Lesson 6: Updating Existing Market Access Requirements
Topic 2: Emergency Measures
In this topic, you’ll learn about emergency measures and why they might need to be issued.
Objective:
- Describe the reasons why APHIS imposes emergency measures and the mechanism by which it does so
When new pests emerge, or when existing pests spread into new countries, and those pests affect imports that are currently allowed, APHIS must take emergency action to prevent the introduction of the pests into the United States. The continued importation of commodities under these circumstances would present an uncontrolled risk of introducing the new pest into the United States. Similarly, when an existing import program has proven to be ineffective at excluding pests, APHIS must take emergency action to address the risk. This emergency action is consistent with APHIS’ commitments under the SPS agreement.
APHIS takes emergency action by issuing a Federal order. A Federal order explains the emergency and describes the mitigations that APHIS is putting in place. The Federal orders are not rules; they are issued under the emergency action authority of the Plant Protection Act and Animal Health Protection Act. Accordingly, APHIS does not formally request comments on Federal orders.
APHIS follows up Federal orders as soon as practical with a regulatory action in which the agency requests comment. The Federal order, thus, addresses an immediate threat, and once the threat is addressed, the somewhat lengthier process of asking for public input can occur.
In this topic, you learned about emergency measures and why they might need to be issued.
To continue, select Topic 3 from the Topics menu above or click here.