FSIS Update on Electronic Export Application Fee

FSIS is reminding industry that FSIS began assessing a fee on June 1, 2019, to exporters that apply for export certificates electronically through the export component of the agency’s Public Health Information System (PHIS).  FSIS announced the assessment of the formula-based fee ($4.01 per application) in the Federal Register on April 29, 2019, and the FSIS Constituent Update on April 26, 2019. Exporters will start to receive invoices for any submitted electronic export applications beginning on July 11, 2019.

Exporters should note that PHIS assesses the fee each time the applicant clicks the “Submit” button for an application. This includes applications for replacement certificates, and when an exporter edits and re-submits a pending application in PHIS (see the PHIS Industry User Guide). Exporters still have the option to submit paper applications for countries in PHIS, but as noted in the 2016 final rule, manual submission, entry, and processing of paper applications will be slower than the applications that exporters submit electronically.

More information on the PHIS export component can be found at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export/phis-components.

PHIS Industry Test Environment to Re-Open

FSIS is announcing the Industry Test Environment (ITE) for the Public Health Information System (PHIS) will open to all establishments that export meat and poultry products beginning July 15 through Dec. 13, 2019. Previously, this environment was only open during the planned phased country implementations. During this time, industry may test entering applications to better understand PHIS functionality through the user interface, batching applications, as well as machine to machine/web services technology.

Those who are interested in testing during this period should send their name(s), email address, and establishment number(s) to PHISTechnicalQA@fsis.usda.gov so that the agency can provide you with additional information prior to July 15, 2019.

Information on the PHIS Export Component (recorded webinars, user guides, HELP videos, questions and answers, etc.) is available on the FSIS website at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export/phis-components.

Establishment Specific Datasets Now Available

FSIS has posted a new establishment specific dataset on its website, as announced in the Federal Register on July 14, 2016 (Docket No. FSIS-2014-0032). This is the full dataset of raw poultry follow-up sampling results. Prior to publishing this dataset, the sample dataset and corresponding data documentation were posted on May 17, 2019 and comments were sought until June 28, 2019. FSIS updates existing datasets quarterly and this dataset will next be updated in October.

The quarterly update to the establishment demographic dataset, which supplements the existing Meat, Poultry and Egg Product Inspection (MPI) Directory, is also now available on the FSIS website.

As announced in the May 31, 2019 Constituent Update, FSIS plans to post additional quarterly establishment specific datasets that will be expanded to add data on serotype, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), whole genome sequencing (WGS), and anti­microbial resistance (AMR) later in July.

Additional details can be found at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/science-data/data-sets-visualizations.

Export Requirements Updates

The Library of Export Requirements has been updated for products for the following countries:

• Chile
• Cuba
• Curacao
• Honduras
• Japan
• Jordan
• Morocco
• New Caledonia
• Peru
• Qatar
• Republic of Korea
• Singapore
• Taiwan

Complete information can be found at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/import-export.

Policy Updates

FSIS notices and directives on public health and regulatory issues are available at: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/policy/directives-notices. The following policy updates were recently issued:

FSIS Notice 20-19 - Update to FSIS notice 14-19, 2019 Pay Raise and Retroactive Pay

FSIS Directive 2450.3 - Mandatory Supervisory Training and Responsibilities Concerning Government Owned Vehicle Misuse

Docket No. FSIS-2019-0013 - Notice of Request To Revise an Approved Information Collection: Industry Responses to Noncompliance Records