PERU REDUCES IMPORT RESTRICTIONS ON U.S. COTTON

PERU REDUCES IMPORT RESTRICTIONS ON U.S. COTTON    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has signed an agreement with the Peruvian government to ease restrictions on imported cotton from the United States.
   “We were able to demonstrate to the Peruvians that the commercial ginning and packaging process in the United States essentially eliminates the risk of boll weevil introduction,” said Bill Hawks, undersecretary of agriculture for USDA’s marketing and regulatory programs.
   This agreement lifts Peru’s mandatory methyl bromide fumigation requirements for U.S. cotton. The fumigation restriction was in place to prevent the boll weevil from hitchhiking on U.S. cotton shipments. Peru is currently free of the destructive weevil.
   The USDA said Peru’s lifting of the restriction will save the American cotton industry about $2 million a year in fumigation and related costs and eliminate the use of over 40,000 pounds of methyl bromide annually.