Recent Development on Tomato Seed to the EU

This week APHIS (temporarily) added three additional declarations regarding acid extraction and Pepino mosaic virus to the tomato seed summary in PExD. These additional declarations originate from a 2004 emergency regulation that was supposed to have been repealed last year when the new EU regulations were implemented in December. Included below is a screen shot of the updated PExD summary. The yellow highlights indicate the new additional declarations. Originally, APHIS had included all the RNQPs and was informed by the Commission to not to include them as additional declarations on phytosanitary certificates.

This is a brief summary from the EU Commission on why this is happening now.

The intent was indeed for Pepino mosaic virus to be a RNQP, but the withdrawal of the 2004 emergency measure listing it as a QP was delayed. The Commission expects it to be withdrawn within the next couple months but until that’s done the old emergency measure remains valid and member states have the right to require the AD.

So basically a member state noticed that the EU had not officially repealed the 2004 directive even though it was incorporated into the new 2019 regulations. The Commission must address this until they have repealed the 2004 regulation. The EU has made clear that they do not want Regulated Non- Quarantine Pests (RNQPs) to be listed on phytosanitary certificates as additional delectations. So in 1-2 months these additional declarations will be removed from PExD since they will be considered RNQPs and not quarantine pests. This is all predicated on the EU catching up with their regulation process, and finally repealing the 2004 emergency regulation.