The Agricultural Marketing Service is proposing to make changes to its National List of substances allowed and prohibited in organic products, it said in a notice released March 24. The proposed rule would “add potassium hypochlorite for pre-harvest use as a sanitizer in organic crop production and fatty alcohols for sucker control in organic tobacco production,” AMS said. “In addition, this rule proposes to remove the listing for dairy cultures, as it is redundant with an existing listing.” Comments are due May 24.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow the importation of peppers from Colombia, it said in a notice. Conditions for importation include packing requirements, phytosanitary certificates from the Colombian government, registration of production locations, and port of entry inspections, among other things, the notice said. Peppers from Colombia may be authorized for importation upon publication of the notice in the Federal Register March 25.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation announced March 18 that Special Import Quota #22 for upland cotton will be established March 25, allowing importation of 8,408,469 kilograms (38,619 bales) of upland cotton, the same as the previous quota period. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than June 22, 2021, and entered into the U.S. by Sept. 20, 2021. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the November 2020 through January 2021 period, the most recent three months for which data is available.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced its Core PGA Message Set is now being fully enforced in ACE. “Users must submit message set data for regulated products like plants, plant products, animal products, and live dog imports or their entry will reject,” it said by email March 15. APHIS listed a “multitude” of resources that users may use as references: the APHIS ACE website, the APHIS Core Implementation Guide, the APHIS Supplemental Trade Guide, APHIS Core Message Set webinars, and its Harmonized Tariff Schedule flags. “Brokers, filers and importers may also contact the APHIS Core Message Set Help Desk at 1-833-481-2102, Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. to get assistance with their entry, or they can submit APHIS Core Message Set questions by e-mail to ace.itds@usda.gov,” APHIS said. The agency had been taking a soft enforcement approach since January (see 2101210035).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation announced March 11 that Special Import Quota #21 for upland cotton will be established March 18, allowing importation of 8,408,469 kilograms (38,619 bales) of upland cotton, slightly down from 8,648,011 kilograms (39,720 bales) in the previous quota period. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than June 15, 2021, and entered into the U.S. by Sept. 13, 2021. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the November 2020 through January 2021 period, the most recent three months for which data is available.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is adding Timor-Leste to its list of regions subject to import restrictions on pork and pork products because it is affected by African swine fever, it said in a notice released March 12. Restrictions take effect retroactively to Sept. 30, 2019.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to allow imports of non-precleared sand pears from South Korea into all U.S. ports, it said in a notice released March 12. Currently, non-precleared sand pears from the country can be imported only into the Port of Honolulu, and only fruit imported under an APHIS preclearance program is allowed into all ports. The non-precleared sand pears would be subject to the import conditions of the “systems approach” currently required for precleared fruit. Comments are due May 14.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reopening the period for comments on potential regulations it is considering on the movement, including importation, of animals modified or developed by genetic engineering, it said in a notice March 8. Jointly issued in December by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Food Safety Inspection Service (see 2012230087), USDA's advance notice of proposed rulemaking contemplates that the APHIS would conduct assessments of genetically engineered animals, and FSIS would conduct pre-slaughter inspections. Importation and interstate movement would be subject to permitting requirements. USDA’s approach would be similar to recent regulations on the movement of genetically engineered plants (see 2005180023), with some differences, the ANPRM said. Comments are now due by May 7.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation announced March 4 that Special Import Quota #20 for upland cotton will be established March 11, allowing importation of 8,648,011 kilograms (39,720 bales) of upland cotton, the same as the previous quota period. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than June 8, 2021, and entered into the U.S. by Sept. 6, 2021. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the October 2020 through December 2020 period, the most recent three months for which data is available.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation announced Feb. 25 that Special Import Quota #19 for upland cotton will be established March 4, allowing importation of 8,648,011 kilograms (39,720 bales) of upland cotton, down from 9,464,255 kilograms (43,469 bales) in the previous quota period. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than June 1, 2021, and entered into the U.S. by Aug. 30, 2021. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the October 2020 through December 2020 period, the most recent three months for which data is available.