Plant Health Inspections Return

Aphis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, will eliminate the exemption from agricultural quarantine inspection (AQI) requirements and implement inspection fees for commercial aircraft (including on-demand charter aircraft) flying from Canada to the U.S., effective November 24. So the family ficus will again become the focus of government agents, and subject to a $70.25 user fee for aircraft entering the U.S. from Canada, as well as a $5-per-passenger fee. The fees were imposed through an emergency rulemaking, sidestepping the publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking. Aphis justified the emergency rule as required “to prevent the introduction of plant pests and animal diseases into the U.S. via conventional pathways or through bio-terrorism and to recover the cost of the needed inspections.”