The U.S. Department of Agriculture revised the appendices to its Dairy Tariff-Rate Import Quota Licensing Regulation for the 2016 tariff-rate quota year, in a final rule that takes effect Aug. 26 (here). USDA is making the changes to reflect the cumulative annual transfers from Appendix 1 to Appendix 2 for certain dairy product import licenses permanently surrendered by licensees or revoked by the Foreign Agricultural Service.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Aug. 24 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables and flowers.
On Aug. 24 the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports:
On Aug. 23 the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN report:
The Agricultural Marketing Service seeks comments on a petition to revise U.S. Standards for grades of carcass beef, it said (here). Under a change proposed by several beef trade associations, dentition and documentation of actual age would be added as additional criteria for maturity grouping for official quality grading. Currently, the standards only include skeletal and muscular evidence, AMS said. Comments are due Oct. 24.
The Foreign Agricultural Service will charge a fee of $250 for the 2017 tariff-rate quota (TRQ) year for each license issued to a person or firm by the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorizing the importation of certain dairy articles that are subject to tariff-rate quotas set forth in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), it said (here). The fee is unchanged from last year's fee of $250 for 2016 TRQ licenses (see 1508030016).
On Aug. 22 the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports:
The Agricultural Marketing Service is reissuing a proposal to amend its regulations on the beef promotion and research order to increase fee assessments on importers of veal and veal products, and to update the table of Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) numbers subject to importer assessments, it said (here). The new proposal replaces a notice it issued in March but subsequently withdrew to correct errors, it said. Comments on the proposal are due Oct. 24.
On Aug. 19 the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports:
On Aug. 18 the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports: