Details of CBP's FY 2010 Agricultural Report on Enforcement, Etc.
CBP has posted its first agricultural annual report, which covers fiscal year 2010.The report provides a high level overview of two key areas, CBP agriculture inspection statistics and resulting enforcement action statistics. The report also provides information regarding accessing the new Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Stakeholder Registry, which is due to begin in May 2011.
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The following are highlights of CBP's report:
More Ag Cargo, Conveyance, Passenger Inspections in FY 2010
CBP reports that agriculture specialists inspected more cargo, conveyances, and passengers in FY 2010 than in FY 2009. Cargo inspections include commercial commodities referred as regulated for agriculture (i.e., fresh fruit, vegetables) as well as miscellaneous cargo commodities (e.g., tile, auto parts). Conveyance inspections are the total number of inspections in all environments (air, land, sea) and all pathways (passenger and cargo). Passenger inspections include the conduct of inspections on baggage in all environments (air, land, sea) from private vehicle, commercial bus, air, cruise lines, and passenger ferry and rail.
Ag Emergency Action Notices Up 28%, No Change in Violations/Penalties
CBP reports that the agriculture inspections in all environments for FY 2010 resulted in 119,123 enforcement actions, which include emergency action notifications, and violations/civil penalties. Emergency Action Notifications are a result from inspections of cargo and conveyances in the cargo environment and include re-exportation, destruction, treatment, or other stipulated remedial action.
According to CBP's data, there was almost no change in the number of violations and civil penalties from FY 2009 to 2010 (58,590 to 58,293); however there was a 28% increase in Emergency Action Notifications (47,495 to 60,830).
5% of Ag Enforcement Actions Were for Non-Compliant Wood Packaging
About five percent of the FY 2010 cargo enforcement actions were associated with non-compliant wood packaging material (WPM). Approximately 82 percent of these were from miscellaneous cargo shipments. Non-compliant WPM would be categorized as lacking the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) approved stamps, or having IPPC stamps and plant pests.
May 2011Target Date for New PPQ Stakeholder Registry
CBP also reports that APHIS is moving forward to replace the current PPQ Stakeholder Registry and improve outreach with the GovDelivery subscription service platform. GovDelivery is an automated system that uses email, text messaging, RSS and social media to notify subscribers about specific topics when new information is posted to an organization’s website. May 2011 is the projected completion date.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 04/13/11 news, 11041339, for BP summary announcing the availability of this report.)