CBP Announces New Interagency Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Partnership Council
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a press release announcing that the Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Partnership Council, a new alliance of federal and state agencies responsible for agriculture inspection, held its inaugural meeting on January 23, 2008.
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Council is to Monitor Progress on APHIS-CBP Joint Agency Task Force's 10 Action Plans
According to an earlier Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)-CBP Joint Agency Task Force document, the Council was expected to include officials from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the National Plant Board, and the U.S. Animal Health Association, and would monitor progress on the ten action plans of the CBP-APHIS Joint Task Force on Agriculture Inspection.
Issues addressed in the action plans include stakeholder concerns that the agricultural mission was being lost or subordinated to the primary mission of CBP and that a more robust chain of command with an agricultural presence at every management level was needed. Among other things, the task force recommended that CBP evaluate and implement a CBP agricultural management structure at ports of entry, including assistant port directors for agriculture at all major ports to direct and evaluate agricultural operations by fiscal year 2009.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 10/19/07 news, 07101905, for BP summary of the ten joint force action plans to improve agriculture inspections.)
Key Commitments Resulting from Inaugural Meeting
CBP states that the meeting included an extensive briefing and discussion of the elements of the ten action plans, and resulted in several commitments for the partnership members, including the following:
APHIS will continue to work with Florida to address plant- and pest-related issues;
APHIS and CBP will collaborate on creating a method to consistently provide plant pest information to the states;
Other government agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Fish and Wildlife Service, will be included in future outreach and communication initiatives;
CBP's assistant commissioner for field operations will participate with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in monthly conference calls; and
CBP will enhance its participation on the Invasive Species Council.
(The next meeting of the Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Partnership Council is scheduled for the week of April 28, 2008.)
CBP press release (dated 02/05/08) available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/highlights/agriculture_partner.xml
APHIS-CBP Joint Agency Task Force document (dated 11/01/07) available at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/downloads/aphis_cbp_taskforce/TF_CurrentUpdate.pdf