Department of Agriculture January 28, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are proposing to amend the regulations concerning the importation of fruits and vegetables to allow the importation of fresh bananas from the Philippines into Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands. As a condition of entry, the bananas would have to be produced in accordance with a systems approach that would include requirements for importation of commercial consignments, monitoring of fruit flies to establish low-prevalence places of production, harvesting only of hard green bananas, and inspection for quarantine pests by the national plant protection organization of the Philippines. The bananas would also have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that they were grown, packed, inspected, and found to be free of quarantine pests in accordance with the proposed requirements. This action would allow the importation of bananas from the Philippines while continuing to protect against the introduction of plant pests into Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

We are proposing to amend the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP, the Plan) and its auxiliary provisions by removing the descriptions of specific tests and sanitation procedures from the regulations. Instead, we would require tests to be performed and sanitation to be maintained in a manner approved by the Administrator. Approved procedures would be listed in an NPIP Program Standards document, which we would make available on the NPIP Web site. In addition, we are proposing to establish new compartment classifications for defined subpopulations of primary breeding turkeys, primary egg- type chickens, and primary meat-type chickens. We would also provide new or modified sampling and testing procedures for Plan participants and participating flocks. The proposed changes were voted on and approved by the voting delegates at the Plan's 2010 and 2012 National Plan Conferences. These changes would streamline the provisions of the Plan, keep those provisions current with changes in the poultry industry, and provide for the use of new sampling and testing procedures.