The Food Safety Inspection Service will allow exports of raw poultry products from Honduras to the U.S., FSIS said in a final rule. “The FSIS review of Honduras’ laws, regulations, and inspection system demonstrated that its poultry slaughter inspection system is equivalent to the system FSIS has established under the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) and its implementing regulations,” the agency said. The determination applies only to raw poultry products. Honduras would need to get a separate equivalency determination for exports of heat-treated poultry such as canned or cooked product, FSIS said. Also, despite the equivalency determination, Honduras is currently ineligible to ship raw poultry to the U.S. because it is not recognized by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to be free of Newcastle Disease, FSIS said. The final rule takes effect May 6.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing new standards that would allow it to recognize “compartments” for animal disease status in foreign countries. The standards would ”closely parallel” procedures for recognizing the disease status of regions in foreign countries for the purposes of setting import restrictions on livestock. Compartmentalization, as recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health, “is a procedure that a country may implement to define and manage animal subpopulations of distinct health status and under common biosecurity management within its territory,” APHIS said. “Compartmentalization is distinct from regionalization, which involves the recognition of geographical zones of a country that can be identified and characterized by their level of risk for different diseases, but the two are not mutually exclusive.” Comments are due June 3.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is adding China to its list of regions subject to import restrictions on pork and pork products because they are affected by African swine fever, it said. China reported an outbreak of the swine disease in August 2018. "As a result, pork and pork products, including casings, from China are subject to APHIS import restrictions designed to mitigate the risk of ASF introduction into the United States," the notice said. Restrictions take effect retroactively to Aug. 6, 2018.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is moving toward allowing imports of jujube fruit from China. The agency issued a draft pest risk analysis that recommended imports of jujube be allowed, with certain conditions including an import permit, phytosanitary certificate from the Chinese government, registration of production locations and packinghouses, and port of entry inspections, among other things. Comments on the draft pest risk analysis are due May 24.
Filing in ACE of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service “core” partner government agency (PGA) message set data is about to be announced in a Federal Register notice coming in “March or April,” beginning a six- to nine-month informed compliance period before the new data becomes mandatory, Livingston International said in a client alert. The new electronic filing requirements will cover APHIS-regulated commodities, besides Lacey Act data, which is already mandatory in ACE, and will include PGA message set data from 18 paper licenses, permits, certificates and other documents, including health certificates, phytosanitary certificates and import permits. An update to the CBP and trade advanced interface requirements (CATAIR) for APHIS Core, issued in October 2016, “will be required and is expected that it will be reissued upon the announcement,” Livingston said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing minor revisions to its regulations on importation of live dogs, in a broader proposed rule amending Animal Welfare Act licensing provisions in general. The agency would clarify language in its dog import licensing and certification regulations to clarify that dogs intended for resale for research purposes, or dogs intended for resale following veterinary treatment, must be imported with an import permit and accompanying certifications. APHIS would also replace references to the “continental United States or Hawaii” with the word “States,” which is defined elsewhere as “a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or any other territory or possession of the United States.” That’s intended to clarify that no import permit is required when transporting dogs within the U.S., APHIS said. Comments are due May 21.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has preliminarily found the state of Baja California, Mexico, free of fever ticks, and also preliminarily found Singapore free from foot-and-mouth disease. If it confirms these findings, certain restrictions on importation of ruminants from Baja California and on live ruminants and swine from Singapore may be lifted. Comments on each evaluation are due May 20.
Broad descriptions of the budget for trade-related operations show the administration would like to spend more on enforcement, and would like to collect more fees from travelers and traders. The submissions, released March 11, for fiscal year 2020, asked for $9 million more for the Bureau of Industry and Security -- slightly more than last year's requested increase. "The Budget increases resources to support the Department of Commerce's membership in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the summary said. "The Budget includes $16 million to support the President’s robust trade agenda," the summary said, including implementing the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act of 2019, which asked Commerce to identify emerging technologies that should be subject to export controls. The summary said the administration wants to establish "a new initiative within the International Trade Administration to counter the circumvention or evasion of U.S. trade actions aimed at those who engage in unfair and illegal trade practices."
Most import and export activities conducted by the Agriculture Department will continue at near full strength in the new year, despite the agency running out of funds for some other activities due to the federal government shutdown, USDA said in a press release. According to the agency’s shutdown plan, 89 percent of Food Safety and Inspection Service staff will remain on the job for activities including meat, poultry and egg inspection and laboratory work. The Agricultural Marketing Service will also keep 89 percent of its current staff, including for voluntary grading and inspection services. For the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, 69 percent will continue working through the shutdown, for preclearance and inspection activities related to fruits and vegetables, phytosanitary certificate and agricultural quarantine and inspection (AQI) activities, including after business hours. More heavily affected is the Foreign Agricultural Service, which will only keep 15 percent of its staff, including foreign service personnel assigned to embassies and consulates overseas.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is finalizing changes to its regulations on branding requirements for bovines imported into the U.S. from Mexico, it said. The final rule simplifies and enlarges required brands on imported bovines. “These changes will help prevent inconsistencies in branding that can result in bovines being rejected for import into the United States,” APHIS said. The new provisions take effect Jan. 14.