Department of Commerce May 28, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) proposes to modify two regulations pertaining to the determination of benefit and specificity in countervailing duty proceedings. These modifications, if adopted, would clarify how Commerce determines the existence of a benefit resulting from a subsidy in the form of currency undervaluation, and clarify that companies in the traded goods sector of an economy can constitute a group of enterprises for purposes of determining whether a subsidy is specific.

NMFS proposes to implement annual catch limits and management measures for the northern subpopulation of Pacific sardine (hereafter, Pacific sardine), for the fishing year from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020. The proposed action would prohibit most directed commercial fishing for Pacific sardine off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California. Pacific sardine harvest would be allowed only in the live bait fishery, minor directed fisheries, as incidental catch in other fisheries, or as authorized under exempted fishing permits. The incidental harvest of Pacific sardine would be limited to 20 percent by weight of all fish per trip when caught with other stocks managed under the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan or up to 2 metric tons when caught with non-Coastal Pelagic Species stocks. The proposed annual catch limit for the 2019-2020 Pacific sardine fishing year is 4,514 metric tons. This proposed rule is intended to conserve and manage the Pacific sardine stock off the U.S. West Coast.

The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that producers and/or exporters subject to this administrative review made sales of subject merchandise at less than normal value during the period of review (POR), March 1, 2016 through August 31, 2017.

NMFS is prohibiting fishing with large-mesh drift gillnet (DGN) gear (=14 inches mesh) off the coast of southern California east of 120[deg] W meridian from June 1, 2019, through August 31, 2019. This prohibition is based on the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries' (AA's) determination that El Ni[ntilde]o conditions are occurring off the coast of southern California. This action protects Endangered Species Act-listed loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta), specifically the endangered North Pacific Ocean Distinct Population Segment.

In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that we have issued an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to the U.S. Navy (Navy) to take small numbers of marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Dry Dock 1 modification and expansion in Kittery, Maine.