The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is amending its Federal Order on import requirements for pepper and tomato seeds to loosen testing and certification requirements for peppers, it said in an emailed update April 7. Under the revised federal order, APHIS no longer will require testing of Capsicum pepper seeds for Columnea latent viroid (CLVd), Tomato apical stunt viroid (TASVd), Tomato chlorotic dwarf viroid (TCDVd), and Tomato planta macho viroid (TPMVd), all of which APHIS found don’t pose a risk. However, APHIS will still require testing for Pepper chat fruit viroid (PCFVd) and Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd), and a certification that the pepper seeds are free from those pests.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will begin requiring Lacey Act import declarations for a new set of plant materials and products beginning as early as spring 2024, it said in an emailed bulletin March 27. The agency is reviewing the tariff schedule to “determine the complete list of materials and products that will be included in Phase VII” of Lacey Act enforcement, and will publish a “complete list” in the fall of “materials and products” that will be newly subject to the import declaration requirement, it said. APHIS “will require declarations for those product codes 6 months” after it publishes the list, it said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to allow imports of fresh beef from Paraguay, it said in a notice released March 24. Under the proposal, fresh beef from Paraguay would be subject to the same import conditions as imports of fresh beef from Uruguay and approved regions of Argentina and Brazil. Comments on the proposed rule are due May 26.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service updated its federal order on measures to prevent introduction of the tomato leafminer to add Trinidad and Tobago as a country infested by the plant pest but still able to export tomatoes to the U.S. if certain import requirements are met. The new federal order, which supersedes one issued in 2019, takes effect March 31.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on March 13 released country-by-country reallocations of unused FY 2023 in-quota amounts for the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar. "Based on consultations with quota holders, USTR has determined to reallocate 224,240 [metric tons raw value (MTRV)] of the original TRQ quantity from those countries that have stated they do not plan to fill their FY 2023 allocated raw cane sugar quantities," it said. Reallocated quantities are as follows: Argentina 12,682; Australia 24,479; Barbados 500; Belize 3,244; Bolivia 2,360; Brazil 42,765; Colombia 7,078; Costa Rica 4,424; Dominican Republic 40,000; Ecuador 3,244; El Salvador 7,668; Eswatini (Swaziland) 4,719; Fiji 2,654; Guatemala 14,157; Guyana 3,539; Honduras 2,949; India 2,360; Malawi 2,949; Mauritius 3,539; Mozambique 3,834; Panama 8,553; Peru 12,092; South Africa 6,783; Thailand 4,129; and Zimbabwe 3,539.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is proposing to amend its standards for grades on processed raisins to reduce the number of capstems allowed as defects. According to the proposed rule, an AMS study conducted 2016-2019 found only 1.03% of all domestic and import inspections would have been graded differently under the proposed reduced capstem allowances than under current allowances, “leaving a full 98.97% of lots of raisins inspected unchanged in their classification.” Comments are due by May 8.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced March 8 a redesigned Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection program user fees webpage. The new “customer-focused” site will provide general AQI user fee information on the main page, as well as fee-specific information and resources and an announcements section “to help users quickly identify important information,” the agency said. “APHIS’ goal in the redesign was to make it easier for customers to find information and resources that apply to their fee area(s) without having to navigate through information that doesn’t apply to them,” it said.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is updating tariff schedule numbers listed for importer assessments under the marketing order on paper and paper-based packaging. The agency’s final rule brings the list of Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers subject to assessments in line with the latest changes to the tariff schedule. AMS also is amending the regulations to provide that, going forward, if any HTS number under the order “is changed and such change is merely a replacement of a previous number and has no impact on the description of the paper and paper-based packaging involved, assessments will continue to be collected based on the new number.” The final rule takes effect March 10.
Two Canadian ministers will "closely review" proposed voluntary “Product of USA” labeling regulations for meat, poultry and egg products issued by the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service March 7 (see 2303070053), making sure “that new definitions and rules allow farmers, processors and consumers in both countries to continue to benefit from efficient, stable and competitive markets,” their joint statement March 7 said. Minister of Agriculture Marie-Claude Bibeau and Minister of Trade Mary Ng also said they would oppose “any proposition from the United States to renew a mandatory country of origin [labeling] system for pork and beef.”
The Food Safety and Inspection Service on March 6 released a pre-publication version of a proposed rule that would set new requirements for labeling meat, poultry and egg products as “Product of USA” or “Made in USA.” Under the proposed rule, the claims could only be made on products “derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered and processed” in the U.S. The notice has not as of press time been scheduled for publication in the Federal Register.