13 May 2009

[US] Budget, Regulatory Agendas Give Insight Into Agency Priorities

The following is extracted from today's edition of ST&R's “WorldTrade Interactive”.

The Obama administration recently issued its fiscal year 2010 budget proposal, which offers insight into the issues on which federal agencies will focus their efforts in the coming year. In addition, those agencies have published the latest versions of their semiannual regulatory agendas, which indicate the status of ongoing rulemakings. Beginning today with the Department of Agriculture, WTI will highlight points of interest from the budget proposal and regulatory agendas of the major agencies with oversight of international trade functions.

Budget Proposal

…. • legislation will be submitted for a performance-based user fee that will be charged to plants that have sample failures or require additional inspection activities due to a pattern of regulatory non-compliance

• $153 million for inspections of import establishments, up $8 million from FY 09 and $21 million from FY 08…

Regulatory Agenda

…. • APHIS is planning to issue by the end of June a proposed rule to establish a new category in the regulations governing the importation of nursery stock that would list nursery stock whose importation is not authorized pending risk assessment.

• An APHIS proposed rule under which countries would be classified as negligible risk, controlled risk or undetermined risk for bovine spongiform encephalopathy is anticipated by the end of June. Under this proposal some commodities would be allowed importation regardless of the BSE classification of the country of export while other commodities would be subject to importation restrictions or prohibitions based on the type of commodity and the BSE classification of the country. …

• APHIS still has no anticipated date for issuing a final rule that removes the exemptions from inspection for fruits and vegetables grown in Canada and the exemptions from user fees for commercial vessels, trucks, railroad cars and aircraft entering the U.S. from Canada.

• APHIS expects to issue by the end of May a final rule increasing the user fees charged for export certification of plants and plant products for fiscal years 2009 through 2012. …