Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service October 24, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are adopting as a final rule, with nonsubstantive changes, an interim rule that amended the regulations governing the interstate movement of regulated articles from areas quarantined for citrus canker, citrus greening, and/or Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) to allow the movement of regulated nursery stock under a certificate to any area within the United States. In order to be eligible to move regulated nursery stock, a nursery had to enter into a compliance agreement with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that specified the conditions under which the nursery stock must be grown, maintained, and shipped. The interim rule also amended the regulations that allow the movement of regulated nursery stock from an area quarantined for ACP, but not for citrus greening, to amend the existing regulatory requirements for the issuance of limited permits for the interstate movement of the nursery stock. The interim rule was necessary on an immediate basis in order to provide nursery stock producers in areas quarantined for citrus canker, citrus greening, and/or ACP with the ability to ship regulated nursery stock to markets within the United States that would otherwise be unavailable to them due to the prohibitions and restrictions contained in the regulations while continuing to provide adequate safeguards to prevent the spread of the three pests into currently unaffected areas of the United States.

We are amending the regulations to allow, under certain conditions, the cold treatment of imported fruits and vegetables upon arrival at the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, Mascoutah, IL. We have determined that there are biological barriers at this port that, along with certain safeguards, would prevent the introduction of fruit flies and other insect pests into the United States in the unlikely event that they escape from shipments of fruits or vegetables before the fruits or vegetables undergo cold treatment. This action will facilitate the importation of fruit requiring cold treatment while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of fruit flies and other insect pests into the United States.

We are advising the public of our decision to begin allowing the interstate movement into the continental United States of fresh sapote fruit from Puerto Rico. Based on the findings of a pest risk analysis, which we made available to the public for review and comment through a previous notice, we believe that the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds via the interstate movement of sapote fruit from Puerto Rico.