16 U.S.C. § 1826j — Illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing

(a) Identification. (1) For fishing-vessel actions. Using a combined analysis of data from international fishery organizations and other nations and organizations, the Secretary must identify and list in the report under section 1826h a nation if one of its vessels is engaged, or was engaged at any time in the previous 3 years, in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing—(A) that weakens the effectiveness of measures required by an international organization, considering whether that organization has failed to end the activity effectively or whether the nation is not a party to, or does not have cooperating status with, the organization; or (B) when no international organization has authority to regulate the activity. (2) For a nation’s actions. The Secretary must identify and report a nation engaging in or approving such fishing. The Secretary must consider: (A) a nation violating, or that violated in the preceding 3 years, conservation or management measures required by an international fishery agreement to which the United States is party, including catch and other reporting duties; (B) a nation failing during that 3-year period to address or regulate such fishing effectively within its fleets wherever its vessels fish; (C) a nation failing in its duties under international law or practice as a flag, port, or coastal state to prevent, deter, and eliminate such fishing; and (D) a nation identified in the newest List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor as producing seafood-related goods for export to the United States through forced labor or oppressive child labor, as those terms are defined in section 11329 of the Don Young Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2022, under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. (3) Other entities. When this Act applies to nations, it also applies as appropriate to other entities competent to enter international fishery-management agreements. (4) Timing. The Secretary must make an identification whenever there is enough information to do so. (b) Notification. The Secretary must notify the President and the identified nation. (c) Consultation. Within 60 days after sending a report to Congress under section 1826h, the Secretary, through the Secretary of State, must (1) notify reported nations of this section’s requirements; (2) begin consultations to encourage appropriate correction of the reported vessels’ activities; and (3) notify relevant international organizations of the United States actions under this section. (d) IUU certification procedure. (1) Certification. Consistently with subchapter II of chapter 5 of title 5, the Secretary must establish a process to decide whether an identified, reported nation has corrected the offending activities. The process must give each nation notice and a chance to comment. Within 90 days after the final rule establishing it, and every two years after that in the section 1826h report, the Secretary must certify to Congress whether (A) each nation gave documentary proof of correction, or (B) the relevant organization adopted measures effective at ending the activity by that nation’s vessels. (2) Alternative process. The Secretary may allow imports from a vessel of a negatively certified nation shipment by shipment, shipper by shipper, or on another basis if the vessel did not engage in such fishing under an agreement to which the United States is party, or the vessel was not identified by an international organization as participating in it. (3) Effect. (A) The provisions of section 1826a(a) and section 1826a(b)(3) and (4) apply to a nation that, after identification and notice, failed to take the corrections for which it received a negative certification. (B) Those provisions do not apply to an identified nation receiving a positive certification. (e) Illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing defined. (1) In this Act, the term “illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing” has the meaning set by paragraph (2). This section does not define the term itself beyond requiring the Secretary to publish the definition. (2) Within 3 months after January 12, 2007, the Secretary must publish a definition for this Act. (3) At minimum, it must include (A) fishing violating measures required by an agreement to which the United States is party, including catch limits or quotas, capacity limits, bycatch reductions, and shark conservation; (B) overfishing shared United States fish stocks, when no applicable international measures or organization or agreement exists, that harms those stocks; and (C) fishing harming seamounts, hydrothermal vents, or cold-water corals beyond national jurisdiction, when no applicable measures or organization or agreement exists. (f) Authorization of appropriations. Congress may appropriate whatever sums are necessary for the Secretary to carry out this section for fiscal years 2007 through 2013.