APHIS Allows More Time for Comments on Overhaul of Plant Pest Import Regulations

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is allowing more time for comments on its proposed overhaul of its regulations on importation and interstate movements of plant pests, it said (here). The agency’s proposed rule, issued Jan. 19 (see 1701180029), would codify and clarify existing permitting procedures, and create new lists of exempt plant pests and biological control organisms that APHIS determines present no risk to plants and plant products. The proposal would also set new packaging requirements for plant pests, biological control agents and soil, and revise APHIS’s regulations on importation of soil, stone and quarry products. Comments on the proposal are now due April 19.