On June 12 the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:

The Food Safety and Inspection Service said a group of 16 officials who work on Codex issues from 8 African countries (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Togo, and Uganda) participated in the second African Mentoring Program, May 18-26, in Washington, D.C. The program was organized by the U.S. Codex Office, FSIS said, in conjunction with the Foreign Agricultural Service and the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at the Texas A & M University.

The comment period on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s March 2012 proposed rule on conditions of importation of bovines and bovine products with regard to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) should be extended by another 60 days following completion of the Department of Agriculture’s epidemiological investigation of the recently detected BSE case in California, said the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund -- United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) in comments submitted to APHIS.

On June 11 the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:

A physical working group of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH), attended by about 80 participants from over 20 countries and 3 observer groups, was held in Parma, Italy, May 29-June 1 to further progress the Proposed Draft Principles and Guidelines for the Establishment and Application of Microbiological Criteria Related to Foods, said the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

The Agricultural Marketing Service issued a proposed rule that would amend the Cotton Board Rules and Regulations to increase the supplemental assessment rate and change the Harmonized Tariff Schedule statistical reporting numbers that were amended since the last assessment adjustment. AMS said the changes are necessary to ensure that assessments collected on imported raw cotton and the cotton content of imported products are the same as assessments collected on domestically produced cotton.

The Codex Committee for Asia (CCASIA) requested comments from Codex members and interested international organizations on a proposed draft regional standard for tempe, a compact, white, cake-form product prepared from dehulled boiled soybeans through solid state fermentation with Rhizopus spp., said the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Comments on the U.S. response are due by Sept. 7 and should be sent to USCodex@fsis.usda.gov. International organizations may send their comments directly to the Codex Secretariat (codex@fao.org), with a copy to Dr. Takako Yano, Secretary for the CCASIA, ccasia@nm.maff.go.jp by September 15. The circular letter containing the proposed draft regional standard is available here.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service amended the fruits and vegetables regulations to allow imports of tomatoes from the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) into the continental U.S., effective July 12. As a condition of entry, tomatoes from ECOWAS will be subject to a systems approach that includes requirements for pest exclusion at the production site, fruit fly trapping and monitoring, and procedures for packing the tomatoes, APHIS said. The tomatoes will also be required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the national plant protection organization of the exporting country, APHIS said, with an additional declaration that the tomatoes have been produced in accordance with these requirements.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reopened the comment period on its January 24, 2011, interim rule that prohibited or restricted the import of bird and poultry products from regions where any subtype of highly pathogenic avian influenza is considered to exist. The interim rule also imposed restrictions on imports of live poultry and birds that have been vaccinated for certain types of avian influenza, or that have moved through regions where any subtype of highly pathogenic avian influenza is considered to exist.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service revised export requirements and plant lists for the following countries for June 1 through June 8: