The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will deploy its eFile online permitting system for fresh fruit and vegetable imports “this fall,” it said in an emailed update. The new system “will offer a simple and easy way to apply for and receive your fresh fruit and vegetable import permits, in many cases, within the same day,” APHIS said. Until the new system is up, APHIS will continue issuing fresh fruit and vegetable import permits through ePermits, and will limit the validity of any permits issued after June 1 to one year only to allow for the phaseout of the legacy system. “Unfortunately, we are unable to transfer active permits from one system to the other,” APHIS said. “Once we transition to eFile, stakeholders will be able to renew existing fresh fruit and vegetable import permits or request new ones in eFile. All fresh fruit and vegetable import permits issued from eFile will be valid for 3 years.”
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is adding Indonesia to its list of regions subject to import restrictions on pork and pork products because it is affected by African swine fever, it said. Restrictions take effect retroactively to Dec. 13, 2019.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is loosening restrictions on importation of fresh sand pears from Japan, it said in a final rule. While APHIS currently only allows importation of sand pears from a few Japanese prefectures, the agency will now allow imports from all of Japan, except for Amami, Bonin, Ryukyu, Tokara, and Volcano Islands. APHIS is also eliminating a requirement for an additional declaration on phytosanitary certificates that the sand pears have been inspected and found free of certain pests. APHIS will begin authorizing imports via permit on April 16, it said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is authorizing importation of five types of citrus fruits from China, it said in a notice. Effective April 15, APHIS will begin issuing permits for importation of Chinese pummelo, Nanfeng honey mandarin, ponkan, sweet orange, and Satsuma mandarin. APHIS will require a “systems approach” that includes “importation in commercial consignments only, registration of places of production and packinghouses, certification that the fruit is free of quarantine pests, trapping program for fruit flies, periodic inspections of places of production, grove sanitation, and post-harvest disinfection and treatment,” the agency said in an emailed bulletin.
CBP agricultural specialists will now accept nearly all import documents, including veterinary certificates, in the ACE Document Image System (DIS), regardless of the exporting country’s disease status, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in an April 8 update to its policy on document submissions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency had previously allowed submissions via DIS for only some products, with products from countries recognized by APHIS affected with foreign animal diseases still requiring hard copy submission. But now only shipments of some high risk products, including bovine serum and fresh or frozen meat and poultry where the hard copy veterinary health certificate has not been provided to the Food Safety Inspection Service, are ineligible for electronic submission. The guidance will remain in effect through May 16. “APHIS will continue to evaluate the situation and provide updated guidance as appropriate,” it said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is temporarily suspending its preclearance program for imports of apples and pears from New Zealand. “While APHIS is unable to send preclearance inspectors to New Zealand at this time due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and safety concerns, imports of apples and pears from New Zealand will be allowed to continue subject to existing U.S. requirements,” including inspection on arrival, the agency said. “APHIS will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and guidance from the U.S. Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine when it is safe to resume the preclearance program for apples and pears from New Zealand.”
The Department of Agriculture is increasing the fiscal year 2020 tariff rate quota for raw cane sugar by 317,515 metric tons raw value (MTRV), and the 2020 TRQ for refined sugar by 181,437 MTRV for refined sugar, it said in a notice April 3. The increase brings the total FY20 TRQ for raw cane sugar, originally set at the 1,117,195 MTRV minimum mandated by the World Trade Organization (see 1906260017), to 1,434,710 MTRV, USDA said. The refined sugar TRQ is now 373,437 MTRV, up from 192,000 MTRV originally. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will allocate the increase among supplying countries and customs areas.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to remove port of entry restrictions on imports of citrus fruits from South Africa, it said in a notice. Currently, imports of grapefruit, lemons, mandarin oranges, sweet oranges, tangelos and Satsuma mandarins must be imported through the ports of Newark; Philadelphia; Wilmington, Del.; or Houston. APHIS now intends to lift those restrictions, after finding the cold treatment facilities at those ports are not necessary to keep out pests. Comments are due June 1.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to lift fumigation requirements for blueberries imported from two regions in Chile. Under the proposal, blueberries imported from regions VIII and XVI of Chile would no longer require methyl bromide fumigation, and would instead be eligible for importation under a systems approach that includes requirements for inspections and a phytosanitary certificate from the Chilean government. Blueberries from Chile regions VI and VII would remain subject to fumigation requirements. Comments on the proposal are due June 2.
The Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has not yet seen any impacts to cargo or inspections as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said, according to an update from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America sent March 23. “At the current time we have not experienced any impacts to cargo related to changes in CBP or USDA APHIS activities,” APHIS said. As for inspections, the agency is also seeing no delays. “We have moved to mostly digital imaging to enable continued pest identification services. Plant Inspection Stations and Ports are operational. The majority of our policy office staff are in telework status and still accessible by phone and email as normal,” APHIS said. The agency has informed CBP that “USDA will accept scanned versions of phytosanitary certificates uploaded into DIS while the emergency lasts,” it said. “We understand that many brokers are having difficulty accessing offices or getting required documents from the country of origin. We will be sending this information out shortly,” APHIS said, according to the NCBFAA.