The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on March 12 announced that Special Import Quota #21 for upland cotton will be established on March 19, allowing importation of 11,243,064 kilograms (51,638 bales) of upland cotton. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than June 16, 2020, and entered into the U.S. by Sept. 13, 2020. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period November 2019 through January 2020, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow imports of jujube fruit from China, it said in a notice. Importation will be subject to conditions including an import permit, phytosanitary certificate from the Chinese government, registration of production locations and packinghouses, and port of entry inspections, as well as treatment for pests if grown or packed south of the 33rd parallel, among other things. The notice takes effect March 12.
The Commerce Department has increased the amount of refined sugar that may be exported from Mexico under suspension agreements that put on hold antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on sugar from the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said by email March 10. USDA had notified Commerce of the need for the increase of 200,000 short tons raw value (STRV) for the period Oct. 1, 2019, through Sept. 30, 2020. Commerce had previously increased the Mexican refined sugar export limit by 100,000 STRV in November. “In the same way as the November request, today’s increase in Mexico’s refined sugar export limit will only change the mix between refined and other sugar,” USDA said. The request was made because “current market conditions point to a sugar shortage,” USDA said.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on March 5 announced that Special Import Quota #20 for upland cotton will be established on March 12, allowing importation of 11,243,064 kilograms (51,638 bales) of upland cotton, down from 12,096,232 kilograms (55,557 bales) in the last quota period. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than June 9, 2020, and entered into the U.S. by Sept. 6, 2020. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period November 2019 through January 2020, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is amending its reporting regulations to require that importers of certain potatoes, tomatoes and onions electronically file inspection certificates issued by non-federal and federal-state inspection services, it said in a final rule. Currently, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is the only non-federal or federal-state service authorized to inspect, so the change only affects CFIA certificates for now, AMS said. If an importer is unable to enter the CFIA inspection information electronically, the importer would be required to provide a copy of the certificate to AMS via email, mail or fax, the agency said. AMS is also amending the pistachio import regulations to provide for the electronic filing of aflatoxin test results and remove a requirement that importers of pistachios report the disposition of reworked or failed lots, it said. The final rule takes effect Sept. 2.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on Feb. 27 announced that Special Import Quota #19 for upland cotton will be established on March 5, allowing importation of 12,096,232 kilograms (55,557 bales) of upland cotton. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than June 2, 2020, and entered into the U.S. by Aug. 31, 2020. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period October 2019 through December 2019, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is finalizing new standards that would allow it to recognize “compartments” for animal disease status in foreign countries, it said in a notice. The final rule is the same as the proposed rule (see 1904030022), it said. “Our process will include information requirements for evaluating the animal health status of a compartment for which a market access request has been submitted,” APHIS said. “Under this rule, we will perform a risk assessment to evaluate the animal health status of a compartment. If after conducting the evaluation, we deem the risk of importing animals or animal products from that compartment to be acceptable, we will publish a Federal Register notice announcing the availability of the risk documentation for public review and comment.” The rule will take effect on March 30.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service will lift a ban on imports of raw, intact beef from Brazil, it said in an emailed update. Imports from Brazil have been suspended since June 2017 based on food safety concerns (see 1706230018). “FSIS recently conducted a targeted, on-site equivalence verification audit of Brazil’s raw intact beef products to verify the implementation of corrective actions in response to several audits and technical discussions since FSIS suspended the export of raw intact beef,” the agency said.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on Feb. 20 announced that Special Import Quota #18 for upland cotton will be established on Feb. 27, allowing importation of 12,096,232 kilograms (55,557 bales) of upland cotton. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than May 26, 2020, and entered into the U.S. by Aug. 24, 2020. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period October 2019 through December 2019, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on Feb. 13 announced that Special Import Quota #17 for upland cotton will be established on Feb. 20, allowing importation of 12,096,232 kilograms (55,557 bales) of upland cotton, down from 12,240,623 kilograms (56,220 bales) in the last quota period. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than May 19, 2020, and entered into the U.S. by Aug. 17, 2020. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period October 2019 through December 2019, the most recent three months for which data is available.