On March 20, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) and the U.S.U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (C.B.P.) updated regulations for fresh banana and plantain imports. This update will broaden the Risk-Based Sampling at Ports of Entry (RBS POE) program for these imports. The protocol is designed to lessen commodity inspections that comply with existing pest and disease regulations. Furthermore, RBS POE aims to incentivize producers to enhance product quality.

Imports eligible for this protocol include fresh banana and plantain shipments from Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. Only maritime shipments will qualify for the protocol expansion. While no alterations to the required entry paperwork were announced, PPQ and C.B.P. advised trading partners to file entry paperwork before arrival if feasible and to include APHIS Core Message Set data to ensure their shipments were processed per RBS POE procedures. The enforcement of the updated protocol will commence the week of March 25, 2024.