The House Appropriations Committee by voice vote on July 12 approved fiscal year 2018 agriculture spending legislation, which would maintain responsibility for catfish inspections at the Food Safety and Inspection Service. The bill would also direct the Food and Drug Administration to examine the expediency of medical product imports and instruct the Foreign Agricultural Service to form an inspection working group with Mexican and Central American partners. The working group would be dedicated to improving inspection and supply chain efficiencies, as well as transportation costs, and FAS would be required to brief the committee on those efforts within 180 days of the bill’s enactment, according to the committee report (here) on the bill.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service offered some guidance on importing petunias after the agency learned of unauthorized imports of genetically engineered (GE) flowers in May, APHIS said in a June 26 bulletin (here). "APHIS is working closely with petunia breeders, growers, distributors, and importers to stop unauthorized importation and distribution of GE petunias," the agency said. APHIS posted several documents on the issue, including information on destroying GE petunias (here), testing GE petunias (here), using third-party labs to test petunias (here) and a list of petunia varieties that require authorization (here).
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will test an "offshore greenhouse certification program" for plant cuttings that could help mitigate pest risks for imported plants, the agency said in a June 26 bulletin (here). The initial six-month pilot will begin in October and include "greenhouse facilities in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Colombia that produce generally admissible, unrooted vegetative cuttings for import" into the U.S. The agency will use the pilot to test whether such certifications help reduce pest and disease risks for plant cuttings, it said. "APHIS will inspect and certify participating facilities this summer," it said. "For the duration of the pilot, facilities must adhere to the requirements outlined in the pilot framework. The pilot framework includes standard plant pest exclusion procedures, sanitation and traceability protocols, a summary of the greenhouse certification process, an explanation of how shipments will be handled at U.S. ports of entry, and next steps after the pilot’s conclusion in March 2018." The agency requested public comments within 30 days on the framework (here) about any changes that might be necessary before the test begins.
Methyl bromide fumigation services in Boston are set to end, after the port’s only approved fumigation company announced plans to discontinue its services, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said on June 23 (here). Fumigation services will continue until the fumigator, General Environmental Services, exhausts its remaining supply of methyl bromide gas or by Sept. 1 at the latest, APHIS said. “Based on the amount of fumigant remaining, services will likely end before” Sept. 1, it said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service proposes to allow imports of fresh pomegranates from Turkey, it said (here). Eligibility requirements would include grove registration, sanitation, and pest control measures; packinghouse registration and procedures designed to exclude quarantine pests; cold treatment; and procedures for packing, storing and shipping the pomegranate fruit, APHIS said. Shipments would also have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the Turkish government. Comments are due Aug. 21.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to allow imports of tree tomatoes from Ecuador, it said (here). To be eligible, tree tomatoes from Ecuador would have to be “produced in accordance with a systems approach that would include requirements for importation in commercial consignments, registration and monitoring of places of production, field monitoring and pest-control practices, trapping, and inspection for quarantine pests by the national plant protection organization of Ecuador,” APHIS said. Comments are due Aug. 21.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow imports of fresh pitahaya fruit from Ecuador, subject to certain conditions, it said in a final rule (here). Eligible pitahaya fruit will have to be produced under a systems approach, including requirements for fruit fly trapping, pre-harvest inspections, approved production sites and packinghouse procedures designed to exclude quarantine pests, APHIS said. Imports will also have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate from the government of Ecuador. The final rule takes effect July 20.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to allow importation from Denmark of plants of the genus campanula in approved growing media, it said (here). If finalized, imports of the plants, commonly known as bellflowers, would have to follow measures generally applicable to all plants for planting authorized for importation in approved growing media, APHIS said. Comments are due Aug. 21.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is adding 22 taxa of plants that are quarantine pests, and 34 taxa of plants that are hosts of eight quarantine pests, to its lists of taxa of plants for planting for which importation is not authorized pending pest risk analysis (NAPPRA), it said (here). Effective June 19, importation of these NAPPRA plants is prohibited pending completion of a pest risk analysis, which must be requested, though imports of certain plants from Canada is exempt if Canada has a significant trade history with the U.S. for a particular plant.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service is proposing to allow imports of Chinese poultry products from birds slaughtered in China, it said (here). If finalized, slaughtered poultry processed in certified Chinese establishments would be eligible for export to the U.S., subject to all other applicable requirements and re-inspection at the U.S. port of entry, FSIS said. As it currently stands, eligible products would be limited to cooked poultry due to China’s disease status, it said. The U.S. recently agreed to publish the proposed rule as part of the U.S.-China Economic Cooperation 100-Day Plan (see 1705120003). Comments on the proposed rule are due Aug. 15.