Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is making available for review and comment a proposal to adjust import requirements in the USDA Plants for Planting Manual for imports of carnation cuttings from Kenya. Currently, carnation cuttings from Kenya must remain quarantined for a year after they enter the United States. APHIS proposes to allow the cuttings to be imported into the United States without any post entry quarantine requirements as long as certain conditions are met. This adjustment to the Plants for Planting Manual would still continue to address the possible introduction of quarantine pests through the importation of such cuttings.
The import conditions include requirements for registering places where the carnation cuttings will be produced with the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of Kenya. Those places would have strict requirements for safeguarding the sites with well-maintained insect proof screening and other pest protection measures. Regular inspections would be required for the plants destined for the United States and those plants would all need to be produced in a site devoted to such plants. Cuttings would need to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration that the plants were produced in a production site registered with the NPPO of Kenya, and that the plants were grown under conditions specified by APHIS to prevent infestation. Cuttings would be limited to commercial consignments only.
APHIS will consider all comments received on or before July 8, 2019. Go to: http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2018-0068.
