Electronic Export System Expanded
The Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service reports that starting May 20 export certificates for meat and poultry products (excluding casings and egg products) exported to the following 21 additional countries and territories will be generated in FSIS’ Public Health Information System: Barbados, Belize, Cabo Verde, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Eswatini, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Nauru, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, South Sudan, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The PHIS export component enables exporters to electronically submit, track, and manage applications for export certificates, including bundling multiple applications and supplemental documents into a single file. Foreign governments have the capability to view all export certificates issued by FSIS for product intended for their country. FSIS is able to digitally sign export certificates and to electronically inventory and track export certificate information, which enables it to review exact images of export certification documents prior to approval.
In the future, FSIS intends to support electronic export certification, which will allow it to transfer certification data directly to the certification system of the foreign government’s competent authority.
Poultry from Canada and Japan
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is restricting the importation of poultry, commercial birds, ratites, avian hatching eggs, unprocessed avian products and byproducts, and certain fresh poultry products originating from or transiting the following areas based on determinations that highly-pathogenic avian influenza exists in domestic birds in these areas.
- zone PCZ-231 in Ontario, Canada (effective Jan. 30)
- Kagawa Prefecture in Japan (effective Feb. 6)
- Kagoshima Prefecture in Japan (effective Feb. 11)
Processed avian products and byproducts originating from or transiting any restricted area, imported as cargo, must be accompanied by an APHIS import permit and/or government certification confirming that the products were treated according to APHIS requirements. Further, importation as cargo of fresh, unprocessed shell/table eggs and other egg products, void of the shell (i.e., liquid eggs, dried egg whites), originating from or transiting any restricted zone is prohibited unless the products are consigned from the port of arrival directly to an APHIS-approved breaking and pasteurization facility. An import permit and/or certificate is not required for these shipments when consigned directly to an APHIS-approved establishment.
Separately, APHIS has removed these restrictions on imports originating from or transiting zones PCZ-200 and -218 in British Columbia and PCZ-229 in Quebec (effective Feb. 9), and zones PCZ-197, -199, and -220 in British Columbia (effective Feb. 15), after the HPAI outbreaks in these areas were completely resolved.
Copyright © 2024 Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.; WorldTrade Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved.