Cut Flowers Regulations; Removal of Chrysanthemum White Rust-Related Provisions
Key claim: USDA is dropping chrysanthemum white rust import restrictions on cut flowers of Chrysanthemum, Leucanthemella, and Nipponanthemum and moving remaining cut-flower import rules out of federal regulations into an online database so they can be updated by notice instead of full rulemaking.
Abstract
(Rule · Agriculture Department, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) We are amending the regulations governing the importation of fresh cut flowers to remove requirements for the importation of specific types of cut flowers from the regulations, and to list them in the U.S. Department of Agriculture database called the Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements instead. We are also removing entirely any restrictions on the importation of fresh cut flowers of the genera Chrysanthemum, Leucanthemella, and Nipponanthemum from countries in which chrysanthemum white rust (Puccinia horiana P. Henn., CWR) is known to exist. This rule will allow us to use a notice-based, streamlined approach to update the import requirements for cut flowers and remove CWR-specific restrictions on the importation of fresh cut flowers.
Why this matters
APHIS is both lifting a specific plant-pest import ban and changing how cut-flower import rules are maintained going forward — moving them from the Code of Federal Regulations into an online database updatable by notice. For importers and florists, this can speed up access to flower varieties previously blocked; for domestic chrysanthemum growers and pest-preparedness watchers, it narrows a long-standing biosecurity restriction and reduces the public rulemaking process around future changes.