USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service is decreasing the value assigned to imported cotton, which will affect the calculation of supplemental assessments used by the Cotton Research and Promotion Program, according to a Federal Register notice. AMS amends the Cotton Board Rules and Regulations and increases or decreases the value each year to ensure that assessments collected on imported cotton and the cotton content of imported products will be the same as those paid on domestically produced cotton.
The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service released a list of updated quantity trigger levels and applicable periods for products that may be subject to additional import duties under the safeguard provisions of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture.
USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service is seeking comments on whether it's necessary and appropriate to establish additional terms and conditions for sugar imports, including the potential impact that changes to those terms and conditions might have on the domestic sugar industry, according to a Federal Register notice. Comments are due by Jan. 14.
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has updated its guidelines on label approvals, according to a Federal Register notice. The guidelines are meant to help establishments meet new requirements for use of voluntary U.S.-origin label claims on FSIS-regulated products, per the final rule “Voluntary Labeling of FSIS Regulated Products with U.S.-Origin Claims.”
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has updated its website on New World screwworm (NWS) to centralize the information available across the federal government, the agency said Nov. 21. Collaborating agencies include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FDA, EPA, DHS and the departments of Energy, State and the Interior.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the temporary suspension of the International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM 15) hyphen requirement will end on Dec. 31 of this year.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service is seeking comments on whether to revise U.S. standards for rough rice, brown rice for processing and milled rice, saying that "rice production, quality assessment methods, and consumer preferences may have changed" since AMS last opened a public comment period in 2015, according to a Federal Register notice. Comments will be accepted through Jan. 20.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service has revised the limits for Grade B Brix allowances for pasteurized orange juice, according to a Federal Register notice. The revisions, effective Nov. 18, will be made to the U.S. standards for grades of orange juice and will reference the FDA's Standards of Identity for pasteurized orange juice.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service is staying the handling regulation governing walnut imports "to align it with regulations prescribed under the Federal marketing order regulating the handling of walnuts grown in California," it said in a Federal Register notice.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service is planning to revise seven U.S. grade standards for canned tomato products, as well as change the spelling of "catsup" to "ketchup," a term that AMS says is more commonly used, it said in a Federal Register notice.