APHIS Streamlines Procedures for Changing Fruit and Veg Import Requirements

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is finalizing a change to its procedures for setting fruit and vegetable import requirements. Under the final rule, APHIS will no longer go through a normal rulemaking process for changes to import requirements. Instead, the agency will simply publish a notice in the Federal Register advising the public of the change. APHIS will still give the public a chance to comment before changes are made through publication of a “pest risk analysis” document detailing the agency’s scientific rationale. The final rule takes effect Oct. 15.

APHIS has said the changes allow it to more nimbly adapt to new information about pests. Using a notice-based process, the agency will be able to change import requirements within six to 12 months, while a formal rulemaking process can last 18 months to three years. APHIS already uses a notice-based process for setting import requirements that involve certain standard phytosanitary measures. Just as with current procedures for standard phytosanitary measures, the public will still have an opportunity to comment on a pest risk analysis document before the final notice is issued, APHIS said.

In addition to the move to a notice-based system, the final rule also eliminates commodity- and country-based import requirements from the APHIS regulations. Instead, these requirements will be available through the FAVIR website. Similarly, requirements for moving fruits and vegetables from Hawaii and U.S. territories to the continental U.S. will be moved from the APHIS regulations to APHIS’s Hawaii and Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands fruits and vegetables manuals. APHIS made almost no changes from a proposal issued in 2014, besides removing references to the now-unused Fruit and Vegetables Manual.

The final rule also creates a procedure for the agency to order emergency import bans. If APHIS finds the phytosanitary measures currently in place for a fruit or vegetable are no longer sufficient to mitigate pest risk, it will be able to prohibit or restrict importation by publishing a notice in the Federal Register that specifies any changes to import requirements and the effective date for the changes, and asks for public comments on the emergency restrictions, APHIS said.

(Federal Register 09/14/18)