APHIS Issues FAQ on New Phytosanitary Certificate Requirements for Tomato and Pepper Seeds
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service posted a list of frequently asked questions on recent changes to import requirements for tomato and pepper seeds. According to the FAQ, tomato and pepper seed shipments that don’t have a phytosanitary certificate with an additional statement related to pospiviroid pathogens are being refused entry as of Sept. 8, 2019.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The FAQ is related to an updated federal order issued in August that mandated the phytosanitary certificate with the additional statement. The additional declaration must say that the shipment has been tested and found free of the pospiviroids Columnea latent viroid, Pepper chat fruit viroid, Potato spindle tuber viroid, Tomato apical stunt viroid, Tomato chlorotic dwarf viroid, and Tomato planta macho viroid, or it must say that those pests are not known to occur in the country where the seeds were produced.
The certificate requirement applies to all shipments of tomato and pepper seeds entered into the U.S., including small lots of seed. Tomato and pepper seeds are no longer eligible for Small Lots of Seed (SLS) permits, nor may they now be imported under a PPQ-587 Obscured Seed permit. Tomato and pepper seeds may be imported under a PPQ-526 diagnostic permit without the phytosanitary certificate otherwise required.
“To avoid potential delays and/or refusal, APHIS recommends that tomato or pepper seed shipments are separated from other species of seeds,” the agency said.