The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on Oct. 19 announced Special Import Quota #26 for upland cotton will be established on Oct. 26, allowing importation of 12,803,341 kilograms (58,805 bales) of upland cotton. It will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than Jan. 23, 2018, and entered into the U.S. by April 23, 2018. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period June 2017 through August 2017, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will end its pilot program on blanket Lacey Act declarations in April 2018, it said. APHIS is ending the pilot, which began in 2009, “due to the development of the ACE system, and a diminishing number of participants,” with only eight companies still participating out of a total of 119 that have registered over the life of the program. “CBP’s [Border Release Advanced Screening and Selectivity (BRASS)] program will continue to operate as it did prior to the creation of the pilot program, and participants in the blanket declaration pilot program will not lose their line release status in the expedited border release programs,” APHIS said. “When the program ends, importers whose products are subject to the Lacey Act declaration requirement and clear under the BRASS program are advised to file the required declaration information along with their CBP entry summary documentation,” it said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced it has found Japan to be free of highly pathogenic avian influenza and Newcastle disease. The change in disease status, which eliminates certain requirements for importation of carcasses, meat, parts or products of carcasses, and eggs (other than hatching eggs) of poultry, game birds or other birds from Japan, takes effect Oct. 16.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on Oct. 5 announced Special Import Quota #24 for upland cotton will be established on Oct. 12, allowing importation of 12,798,043 kilograms (58,780 bales) of upland cotton. It will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than Jan. 9, 2018, and entered into the U.S. by April 9, 2018. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period May 2017 through July 2017, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is withdrawing a proposed rule on electronic filing for exports of apples and grapes, it said. AMS's Dec. 5, 2016, proposed regulations would have required shippers of apple and grape exports to enter an Export Form Certificate number or a USDA-defined exemption code into the Automated Export System (AES) (see 1612050041). AMS decided not to finalize the proposal "after reviewing and considering the comments received," it said.
Imports from Canada of items made from broomcorn are no longer subject to mandatory sterilization requirements as long as they are accompanied by a manufacturer’s statement that says the items were processed and handled as stated in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Miscellaneous and Processed Products Import Manual, APHIS said. The change takes effect immediately, it said. “We determined that the handling and processing of these items prior to import into the United States makes them unlikely to harbor pests or diseases of quarantine concern,” APHIS said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow imports of fresh persimmons from New Zealand, subject to certain conditions, it said in a final rule. Requirements include orchard certification, orchard pest control, post-harvest safeguards, fruit culling, traceback, sampling, and treatment with either hot water or modified atmosphere treatment. The persimmons would also have to be accompanied by a certificate from the New Zealand government saying they meet all these requirements and were inspected and found free of pests. The final rule takes effect Nov. 2.
The Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation on Sept. 21 announced Special Import Quota #22 for upland cotton will be established on Sept. 28, allowing importation of 12,798,043 kilograms (58,780 bales) of upland cotton. It will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than Dec. 26, 2017, and entered into the U.S. by March 26, 2018. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the period May 2017 through July 2017, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is adding Uganda and Zimbabwe to the list of regions it considers to be affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), it said in two separate notices. Temporary restrictions on importation of poultry, commercial birds, other types of birds (research, performing), ratites, any avian hatching eggs, unprocessed avian products and byproducts, and certain fresh poultry products from Uganda have been in place since Jan. 14, 2017, and for Zimbabwe since June 1, 2017, after discovery of the virus in each country, respectively, APHIS said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published a list of ongoing international sanitary and phytosanitary standard-setting activities of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), and the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO). Comments on the standards being considered may be submitted at any time, APHIS said.