USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today announced a revision to the VS 16-4 Export Certificate for Animal Products template. The new JUL 2022 version is similar to the previous March 2010 version except that the following animal health statement is moved from the pre-printed template to the additional declarations section on the certificate: "This is to certify that rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever, swine vesicular disease, African swine fever, and contagious bovine pleuropneumonia do not exist in the United States of America."

For most exports, this statement should be placed as the first sentence in the "ADDITIONAL DECLARATIONS" section of the form pending verifications of specific scenarios where the importing country does not require the addition. Exceptions will be specified on the country specific International Regulations (IREGs) for Animal Product Export webpages as they are verified, and are also captured in USDEC's Export Guide.

Exporters should immediately begin utilizing the new JUL 2022 versions of the VS Form 16-4, VSForm 16-4A, and combined VS 16-4 and 16-4A. APHIS is informing trading partners that either the MAR 2010 or JUL 2022 versions may be endorsed until June 4, 2023, and after that time only the JUL 2022 versions will be endorsed. To account for transit times, APHIS has asked that trading partners inform their port officials to accept either version of the form until September 4, 2023.

U.S. dairy exporters use the VS 16-4 template for exports of all dairy products to Mexico, fluid milk to Taiwan, and dairy for animal feed to most countries. This modification does not impact APHIS certificates not printed on the VS 16-4 (i.e. Australia, New Zealand) or any certificates issued by AMS.

Volume 2 of the USDEC Export Guide now contains links to these updated templates. Contact Sandra Benson at sbenson@usdec.org with questions.