The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes March 26 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 will eliminate a 60-day quarantine requirement for horses, mules and other equines imported from Saudi Arabia, after finding the country free of African Horse Sickness (here). The quarantine requirement remains in effect for all other countries where AHS is present, including all African countries except Morocco, and Oman and Yemen.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced its decisions to allow imports of figs and tejocote fruit from Mexico into the continental U.S., in two notices that take effect March 30 (here) and (here). Imported figs will have to undergo irradiation treatment in either the U.S. or Mexico and be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate, said APHIS. Imported tejocote will have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate that says it has been inspected and is free of pests.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes March 24 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 U.S. and Canada are working on two new initiatives to streamline trade in plant products between the two countries, said the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in a stakeholder update sent on March 23 (here). One project aims to allow quarantine to take place in Canada for plant taxa that have post-entry quarantine conditions for importation into the United States. A second initiative would implement a mechanism to allow for the electronic exchange of phytosanitary certificates under the “e-Cert” data exchange program.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes March 20 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.
CBP will enforce a federal quarantine order recently issued by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection service (see 1503180017) meant to stop imports containing the Mediterranean fruit fly from the Dominican Republic, said CBP (here). The APHIS Administrator has determined that the fly, known as a Medfly, poses a serious threat to U.S. agriculture and "that this serious plant pest threat must be immediately addressed." Medfly is not known to occur in the U.S. except in Hawaii, and it's estimated that the species would be able to establish populations in southern regions of the U.S., said CBP. "Effective immediately, APHIS is suspending all importations of fruit and vegetable commodities known to be Medfly hosts from the Dominican Republic," said CBP.
A proposed increase in the Agricultural Quarantine inspection fees would burden importers and transportation service providers and more analysis is needed, said Reps. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., and Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Fla. in a letter (here). The letter, dated March 23, calls on the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee to withhold funding toward putting the fees in place.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes March 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 North American Plant Protection Organization has selected Stephanie Bloem as its new executive director, said the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in a message to stakeholders emailed on March 18 (here). Bloem is currently a risk analyst in the APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine program.