The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is allowing imports of fresh leaves and stems of garland chrysanthemum (Glebionis coronarium) from Mexico, it said June 28. APHIS said “the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds,” APHIS said. Effective June 28, APHIS is allowing imports into the continental U.S., Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, subject to the phytosanitary requirements specified by the agency.

The Foreign Agricultural Service published 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.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow imports of Phalaenopsis orchids in approved growing media from Costa Roca into the continental U.S., it said in a notice released June 7. Imports will be subject to the general conditions for importing plants for planting in approved growing media, as well as specific requirements set in a joint U.S.-Costa Rica work plan, APHIS said. The final rule takes effect June 8.

USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has posted a Cut Flower Name Validation List to its website for filers to verify spellings in the APHIS core partner government agency (PGA) message set. The list provides genus, species and subspecies names along with corresponding common names to be used in the ACE data elements, APHIS said in a May 30 news release. The list also provides acceptable spellings for listed names and the corresponding Integrated Taxonomic Information Systems (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN) and APHIS ID (APID) number, APHIS said. Software developers can download and integrate the PG10 category AP0800 cut flowers into the Automated Broker Interface software, which will help create a single standardized submission list for importers of cut flowers, the agency said.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service intends to allow imports of fresh pumpkin, squash, and the interspecific hybrid tetsukabuto from Brazil into the continental U.S., it said in a notice released May 16. An agency pest risk analysis found “the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds,” APHIS said. Comments are due by July 17.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service proposed new procedures for amending import restrictions on cut flowers, and simultaneously proposed ending restrictions on cut flowers from countries that are hosts of chrysanthemum white rust. The agency’s proposal would use a notice-based process, rather than rulemaking, for amending cut flower import restrictions, similar to that adopted by APHIS for import restrictions on plants for planting. APHIS would also “remove entirely any restrictions on the importation of cut flowers of the genera Chrysanthemum, Leucanthemella, and Nipponanthemum from countries in which chrysanthemum white rust" is known to exist. Comments are due by June 16.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is amending its Federal Order on import requirements for pepper and tomato seeds to loosen testing and certification requirements for peppers, it said in an emailed update April 7. Under the revised federal order, APHIS no longer will require testing of Capsicum pepper seeds for Columnea latent viroid (CLVd), Tomato apical stunt viroid (TASVd), Tomato chlorotic dwarf viroid (TCDVd), and Tomato planta macho viroid (TPMVd), all of which APHIS found don’t pose a risk. However, APHIS will still require testing for Pepper chat fruit viroid (PCFVd) and Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd), and a certification that the pepper seeds are free from those pests.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will begin requiring Lacey Act import declarations for a new set of plant materials and products beginning as early as spring 2024, it said in an emailed bulletin March 27. The agency is reviewing the tariff schedule to “determine the complete list of materials and products that will be included in Phase VII” of Lacey Act enforcement, and will publish a “complete list” in the fall of “materials and products” that will be newly subject to the import declaration requirement, it said. APHIS “will require declarations for those product codes 6 months” after it publishes the list, it said.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to allow imports of fresh beef from Paraguay, it said in a notice released March 24. Under the proposal, fresh beef from Paraguay would be subject to the same import conditions as imports of fresh beef from Uruguay and approved regions of Argentina and Brazil. Comments on the proposed rule are due May 26.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service updated its federal order on measures to prevent introduction of the tomato leafminer to add Trinidad and Tobago as a country infested by the plant pest but still able to export tomatoes to the U.S. if certain import requirements are met. The new federal order, which supersedes one issued in 2019, takes effect March 31.