Regulatory Agencies List New Trade-Related Rules in Spring Unified Agenda

(NOTE: This is not an exhaustive list of import/export related regulations scheduled in the Unified Agenda. Many regulations appear in every edition of the agenda and are continually postponed. The rules listed below reflect new additions and notable changes from past agendas. See the full Unified Agenda for more detail.)

With deadlines fast approaching, the Food and Drug Administration’s agenda (here) includes final rules for several regulations required under the Food Safety Modernization Act. The agenda lists final rules on the Foreign Supplier Verification Program and accreditation of third-party food safety auditors for publication in October, consistent with the Oct. 31 deadline ordered by a federal court in 2014 (see 14022124. The third-party accreditation system must be established before FDA can move forward with plans for the Voluntary Qualified Importer Program, the agency has said (see 1503260014). FDA’s unified agenda also includes a new entry for proposed user fees for work performed by FDA to establish and administer the third-party auditor accreditation system.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service included a new entry in the Department of Agriculture’s unified agenda (here) for a proposed rule that would bring its nutrition labeling in line with proposed changes to nutrition facts labels required by FDA (see 14022713). Like FDA’s rule, the FSIS proposal would update the list of nutrients required to be declared, provide updated daily reference values, and update the format of the labels. The proposed rule would also establish nutrient reference values for foods for children under four years old and lactating women.

Meanwhile, expected changes to agricultural quarantine and inspection fees from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service are still listed for publication as a final rule following an extended comment period for the controversial proposal (see 14042321). So is a final rule withdrawing the exemption from treatment and marking requirements for wood packaging materials from Canada, which is now listed for publication in May. APHIS had said it would publish the final rule by December 2014 in the agenda it issued this past fall (see 1411250040).

Proposals to overhaul Fish and Wildlife Service import and export regulations and permit procedures remain on the Department of the Interior’s unified agenda (here). The proposed rewrite of the FWS import and export regulations would include changes to the “port structure and inspection fees,” while making the regulations “easier to understand through the use of simpler language, format changes, and tables,” said FWS. Proposed permitting changes would include increases in application fees and a “clarification” of the permit appeal process, affecting permits under the Endangered Species Act, Lacey Act, and other conservation-related statutes. Both proposals have been listed since spring 2013.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission included in its agenda (here) a new proposed rule to reduce third-party testing burdens. Other new proposed rules on the agenda include standard-setting activities for fireworks, as well as infant and toddler gates, infant and toddler inclined sleep products and crib bumpers. The Spring 2015 CPSC agenda changed the status of proposed rules on voluntary recalls, all-terrain vehicles, table saws and firepots used with gel fuel, moving them to the “long-term activities” category. Expected final rules in CPSC’s agenda include changes to the regulations on information disclosure and new standards of recreational off-road vehicles and extension cords. A final rule on certificates of compliance remains on hold while CPSC conducts a pilot to test filing of the certificates at entry (see 1503120069).