The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued a final rule, effective February 9, 2012, to remove lists of (i) regions classified with respect to certain animal diseases and pests and (ii) States approved to receive horses imported from foreign regions where contagious equine metritis (CEM) exists, from its animal and animal product import regulations. Instead, the lists will be posted on APHIS’ Web site. The regulations will provide the Web address and explain APHIS' criteria and processes for adding a region or a State to, or removing a region or State from, each of the lists. APHIS notes that because the lists will no longer be in the Code of Federal Regulations, changing them will no longer require rulemaking. APHIS states that it will keep the public informed of changes to the lists and provide opportunity for public comment through publications in the Federal Register.
The International Plant Protection Convention announced on January 5, 2012, that it has partnered with the Inter-American Development Bank, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to develop and present a comprehensive training program on pest risk assessment in the Spanish language. This first of its kind program addresses an urgent need for training in pest risk analysis in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has updated the following PPQ electronic manuals through December 29, 2011 (since the last update dated December 19):
At the December 7, 2011 COAC meeting, the COAC Subcommittee on One U.S. Government at the Border (1USG@TB) provided an update on its efforts to identify redundancies with CBP and Participating Government Agency requests for documents/data. The Subcommittee has been focusing its efforts on the PGA member agencies of the Border Interagency Executive Committee1 and has begun a series of phone calls with each of the BIEC’s PGAs in order to discuss issues such as whether there is a need for reliance on paper forms, the viability of leveraging data currently provided to CBP for PGA purposes, how the recognition of an importer’s trusted shipper status by CBP could change the amount/type of data required by a PGA, etc.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to allow, under certain conditions, the importation of commercial shipments of litchi fruit from Australia into the continental U.S., except Florida. As a condition of entry, the litchi fruit would have to be grown in production areas that are registered with and monitored by the national plant protection organization of Australia and treated with irradiation at a dose of 400 gray for plant pests of the class Insecta, except pupae and adults of the order Lepidoptera, and subject to inspection. They would also have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that the conditions for importation have been met. Additionally, litchi would not be imported into or distributed to the State of Florida, due to the presence of litchi rust mite in Australia. Comments are due by February 27, 2012.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is advising the public of its decision, effective December 28, 2011, to authorize the importation into the continental U.S. of fresh shredded lettuce from Egypt. Based on the findings of a pest risk analysis, which APHIS previously made available to the public for review and comment, APHIS has determined that 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 via the importation of fresh shredded lettuce from Egypt.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is advising the public of its decision, effective December 28, 2011, to authorize the importation of fresh litchi from South Africa into the continental U.S. Based on the findings in a pest risk analysis, which APHIS previously made available to the public for review and comment, APHIS believes that 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 via the importation of litchi from South Africa.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to amend the regulations that govern the importation of animals and animal products by revising the list of factors APHIS considers when evaluating the animal health status of a foreign region. Additionally, APHIS is proposing criteria for considering a region to be historically free of a specific disease. These changes would make clearer the type of information APHIS needs from a requesting region to most expeditiously conduct an evaluation. Comments are due by February 27, 2012. Related USDA press release available here.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has updated the following PPQ electronic manuals through December 19, 2011 (since the last update dated December 9):
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to amend the fruits and vegetables regulations to allow the importation of Chinese sand pears (Pyrus pyrifolia) from China into the U.S. As a condition of entry, sand pears from areas in China in which the Oriental fruity fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) is not known to exist would have to be produced in accordance with a systems approach that would include registration requirements for places of production and packinghouses, inspection for quarantine pests, etc. Pears from areas where the fruit fly is known to exist could be imported into the U.S. if, in addition to these requirements, there is a monitoring system in place and the pears are cold treated and accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration that all import conditions have been met and the consignment has been inspected and found free of quarantine pests. Comments are due by February 14, 2011.