Department of Commerce August 28, 2018 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Secretary of Commerce, in cooperation with the Secretaries of Treasury and Homeland Security, is, under the authority of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), giving notice of import restrictions on fish and fish products from Mexico caught with gillnets deployed in the range of the vaquita, an endangered porpoise. Importation into the United States from Mexico of fish and fish products harvested by gillnets in the upper Gulf of California (UGC) within the vaquita's geographic range is now prohibited. These import restrictions are being implemented as required by a court order. These trade restrictions remain in effect until further court action amends the preliminary injunction. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes associated with the prohibited fish and fish products are identified below. NMFS is also requiring that all other fish and fish products not within the scope of the import restrictions but imported under the same published HTS codes be accompanied by a Certification of Admissibility.

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.

NMFS implements accountability measures (AMs) for the golden tilefish recreational sector in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the South Atlantic for the 2018 fishing year through this temporary rule. NMFS estimates recreational landings of golden tilefish in 2018 has reached the recreational annual catch limit (ACL). Therefore, NMFS closes the golden tilefish recreational sector in the South Atlantic EEZ on August 28, 2018. This closure is necessary to protect the golden tilefish resource.

As a result of the determinations by the Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) that revocation of the antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on drawn stainless steel sinks from the People's Republic of China (China) would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping and countervailable subsidies and material injury to an industry in the United States, Commerce is publishing a notice of continuation of the AD and CVD orders.

In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Ferries Division (WSF) to incidentally take, by Level A and B harassment, marine mammals during construction activities associated with the Mukilteo Multimodal Project, Puget Sound, Washington.