Info on relaxation of USDA import rules for seed

Harold Koopowitz hkoopowi@uci.edu
Tue, 04 May 2004 13:51:03 PDT
As I read the rules Russell, you would have to apply for a new permit for 
each consignment. This is not at all like my current plant import permit 
that is good for 5 years. Please tell me that I am wrong.
Harold

At 06:15 PM 5/3/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>Except for the limits on the number of seeds per packet and the number of 
>packets per shipment, the proposed regulations sound very much like the 
>ones already in place for importation of seeds of woody plants.  The rules 
>require such seed to be imported through one of the designated APHIS 
>stations.  My Royal Horticultural Society shipment always includes some 
>seeds of woody plants and always enters through New York APHIS, and 
>although USDA is slower than I would like in inspecting the seeds and 
>relaying them to me I have otherwise had no problems.
>
>As Joe said, you only need to give general information on the import 
>permit -- such as some of the genera that you're likely to import and the 
>countries you're most likely to import them from.  A few weeks later you 
>receive your permit (good for 5 years) and a supply of yellow and green 
>labels to be sent to suppliers, along with a copy of your permit.  If you 
>run out of labels USDA will send more.
>
>It appears to me that these new rules would in many cases be a significant 
>improvement over the current ones.  Some provision needs to be made for 
>importing genera such as Hypericum that tend to have very fine seeds, and 
>the labeling requirements (if taken literally) seem too fussy, but in 
>general these rules will make it much easier and less costly for entities 
>such as the Royal Horticultural Society to send seed to the U.S.
>
>In short, far better and less burdensome to be required to obtain a permit 
>-- good for 5 years -- to import small quantities of seeds than to be 
>required to obtain a phyto certificate for each importation.
>
>Russell
>
>At 10:36 PM 5/1/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>>Dear All,
>>
>>After reading through all of this it sounds like a different permit would 
>>be required for each shipment of seed. So if say one of the members of 
>>this list in another country wanted to send seed to one of us in the 
>>United States we would have to ask for a permit for that seed by name and 
>>include where it was coming from. If the permit were granted it would be 
>>sent to the person along with labels for where to send the seed and then 
>>the seed would be sent there to be inspected and if o.k. it would then be 
>>sent on to the recipient. Is that the way everyone else interprets this? 
>>There would be extra cost for postage to ask for the permit, to send the 
>>permit on to the exporter if granted and then to pay for the seed to go 
>>for inspection and then back to you. It sounds like for a seed exchange 
>>the person receiving the seed would have to know ahead of time what it 
>>would be in order to request the permit for each donor and a bit of a 
>>nightmare to do all the paper work. Is this what Leo means by thinking 
>>the new system might be worse than the old one?
>>
>>Mary Sue
>
>Russell Stafford
>Odyssey Bulbs
>8984 Meadow Lane, Berrien Springs, Michigan  49103
>269-471-4642
>http://www.odysseybulbs.com/
>
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