permitted vessels when on a non-for-hire trip. This action is based upon consideration of the applicable inseason regional retention limit adjustment criteria.

This final rule amends regulations of the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to set forth the reporting requirements for the 2017 BE-12, Benchmark Survey of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States. The BE-12 survey is conducted every five years; the prior survey covered 2012. The benchmark survey covers the universe of foreign direct investment in the United States and is BEA's most detailed survey of such investment. For the 2017 benchmark survey, BEA will make changes in data items collected, the design of the survey forms, and the reporting requirements for the survey to satisfy changing data needs and to improve data quality and the effectiveness and efficiency of data collection.

NMFS, in consultation with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council), announces its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a new halibut bycatch management program for groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI), in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The proposed action would create a new method of managing halibut bycatch that links halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) limits for the groundfish fisheries to data on halibut abundance. The proposed action is intended to provide a responsive approach for managing halibut bycatch at varying levels of halibut abundance. The new program would minimize halibut bycatch to the extent practicable while achieving, on a continuing basis, optimum yield from the groundfish fisheries. The new management program also could provide additional opportunity for the directed halibut fishery at low levels of halibut abundance compared to the status quo and promote conservation of the halibut spawning stock biomass, particularly at low levels of abundance. The EIS will analyze the impacts to the human environment resulting from the proposed bycatch management program. NMFS will accept written comments from the public to identify the issues of concern and assist the Council in determining the appropriate range of management alternatives for the EIS.

We are announcing 2018 fishing opportunities in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Regulatory Area. This action is necessary to make fishing privileges in the NAFO Regulatory Area available on an equitable basis to the extent possible. The intended effect of this notice is to alert U.S. fishing vessels of the NAFO fishing opportunities, to relay the available quotas available to U.S. participants, and to outline the process and requirements for vessels to apply to participate in the 2018 NAFO fishery.

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.

In this final rule, NMFS specifies annual catch limits (ACLs) for Pacific Island crustacean, precious coral, and territorial bottomfish fisheries, and accountability measures (AMs) to correct or mitigate any overages of catch limits. The ACLs and AMs will be effective for fishing year 2017. Although the 2017 fishing year has nearly ended for most stocks, we will evaluate 2017 catches against these final ACLs when data become available in mid-2018. The proposed ACLs and AMs support the long-term sustainability of fishery resources of the U.S. Pacific Islands.

The Department of Commerce (the Department) determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of certain cold-drawn mechanical tubing of carbon and alloy steel (cold-drawn mechanical tubing) from the People's Republic of China (PRC), as provided in section 705 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (the Act). The period of investigation is January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2016. For more information on the estimated subsidy rates, see the ``Final Determination'' section of this notice.

The Department of Commerce (the Department) preliminarily determines that imports of certain corrosion-resistant steel products (CORE), produced in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) using carbon hot-rolled steel (HRS) or cold-rolled steel (CRS) flat products manufactured in the People's Republic of China (PRC), are circumventing the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on CORE from the PRC.

NMFS closes the General category fishery for large medium and giant (i.e., measuring 73 inches curved fork length or greater) Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) for the December subquota time period and thus for the remainder of 2017. The intent of this closure is to prevent overharvest of the available December subquota of 12.7 mt and the adjusted 2017 General category quota of 688.7 metric tons (mt).

The Department of Commerce (the Department) has completed the administrative review of the countervailing duty (CVD) order on aluminum extrusions from the People's Republic of China (PRC) for the January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015, period of review (POR). We have determined that mandatory respondents Changzhou Jinxi Machinery Co., Ltd. (Changzhou Jinxi) and tenKsolar (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (tenKsolar) received countervailable subsidies during the POR. The final net subsidies are listed below in the section entitled ``Final Results of Administrative Review.''

NMFS proposes 2018 and 2019 harvest specifications, apportionments, and prohibited species catch allowances for the groundfish fisheries of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) management area. This action is necessary to establish harvest limits for groundfish during the 2018 and 2019 fishing years, and to accomplish the goals and objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area. The intended effect of this action is to conserve and manage the groundfish resources in the BSAI in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

We, NMFS, announce our intent to conduct a 5-year review for the endangered western distinct population segment (DPS) of Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA). We are required by the ESA to conduct 5-year reviews to ensure that the listing classifications of species are accurate. The 5- year review must be based on the best scientific and commercial data available at the time of the review. We request submission of any such information on the Western DPS of Steller sea lion, particularly information on the status, threats, and recovery of the species that has become available since the final listing determination in May, 1997.

On October 31, 2017, the Department of Commerce (Department) published in the Federal Register the preliminary determination of the less-than-fair-value investigation of carbon and alloy steel wire rod (wire rod) from Spain. The Department is amending its preliminary determination to correct a significant ministerial error.

Notice is hereby given that Kerri Smith, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Ave., El Paso, Texas 79968, has applied in due form for a permit to receive, import and export marine mammal specimens for scientific research.

On June 7, 2017, the Department of Commerce (the Department) published a notice of initiation of an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain activated carbon from the People's Republic of China (PRC). Based on the timely withdrawal of the requests for review of certain companies, we are now rescinding this administrative review for the period April 1, 2016 through March 31, 2017, with respect to 184 companies.

On September 19, 2017, the United States Court of International Trade (the CIT) entered final judgment sustaining the Department of Commerce's (the Department) second remand results pertaining to 18th administrative review of the antidumping duty order on fresh garlic from the People's Republic of China (PRC) for Hebei Golden Trading Co., Ltd. (Golden Bird) and Shenzhen Xinboda Industrial Co., Ltd. (Xinboda). The Department is notifying the public that the final judgment in this case is not in harmony with the final results and partial rescission of the 18th antidumping duty administrative review and that the Department has amended the dumping margins found for Xinboda and Golden Bird.