The Netherlands and Israel have Preclearance programs where the plants are inspected during growth and by a us government foreign assigned inspector. This in in conjunction with the program supervised by the production government. Most Dutch bulbs enter the US as precleared. They are inspected by the department of Homeland Security and are not inspected by USDA because the plants are grown to a higher level of scrutiny. Sent from my iPhone On May 21, 2016, at 23:15, penstemon <penstemon@Q.com> wrote: >> §319.37-3 Permits. >> (a) The restricted articles (other than articles for food, analytical, medicinal, or manufacturing purposes) in any of the following categories may be imported or offered for importation into the United States >only after issuance of a written permit by the Plant Protection and Quarantine Programs in accordance with §§319.7 through 319.7-5:(1) Lots of 13 or more articles (other than seeds of herbaceous plants, >precleared bulbs of a taxon approved by APHIS for preclearance, or sterile cultures of orchid plants) from any country or locality except Canada; " > > > > It does say that. (I've read this document in its entirety several times.) So what are “precleared bulbs of a taxon approved by APHIS for preclearance”? > The document explains that. > "Preclearance. Phytosanitary inspection and/or clearance in the country in which the articles were grown, performed by or under the regular supervision of APHIS." > > §319.75-9 Inspection and phytosanitary certificate of inspection. > (a) Any nursery stock, plant, fruit, vegetable, root, bulb, or other plant product designated as a regulated article and grown in a country maintaining an official system of inspection for the purpose of determining whether such article is free from injurious plant diseases, injurious insect pests, and other plant pests shall be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate of inspection from the plant protection service of such country at the time of importation or offer for importation into the United States. Such certificate may cover more than one article and more than one container kept together during shipment and offer for importation. > > (b) Any nursery stock, plant, fruit, vegetable, root, bulb, seed, or other plant product designated as a regulated article which is accompanied by a valid phytosanitary certificate of inspection is subject to inspection by an inspector at the time of importation into the United States for the purpose of determining whether such article is free of injurious plant diseases, injurious insect pests, and other plant pests, and whether such article is otherwise eligible to be imported into the United States. > > > Bob Nold > Denver, Colorado, USA > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/