Proposed Rule2025-11395
Import Regulations for Horses; Pre-Export Examination
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
June 20, 2025
Issuing agencies
Agriculture DepartmentAnimal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Abstract
We are proposing to remove the requirement that horses offered for importation to the United States be accompanied by documentation of pre-export examination occurring within 48 hours of departure from the port of embarkation endorsed by a salaried veterinary medical officer. We have found that logistical barriers prevent affected parties from meeting this requirement at this time, and that the other requirements of the regulations are sufficient to ensure that imported horses are free of diseases and pests of livestock.
Full Text
<html>
<head>
<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 117 (Friday, June 20, 2025)</title>
</head>
<body><pre>
[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 117 (Friday, June 20, 2025)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 26224-26225]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-11395]
========================================================================
Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
========================================================================
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 117 / Friday, June 20, 2025 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 26224]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
9 CFR Part 93
[Docket No. APHIS-2025-0018]
RIN 0579-AE88
Import Regulations for Horses; Pre-Export Examination
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: We are proposing to remove the requirement that horses offered
for importation to the United States be accompanied by documentation of
pre-export examination occurring within 48 hours of departure from the
port of embarkation endorsed by a salaried veterinary medical officer.
We have found that logistical barriers prevent affected parties from
meeting this requirement at this time, and that the other requirements
of the regulations are sufficient to ensure that imported horses are
free of diseases and pests of livestock.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before
August 19, 2025.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by either of the following methods:
<bullet> FederaleRulemakingPortal: Go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. Enter
APHIS-2025-0018 in the Search field. Select the Documents tab, then
select the Comment button in the list of documents.
<bullet> Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Send your comment to
Docket No. APHIS-2025-0018, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD,
APHIS, Regulatory Analysis and Development, 5601 Sunnyside Ave.,
#AP760, Beltsville, MD 20705.
Any comments we receive on this docket may be viewed at
<a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a> or in our reading room, which is located in room 1620
of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW,
Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure someone is there to
help you, please call (202) 799-7039 before coming.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Benjamin Kaczmarski, USDA-APHIS
Regulatory Officer, Regulatory Analysis and Development, 5601 Sunnyside
Ave., #AP760, Beltsville, MD 20705; (240) 636-2149.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The regulations in 9 CFR part 93 (referred to below as the
regulations) prohibit or restrict the importation of certain animals,
including horses, to protect U.S livestock from communicable diseases.
On September 14, 2023, we published in the Federal Register a final
rule \1\ (88 FR 62993-63004) amending the horse import regulations to
better align them with international standards and improve flexibility
for both the equine industry and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS). One of the changes we made in that final rule was to
require, in Sec. 93.314(a)(5), that horses offered for importation to
the United States be accompanied by documentation of pre-export
examination occurring within 48 hours of departure from the port of
embarkation endorsed by a salaried veterinary medical officer. We added
this requirement in order to further ensure that only horses that are
compliant with the regulations enter the United States. As we stated in
the final rule, APHIS was encountering an increasing number of sick or
injured horses that were arriving at the United States port of entry.
We therefore felt that adding a requirement for an additional
inspection would help mitigate this concern and prevent against the
possible introduction or dissemination of diseases and pests of
livestock. We also cited a belief that this requirement could prove
beneficial to importers by reducing the time associated with post-entry
quarantine, and the attendant user fees, for imported horses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ To view the proposed rule, final rule, supporting documents,
and public comments, go to: <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document/APHIS-2016-0033-0031">https://www.regulations.gov/document/APHIS-2016-0033-0031</a>.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
During the comment period preceding the publication of the final
rule, commenters did not dispute that this was our intent for the
requirement. However, they expressed concern regarding unforeseeable
circumstances, such as flight delays, that would prevent an inspection
from occurring within the 48-hour period. In the final rule, we
responded that extenuating circumstances would be handled by APHIS on a
case-by-case basis, as provided for by the regulations in Sec.
93.301(a). Paragraph (a) of Sec. 93.301 allows the Administrator of
APHIS, upon request and in specific cases, to permit horses to be
brought into the United States under such conditions as the
Administrator may prescribe, when the Administrator determines in the
specific case that such action will not endanger the livestock or
poultry of the United States. This paragraph is intended for case-
specific deviations due to unique circumstances presented to the agency
and is not intended for broad or routine deviations from the terms of
the regulations.
However, following the publication of the final rule, APHIS has had
to grant recurring deviations for the specific circumstances cited by
the commenters during the comment period--flight delays and long
layovers. Moreover, several foreign regions indicated that salaried
veterinary officers in the region were not available at ports of
departure on weekends. Again, this resulted in regular and reasonably
foreseeable circumstances that precluded regulated parties from
compliance with the regulations through no fault of their own. While
APHIS has worked with our trading partners to address this latter issue
in the intervening time since the rule's implementation, it again
underscores that deviations pursuant to Sec. 93.301(a) are not the
appropriate means of addressing compliance issues associated with the
pre-export inspection requirement. Therefore, we are proposing to
remove from the regulations the requirement that horses be accompanied
by documentation of pre-export examination occurring within 48 hours of
departure from the port of embarkation endorsed by a salaried
veterinary medical officer.
