USDA APHIS Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection Proposed Program User Fees

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is seeking comments on a proposed rule to amend regulations governing its Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection (AQI) program user fees. 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.

Fees for the AQI program were last updated in 2015, based on FY 2010 through FY 2012 cost data, which puts them more than a decade behind today’s circumstances. The outdated fee structure, combined with recent changes in international travel and shipping, mean that current fees do not generate enough revenue to cover the costs of the AQI services provided.

APHIS will consider all comments received on or before October 10, 2023.   

This is an excerpt from https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/newsroom/stakeholder-info/sa_by_date/sa-2023/aqi-user-fees

Table 1: Proposed Fees1

1All fees in U.S. dollars. 
2 Commercial Truck (per truck arrival) fees have been rounded down to the next $0.05 (five-cent) increment to facilitate operations at the border.  This rounding does not impact the transponder fee calculation.