The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is amending entry requirements for the importation of certain plants from Canada to prevent the introduction of box tree moth (Cydalima perspectalis), the agency said in a Dec. 21 bulletin. APHIS said the moth was detected in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
USDA promoted Michael Watson to administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the agency said in a news release Dec. 20. Watson had been associate administrator since 2018, and served as acting administrator on “several occasions,” USDA said. The agency also named Georgette Furukawa chief of staff for the Agricultural Marketing Service. Furukawa previously was an adviser to the White House chief of staff's Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander team.
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Correction: An Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official said Dec. 5 that she doesn’t yet have a timeline for phase VIII of Lacey Act declaration enforcement, which she said is “hopefully the last phase” of the implementation of Lacey Act declaration requirements (see 2312050078).
Wrangling over the federal budget has delayed an announcement of the particulars of phase VII of Lacey Act enforcement, as well as the subsequent six-month countdown until new declaration requirements are enforced, said Erin Otto, part of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Lacey Act team, during a webinar hosted by the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow imports of fresh, chilled or frozen beef from Paraguay, it said in a notice released Nov. 13. Effective Dec. 14, fresh beef from Paraguay may be imported under the same import conditions as imports of fresh beef from Uruguay and approved regions of Argentina and Brazil. APHIS said in an emailed news release that it expects the beef imports to be under 6,500 metric tons per year, "in part due to a quota Paraguay faces on beef exports to the United States."
The upcoming, near-certain government shutdown should last at least one week, and has a good chance of lasting three weeks or more, said Nicole Bivens Collinson, legislative counsel for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, speaking on a call hosted by the NCBFAA Sept. 29.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to amend its regulations that prevent introduction of African swine fever so that they also apply to importation of live dogs for resale. The proposed rule would mostly adopt, but with slightly different microchip requirements, a federal order issued in 2021 that set permit, microchip, documentation and other import requirements for imported dogs of less than 6 months of age that will be transferred to another person for more than de minimis consideration (this includes such transactions as retail sale, wholesale and fee-based adoption). Comments on the proposed rule are due Nov. 27.
A final rule that took effect in early 2022, ending bovine spongiform encephalopathy-related import restrictions for live sheep and goats and most sheep and goat products is the target of a bill introduced by five Republican senators from Western states. Sen. John Barasso, R-Wyo., tried to stop this rule before, in January 2022 (see 2201130006). USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said that the restrictions were put in place before "extensive research” showed that sheep and goats “pose a minimal risk of spreading BSE” (see 2112020022).
Even though thousands of CBP employees will be required to work without pay to clear cargo in the case of a government shutdown on Sunday, importers are preparing for problems, since they have experienced them in previous shutdowns.