The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued a notice (here) delaying until March 27 the effective date of a recent final rule allowing importation of lemons from northwest Argentina into the continental U.S. (here). The final rule, which was originally set to take effect Jan. 23 (see 1612230018), is being delayed to comply with a memorandum issued by the Trump administration to all executive branch agencies (see 1701230031).
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan. 17-20 in case they were missed.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Jan. 20 directed the heads of all executive branch departments and agencies to temporarily postpone until March 21 the effective dates of regulations published in the Federal Register that haven’t taken effect. The Trump administration will review “questions of fact, law, and policy” the regulations raise, Priebus said in the memo (here). The directive also instructs agencies to consider proposing for notice and comment rules to delay the effective date even longer “where appropriate and as permitted by applicable law,” with no further action needed for unsubstantial rulemakings and notification of the Office of Management and Budget for regulations that present substantial law or policy questions.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Jan. 19 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables and flowers.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has preliminarily found Cyprus free of several diseases affecting swine and ruminants, it said (here). In response to a request from the Cypriot government, the agency found Cyprus is free of foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, and swine vesicular disease, and as low risk for classical swine fever. If it confirms these findings, restrictions on importation of swine, ruminants, pork and pork products from Cyprus will be removed. Comments are due March 24.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is placing new restrictions on importation of horses from South Korea (here) and poultry from Lebanon (here), it said. Restrictions on importation of horses and other equines from South Korea, implemented because of an outbreak of contagious equine metritis, takes effect retroactively as of May 7, 2015. Restrictions on imports of live poultry, poultry meat and other poultry products from Lebanon, put in place because of an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, is effective retroactively to April 22, 2016.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service plans to loosen restrictions on importation of live bovines and bovine products from several countries, it said (here). The agency said it preliminarily concurs with the Organization for Animal Health’s decision to classify Costa Rica, Germany, Lithuania, Mexico, Namibia, Romania and Spain as having negligible risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Under a 2013 final rule, bovines and bovine products may be imported from Mexico, Canada, or regions of negligible or controlled risk for BSE, subject to certain conditions (see 13110403). Romania and Namibia are currently not listed as either negligible or controlled risk countries, according to a list on the APHIS website (here). Comments are due March 24.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Jan. 17-18 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables and flowers.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (here) and the Centers for Disease Control (here) issued concurrent final rules amending their regulations related to the Select Agents and Toxins List. Though they made no changes to the actual list in their update, which is required every two years, they added regulatory provisions to address the inactivation of select agents, address biocontainment and biosafety, and clarify regulatory language concerning security, training, incident response and records, APHIS said. “These changes will increase the usability of the select agent regulations as well as providing for enhanced program oversight,” APHIS said.
CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters: