The USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service has set a $350 fee to be charged for each license issued authorizing imports of certain dairy articles according to the 2026 tariff rate quota year, it said in a Federal Register notice. The fee amount, effective Aug. 15, covers calendar year 2026; licenses are issued on a calendar year basis.
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will stop accepting paper submissions of the Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) 505 or 505B form as of Jan. 1, 2026, APHIS said in an emailed alert. Filers will need to submit their declarations using CBP's ACE or the USDA-APHIS Lacey Act Web Governance System (LAWGS). Those who submit a paper declaration after Jan. 1 will be violating the Lacey Act, APHIS said.
Fruit imported from New Zealand no longer needs documentation declaring that the fruit is free of the light brown apple moth (LBAM), the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said in a Federal Register notice. This deregulation action is effective July 25.
The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is asking the Office of Management and Budget to allow the agency to continue information collection on imports of poultry meat and poultry products from the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora, saying that these two states pose negligible risk of introducing Newcastle disease, it said in a Federal Register notice.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is seeking public comments on an information collection related to plant pest and noxious weeds regulations. APHIS collects information so that the agency can evaluate the risks associated with the importation or interstate movement of plant pests, noxious weeds, and soil, under the Plant Protection Act. The information collection also can assist with developing risk mitigations, if necessary, for the importation or interstate movement of plant pests, noxious weeds and soil, APHIS said. Comments are due by Sept. 22.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is allowing imports of Phalaenopsis spp. orchid plants from Germany and the Netherlands to the U.S., provided that the plants are in approved growing media and have met all relevant requirements listed in USDA's Plants for Planting Manual and "detailed in a bilateral workplan." The changes take effect July 22.
The USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service plans to remove "obsolete, unnecessary, and outdated provisions in title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulation," which includes removing regulations for temporary duties on imports of Canadian fresh fruit and vegetables when certain specified conditions are met, it said in a Federal Register notice. The change is effective July 18.
The U.S. will not import specialty sugars "beyond what U.S. international obligations dictate," so that American sugar producers can gain a greater foothold in the market, the USDA said in a July 14 release.
USDA announced it will again close the southern border to livestock trade “effective immediately,” after another detection of New World Screwworm in Mexico, it said in a July 9 news release. The agency had previously said it would reopen southern border ports to cattle, bison and horse imports in phases, with the Douglas, Arizona, port of entry the first to reopen July 7. However, the newly reported New World Screwworm case “raises significant concern about the previously reported information shared by Mexican officials and severely compromises the outlined port reopening schedule of five ports from July 7-September 15,” USDA said in the release.
The federal government is looking to increase enforcement on “logistics providers, customs brokers, and other trade intermediaries” that are responsible for importing “dangerous biochemicals and biological agents,” USDA and other agencies said in a National Farm Security Action Plan released July 8.