Import/Export Fees
The Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has announced the rates it will charge importers and exporters, meat and poultry establishments, and egg products plants in 2025 for providing voluntary, overtime, and holiday inspection and identification, certification, and laboratory services. Effective Jan. 12 these rates are as follows (per hour/per employee).
- basetime: $73.04 (up from $71.64)
- overtime: $89.68 (up from $87.96)
- holiday: $106.32 (up from $104.28)
- laboratory: $105.68 (up from $103.24)
- electronic export application: $4.83 (up from $4.01)
Import Inspection Fees
The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has issued a final rule that, effective Jan. 29, will make the following changes to the Section 8e import inspection fee structure, which affects imports of avocados, onions, grapes, oranges, kiwifruit, tomatoes, grapefruit, filberts, and potatoes.
- changing fees for lots qualifying as a full car lot (or a whole lot) or less than a full car lot from a per-car lot basis to a per-pound basis
- reducing the fee for each additional sublot by 50 percent to $58
- establishing a new fee calculation for lots less than a car lot
Corn Exports
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Dec. 20 that a panel under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has agreed with the U.S. that Mexico’s biotechnology measures concerning genetically-engineered corn are not based on science and undermine the market access Mexico agreed to provide under the USMCA. The U.S. had challenged two sets of measures reflected in a February 2023 presidential decree: (1) an immediate ban on the use of GE corn in dough and tortillas, and (2) an instruction to Mexican government agencies to gradually eliminate the use of GE corn for other food uses and in animal feed. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the panel decision “ensures that U.S. producers and exporters will continue to have full and fair access to the Mexican market,” which is the U.S.’ largest export market for corn.
Poultry Imports
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has imposed the restrictions listed below on importations from Ibaraki prefecture (effective Dec. 29) and Aichi and Iwate prefectures (effective Jan. 2) in Japan and zone PCZ-252 in Ontario, Canada (effective Dec. 14) based on determinations that highly-pathogenic avian influenza exists in domestic birds in these areas.
- Imports of unprocessed avian products and byproducts and certain fresh poultry products originating from or transiting these areas are prohibited.
- Imports of poultry, commercial birds, ratites, and hatching eggs originating from or transiting these areas are prohibited.
- Processed avian products and byproducts originating from or transiting these areas, 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.
- 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 these areas 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 restrictions on imports of poultry, commercial birds, ratites, avian hatching eggs, unprocessed avian products and byproducts, and certain fresh poultry products originating from or transiting Gifu prefecture (effective Dec. 23), Saitama prefecture (effective Dec. 26), and Miyazaki prefecture (effective Jan. 2) in Japan and zone PCZ-245 in Alberta, Canada (effective Dec. 30).
Pineapple from Indonesia
APHIS is considering a request to allow imports of fresh pineapple fruit from Indonesia into the U.S. for consumption and has drafted a pest risk assessment that lists the potential pests likely to remain on this commodity upon importation if no mitigation is applied. Comments on this assessment, including information that might lead APHIS to revise its assessment before identifying pest mitigations and proceeding with the commodity import approval process, are due by Feb. 28.
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