Draft Vietnam Fumigation Requirements

The U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has released draft fumigation requirements for U.S. exports of DDG, corn and wheat in containers. The documents provide guidance for industry on container fumigations, and a checklist for official inspectors to be used during the export phytosanitary inspection of containerized DDG, corn and wheat.  The documents incorporate comments received from industry over the past few weeks. NAEGA is asking all members to consider these drafts and submit comments or revisions as soon as possible.

• Industry requirements for container fumigation
• Checklist for Official Inspection of DDG/Corn /Wheat to Viet Nam

Regional and Seasonal AD/CVD Letter

On Wednesday, August 30 NAEGA joined a letter to USTR Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn regarding proposed changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that would change trade remedy law by re-defining domestic industry on a seasonal/regional basis, making it easier for all three nations to impose anti-dumping duties on imports of many types of produce. The letter calls on the Administration to withhold from introducing any provisions that would encourage trading partners to raise tariffs by using regional and seasonal effects as a justification.

A copy of the letter can be found here.

CSG West Meeting

On Friday, August 22 NAEGA President and CEO Gary Martin presented remotely before the Council of State Government’s West (CSG West) Annual meeting. CSG West is a non-profit organization that facilitates regional cooperation, exchange of information and fosters the strengthening of legislative institutions among its 13 member states in the Western United States and Pacific Island territories. During his presentation before the Agriculture and Water Committee, Gary highlighted the latest from the NAFTA negotiations, previewed NAEGA policy positions on international trade and updated participants on U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade activities.

A copy of Gary’s presentation can be found here.

New NAEGA Directory

A new membership directory is now available for NAEGA members. The new directory can be found here, or on the NAEGA members only webpage. NAEGA Member Directories include a comprehensive list of NAEGA’s Board, leadership and membership and committee participation. Please review the directory and let us know if you have any changes.

Vietnam Fumigation Proposal

Over the past few month NAEGA has been working closely with industry and the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to develop a phytosanitary protocol for exports of DDGs, wheat and corn in bulk and containers to Vietnam. APHIS has now released draft fumigation plans for containers and bulk cargoes that were shared with Vietnam’s Plant Protection Department (PPD) last week. APHIS is optimistic that PPD will soon be deferring to APHIS phyto-sanitary certifications for imports of the U.S. origin products based on these protocols. When PPD approves these documents, APHIS is confident that an APHIS phyto will be sufficient for import into Vietnam.

The draft documents include:

• Fumigation requirements for bulk DDGs, corn and wheat;
• Fumigation requirements for containerized DDGs, corn and wheat;
• Industry requirements for containerized fumigation;
• FGIS checklist for official inspection of corn, wheat and DDGs to Vietnam

Please let Gary or Ryan know if you have any comments on these documents.

Decree 177

NAEGA continues to stand-by to support industry and answer any questions regarding continued U.S. government and industry efforts to ensure compliance with China’s Decree 177. As part of this support, please refer to the following document containing a detailed background on NAEGA efforts to date. The background is drawn from NAEGA Outreach reporting over the last 18 months.

• China Decree 177 background

Risk Based Sampling Symposium

A trip report is now available for NAEGA Senior Advisor Arvid Hawk’s travel to Baltimore and Arlington, VA to attend the Risk Based Sampling Symposium on June 25-30. In Baltimore, Arvid attended and reported back on the RBS symposium, which sought to educate industry and regulators on risk-based sampling methods that provide a consistent and reliable measure of action rates for commodities, approach rates for pests, and infestation rates for shipments. Arvid is NAEGA Senior Advisor specializing in sampling and meeting product specifications. He attended and gathered information in order to advance understanding of RBS applications to GRNOS.

Following his attendance at the RBS Symposium, Mr. Hawk traveled on to Arlington, VA to brief NAEGA staff and discuss his work plan for the remainder of 2017.

IPPC IAG Meeting

A trip report is now available for IGTC Secretariat Katy Lee’s travel to Arlington, VA to advance NAEGA and IGTC efforts regarding the utilization of information technology to improve security, predictability and efficiency in the international movement of grain. Between June 26 and 28 Katy traveled to Arlington participate in:

• International Plant Protection Convention’s (IPPC) ePhyto Hub Industry Advisory Group: On June 27, NAEGA-hosted a meeting at NAEGA’s Arlington, VA headquarters of the IPPC’s EPhyto Hub Industry Advisory Group (IAG). The advisory group met at the request of IPPC Secretary Jingyuan Xia and was attended by six global trade flows and five national government representatives. Ms. Lee organized and attended as a representative of the IGTC.
• Meeting of the ePhyto Pproject Industry Advisory Group with representatives of Embassies and Consulates in Washington, D.C.: On June 28 Ms. Lee coordinated with IPPC and the Canadian Embassy meetings on the progress of the project, the impact on GRNOS and NAEGA UES accomplishments related to trading documentation technologies.

Geneva IGTC Meetings

A trip report is now available for travel to Geneva on June 20-24 for Gary Martin, President and CEO of NAEGA and President of the IGTC. In Geneva, Gary joined Katy, Secretariat of the International Grain Trade Coalition (IGTC), for a series of meetings to support NAEGA 2017 and 2018 UES objectives largely executed via the IGTC. In particular, Gary held meetings to report on and receive recommendations for IGTC actions to address facilitation of trade with China, to consider parameters for the establishment of new commercial and official practices related to information management and implementation of regulations and to explore options for modification of the IGTC business plan. During his time in Geneva, Gary and Katy met with IGTC members and corporate stakeholders to update them on the implementation of the IGTC Business Plan and recent developments in IGTC policy filed.

Call with Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture

On Wednesday, July 2 NAEGA’s NAFTA and Asia-Pacific Policy Teams participated in a call with James Kettel, Executive Director of the Trade and Value Added Branch of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture to discuss the Ministry’s work on trade and the upcoming NAFTA agreement. During the call, NAEGA communicated its efforts on NAFTA, including a brief on the comments already submitted to the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments.

A copy of NAEGA NAFTA comments can be found here:

• United States
• Canada
• Mexico