APHIS Could Raise AQI Fees By 300% – Submit Your Comments

Trade Update • September 13, 2023

he Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is proposing fee increases related to its agricultural quarantine and inspection (AQI) program to pay for “the level of effort it takes to inspect the average ship and its cargo and reflects the expanded capacity of modern container ships.”

APHIS and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) jointly administer the AQI program, which assures that cargo and passenger baggage entering the country is inspected for plant pests and potential sources of animal diseases that could affect U.S. agriculture, trade and commerce. Foreign pests and diseases can be devastating to U.S. agriculture and the broader U.S. economy, and the AQI program is highly successful at preventing such disruptions.

Fee Increase

The fee for inspection of commercial vessels of 100 net tons or more would go up from the current rate of $825 fee to $3,219.29 by Jan. 1, 2024. By 2027, the schedule puts the fee at $3,557.18.

APHIS says in the notice, “the user fee would still represent a fraction of the value of goods being imported by vessel generally (0.02 percent).”

Submit Your Comments

Submit your comments to APHIS on or before October 10, 2023.   Go to www.regulations.gov, enter APHIS-2022-0023 in the search field. Select the Documents tab, and then select the Comment button in the list of documents.

More information can be found here.

Questions about these restrictions on imports and affected zones, contact us, we’re here to help.