The Food Safety and Inspection Service proposed listing Thailand, China and Vietnam as eligible to export Siluriformes fish and fish products (i.e., catfish) to the U.S., the agency said in three notices. The proposals follow FSIS reviews of each country's laws and inspection systems that determined equivalent safety to the U.S. meat inspections, it said. "Only raw Siluriformes fish and fish products produced in certified" establishments in each country are eligible for export to the U.S., it said. The proposals are part of a transition of regulatory responsibilities for catfish from the Food and Drug Administration (see 1706300029). Comments are due Oct. 19.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is finalizing a change to its procedures for setting fruit and vegetable import requirements. Under the final rule, APHIS will no longer go through a normal rulemaking process for changes to import requirements. Instead, the agency will simply publish a notice in the Federal Register advising the public of the change. APHIS will still give the public a chance to comment before changes are made through publication of a “pest risk analysis” document detailing the agency’s scientific rationale. The final rule takes effect Oct. 15.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will on Oct. 1 begin notifying importers and customs brokers when they submit Lacey Act declarations that contain errors, APHIS said in an emailed update. Importers who receive these letters of non-compliance “do not need to take action to correct the declaration in question, but they should take steps to correct future declarations,” APHIS said. “Repeated failures to correct errors may result in APHIS referring future violations for investigation or potential enforcement action.” Most notifications will be sent by email, it said. “Common errors include: misidentifying the species of imported wood or wood products, listing unlikely country and plant species pairs, submitting incomplete declarations, and/or failing to file a declaration in a timely manner,” APHIS said.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on Sept. 6 announced that Special Import Quota #20 for upland cotton will be established on Sept. 13, allowing importation of 13,543,665 kilograms (62,205 bales) of upland cotton, the same as for the previous quota period. It will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than Dec. 11, 2018, and entered into the U.S. by March 11, 2019. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period April 2018 through June 2018, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will hold a public meeting Sept. 26 in Washington to discuss its positions in advance of an upcoming session of the international Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems, it said in a notice. The meeting will be held to “provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States positions to be discussed at the 24th Session” of the Codex committee, which will take place in Brisbane, Australia, on Oct. 22-26. Registration to attend is required by Sept. 22. Participants may also call in by phone.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on Aug. 30 announced that Special Import Quota #18 for upland cotton will be established on Sept. 6, allowing importation of 13,543,665 kilograms (62,205 bales) of upland cotton, the same as the previous quota period. It will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than Dec. 4, 2018, and entered into the U.S. by March 4, 2019. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period April 2018 through June 2018, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is loosening requirements on importation of bovines and bovine products from Poland, Croatia, Scotland and Northern Ireland, it said in a notice. APHIS will reclassify the four countries as having negligible risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, concurring with recommendations recently issued by the World Organization for Animal Health, the agency said. Poland, Croatia, Scotland and Northern Ireland were previously classified as having controlled risk of BSE, a category for which imports face tighter restrictions.
The Agriculture Department on Aug. 27 announced a series of programs designed to compensate farmers for losses caused by foreign retaliation for new U.S. tariffs. Under a new Market Facilitation Program, some $4.7 billion will be distributed to farmers of certain commodities below an income threshold, with about $3.63 billion of that amount set aside for soybean farmers. Soybeans are one of the products most affected by Chinese tariffs put in place July 6 in response to U.S. Section 301 duties (see 1806200035 and 1804060019).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture revised the appendices to its Dairy Tariff-Rate Import Quota Licensing Regulation for the 2018 tariff-rate quota year, in a final rule that takes effect Aug. 27. USDA is making the changes to reflect the cumulative annual transfers from Appendix 1 to Appendix 2 for certain dairy product import licenses permanently surrendered by licensees or revoked by the Foreign Agricultural Service.
The Foreign Agricultural Service will charge a fee of $300 for the 2019 tariff-rate quota (TRQ) year for each license issued to a person or firm by the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorizing the importation of certain dairy articles that are subject to tariff-rate quotas set forth in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, it said. The new fee is the same as last year's for 2018 TRQ licenses, which reflected a $50 increase from the 2017 license fee amount (see 1709120039).