The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service recently announced that it is establishing an Offshore Greenhouse Certification Program for greenhouse facilities located outside the U.S. “Facilities that are accepted into the program will agree to produce generally admissible unrooted plant cuttings under a systems approach to reduce pest and disease risks,” APHIS said. “In turn, shipments produced and exported under this program may receive fewer or less frequent inspections at U.S. plant inspection stations, helping to expedite clearance and entry.” Foreign greenhouses must meet minimum standards for participation related to greenhouse construction, security, production and sanitation, pest management, training and recordkeeping. “APHIS officials will physically visit and certify each facility -- at the facility’s expense -- before it may participate in the program,” the agency said. APHIS will schedule onsite visits starting in November 2020, it said. Greenhouse facilities interested in participating in the 2020-21 season should contact Karelyn Cruz at APHIS at karelyn.cruz@usda.gov by Aug. 31.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is ending its ACE pilot test of electronic filing for Section 8e notifications of arrival of fruits, vegetables and specialty crops subject to marketing orders. “CBP and AMS have evaluated the transmission and analysis of the trade data related to AMS responsibilities and have found the pilot successful. As such, the ACE [Partner Government Agency (PGA)] Message Set is deemed to have the operational capabilities necessary to electronically collect the section 8e data required by AMS, and AMS’s [Compliance Enforcement Management System (CEMS)] is deemed to have the operational capabilities necessary to analyze that data,” the notice said. The pilot had been running since 2015 (see 1508050019).
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is placing new restrictions on imports of tomatoes and bell peppers from the Dominican Republic, France and Spain in response to detections in those countries of the tomato brown rugose fruit virus, it said. The agency is adding those three countries to a Federal Order it issued in March that includes certification and inspection requirements. The Federal Order is otherwise mostly unchanged, APHIS said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow imports of fresh carrots from South Korea, it said in a notice. Eligible shipments must meet several conditions, including production and packing in registered locations, inspection requirements, washing, sampling in South Korea, and a phytosanitary certificate issued by the South Korean government. Carrots from South Korea that meet those conditions may be authorized for importation beginning June 5.
The Agriculture Department is asking for comments on the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standard-setting activities at the Codex Alimentarius Commission from June 21, 2019, to May 31, 2020, and June 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021. The notice provides a list of the standard-setting activities, as well as other types of Codex standards like commodity standards, guidelines, codes of practice and revised texts. Attachment 1 to the notice sets forth the SPS standards under consideration or planned for consideration, as well as, for each SPS standard specified: (1) a description of the consideration or planned consideration of the standard; (2) whether the U.S. is participating or plans to participate in the consideration of the standard; (3) the agenda for U.S. participation, if any; and (4) the agency responsible for representing the U.S. with respect to the standard.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on May 28 announced that Special Import Quota #6 for upland cotton will be established on June 5, allowing importation of 11,005,386 kilograms (50,547 bales) of upland cotton. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than Sept. 1, 2020, and entered into the U.S. by Nov. 30, 2020. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period January 2020 through March 2020, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service extended until July 18 its temporary policy allowing electronic submission of nearly all import documents, including veterinary certificates, phytosanitary certificates and PPQ 203 forms, in the ACE Document Image System (DIS), CBP said in a May 15 CSMS message. The policy, in place since April 8 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, had been set to expire May 16.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will deploy its eFile online permitting system for fresh fruit and vegetable imports “this fall,” it said in an emailed update. The new system “will offer a simple and easy way to apply for and receive your fresh fruit and vegetable import permits, in many cases, within the same day,” APHIS said. Until the new system is up, APHIS will continue issuing fresh fruit and vegetable import permits through ePermits, and will limit the validity of any permits issued after June 1 to one year only to allow for the phaseout of the legacy system. “Unfortunately, we are unable to transfer active permits from one system to the other,” APHIS said. “Once we transition to eFile, stakeholders will be able to renew existing fresh fruit and vegetable import permits or request new ones in eFile. All fresh fruit and vegetable import permits issued from eFile will be valid for 3 years.”
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is adding Indonesia to its list of regions subject to import restrictions on pork and pork products because it is affected by African swine fever, it said. Restrictions take effect retroactively to Dec. 13, 2019.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is loosening restrictions on importation of fresh sand pears from Japan, it said in a final rule. While APHIS currently only allows importation of sand pears from a few Japanese prefectures, the agency will now allow imports from all of Japan, except for Amami, Bonin, Ryukyu, Tokara, and Volcano Islands. APHIS is also eliminating a requirement for an additional declaration on phytosanitary certificates that the sand pears have been inspected and found free of certain pests. APHIS will begin authorizing imports via permit on April 16, it said.