As we alluded to earlier, the regulations require that horses
[[Page 26225]]
presented for importation undergo multiple inspections to ensure that
communicable animal disease does not enter the United States. Section
93.314(a) requires that horses be accompanied by an original
certificate showing that the horse has been inspected on the premises
of origin and found free of evidence of communicable disease and
exposure to disease during the 60 days preceding exportation. Section
93.304 allows APHIS to request additional inspections or attestations
of disease freedom as a condition for issuing a permit for the
importation of the horses; if a permitting condition requires
inspection within a specific time period, it must still be adhered to.
Section 93.306 requires that horses be inspected at the United States
port of entry for evidence of communicable disease or exposure thereto.
Horses that do not meet these criteria are refused entry. Finally, as
noted previously in this document, Sec. 93.301(a) allows the
Administrator, upon request, to develop case-specific import protocols,
which could include pre-export inspections. For the above reasons, we
believe that sufficient safeguards exist to prevent the introduction of
communicable animal disease into the United States related to the
importation of horses, and that removing the requirement for the
additional pre-export inspection established in the final rule will not
increase disease risk.
We also note that the final rule addressed the issue of sick or
injured horses arriving at the port of entry in numerous ways, not only
by requiring an additional inspection. For example, we clarified the
health certificate requirements in Sec. 93.314 to help us confirm the
legitimacy of health certificates and thereby increase compliance, and
added additional requirements to help decrease disease risk, such as
requiring that a horse was not gelded shortly before importation. We
also added shipping container requirements in Sec. 93.302, including
measures to ensure that horses are transported safely. These
provisions, as well as all other requirements related to the
importation of horses into the United States, would remain in place and
unchanged by this rule.
Executive Order 12866, Executive Order 14192, and Regulatory
Flexibility Act
This rule does not meet the criteria of a ``significant regulatory
action'' under Executive Order 12866, as amended by Executive Orders
14215 and 13563. Therefore, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
has not reviewed this rule under those orders.
This regulation is also not a ``regulatory action,'' as the meaning
of that term is set forth in Executive Order 14192 and implementing
guidance.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Act
Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) (5 U.S.C. 601-612) (as
amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act
(SBREFA) of 1996; 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.), agencies must prepare and make
available for public comment a regulatory flexibility analysis that
describes the effect of the rule on small entities (i.e., small
businesses, small organizations, and small government jurisdictions).
No regulatory flexibility analysis is required, however, if the head of
an agency or an appropriate designee certifies that the rule will not
have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small
entities. APHIS has concluded and hereby certifies that this rule will
not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small
entities; therefore, an analysis is not included. This proposed
recission rule will only have minor and beneficial impacts on small
entities engaged in the importation of equines by removing a
requirement that has proven logistically difficult to implement
consistently. This proposed recission rule will have a beneficial
effect on these small entities, lowering costs related to paperwork and
otherwise improving regulatory compliance with the remaining provisions
of the regulations.
Executive Order 12988
This proposed rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12988,
Civil Justice Reform. If this proposed rule is adopted: (1) All State
and local laws and regulations that are inconsistent with this rule
will be preempted; (2) no retroactive effect will be given to this
rule; and (3) administrative proceedings will not be required before
parties may file suit in court challenging this rule.
Paperwork Reduction Act
This proposed rule contains no new reporting or recordkeeping
requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501
et seq.). Further, this proposed rule would reduce the reporting and
recordkeeping requirements in 9 CFR 93.314.
List of Subjects in 9 CFR Part 93
Animal diseases, Imports, Livestock, Poultry and poultry products,
Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
Accordingly, we propose to amend 9 CFR part 93, subpart C, as
follows:
PART 93--IMPORTATION OF CERTAIN ANIMALS, BIRDS, FISH, AND POULTRY,
AND CERTAIN ANIMAL, BIRD, AND POULTRY PRODUCTS; REQUIREMENTS FOR
MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS
0
1. The authority citation for part 93 continues to read as follows:
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1622 and 8301-8317; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a;
31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.4.
Sec. 93.314 [Amended]
0
2. Amend Sec. 93.314 by removing paragraph (a)(5), and renumbering
paragraphs (a)(6) and (a)(7) as paragraphs (a)(5) and (a)(6),
respectively.
Done in Washington, DC, this 17th day of June 2025.
Michael Watson,
Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2025-11395 Filed 6-18-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P
</pre></body>
</html>Indexed from Federal Register on June 20, 2025.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.