APHIS Announces New Initiatives to Streamline U.S.-Canada Plant Trade
The U.S. and Canada are working on two new initiatives to streamline trade in plant products between the two countries, said the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in a stakeholder update sent on March 23 (here). One project aims to allow quarantine to take place in Canada for plant taxa that have post-entry quarantine conditions for importation into the United States. A second initiative would implement a mechanism to allow for the electronic exchange of phytosanitary certificates under the “e-Cert” data exchange program.
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Both initiatives are being undertaken as part of the joint U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council’s second phase of regulatory alignment. The RCC is set to publish “Regulatory Partnership Statements” on March 31 that will provide more details on phase two, including the “harmonized implementation plan” for phasing in the removal of the current exemption from international standards for wood packaging material moving between the U.S. and Canada. APHIS also plans to hold a webinar in early April to provide additional information on the RCC plant trade initiatives, it said.