Plants from Europe
The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has announced that, effective June 12, it has recognized the United Kingdom and 21 European Union member states as being free from citrus longhorned beetle and Asian longhorned beetle and removed them from the list of countries where those pests are present. The EU member states that continue to be listed as countries where CLB and/or ALB are present are Austria, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, and Italy.
APHIS is also changing the entry conditions for imports of certain host plant taxa of CLB and ALB from Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK, which will relieve certain restrictions on such imports while continuing to mitigate the risk of introducing quarantine pests into the U.S.
Sugar Imports
The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service has established the amount of certain sugars, syrups, and molasses (refined sugar) that may be imported under the lower tier of duties provided by the tariff-rate quota for these products during FY 2025. Specifically, aggregate quantities of up to 232,000 MTRV (unchanged from FY 2024) may be entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption under this TRQ during this period.
Of this refined sugar TRQ quantity, 211,656 MTRV (also unchanged) is reserved for the importation of specialty sugars, and this TRQ will be opened in five tranches. The first, totaling 1,656 MTRV, will open Oct. 1, and all specialty sugars will be eligible for entry. The additional tranches will open Oct. 8 (75,000 MTRV), Jan. 21 (45,000 MTRV), April 14 (45,000 MTRV), and July 14 (45,000 MTRV) and will each be reserved for organic sugar and other specialty sugars not currently produced commercially in the U.S. or reasonably available from domestic sources.
Also available are 20,344 MTRV for sugars, syrups, and molasses and 1,656 MTRV for specialty sugar.
Pork from Italy
Effective July 12 APHIS has recognized the regions of Tuscany and Umbria in Italy as being free of swine vesicular disease. As a result, live swine, pork, and pork products may be imported into the U.S. from those regions as of that date, subject to specific conditions.
Figs from Chile
APHIS is considering a request to allow imports of fresh figs from Chile 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 July 11.
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