. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/USA/633
29 August 2002
(02-4612)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  English
NOTIFICATION
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   UNITED STATES
If applicable, name of local government involved:
2. Agency responsible:  Environmental Protection Agency - EPA
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where
applicable):  Organophosphate pesticides
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable:
Any trading partners
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:  Organophosphate
Pesticides;  Reassessment of Additional Non- Contributing Commodity Tolerances (4 pages,
available in English).
6. Description of content:  As part of its ongoing review of existing organophosphate (OP)
tolerances under the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), EPA has determined that 37 OP
tolerances can be reassessed at this time.  EPA has concluded that these tolerances make, at
most, a negligible contribution to the cumulative risk from OP pesticides.  These tolerancesare considered to be "non-contributors'' based on the especially small number (less than
1 per cent) of reported pesticide residue detections in the monitoring data being used in the
OP cumulative risk assessment (US Department of Agriculture's [USDA] Pesticide Data
Program [PDP]).  These non-contributor tolera nces meet the FQPA safety standard in
section 408(b)(2) of the Federal Food, Drug  and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) and can be
reassessed for the purposes of FFDCA sec. 408 (q).  This notice discusses the concept and
basis for this approach to reassessing selected OP tolerances based on available informationrelating to the revised OP cumulative risk assessment (CRA).  Nothing in this notice is
intended to modify in any way any determination or requirement set forth in individual
pesticide IREDs, or affect regulatory agreements or use cancellation actions required for
some other purpose (e.g., due to worker or ecological risk concerns).  This notice closely
relates to two previous Federal Register notices:  The notice of 17 July 2002 (notified to theWTO as G/SPS/N/USA/619) in which EPA announced the reassessment of non-
contributing tolerances for certain commodities with no pesticide residue detections in
PDP, and the notice of 22 May 2002 (notified to the WTO as G/SPS/N/USA/595) in which
EPA announced the reassessment of non-contributing tolerances for certain meats, animal
feeds, and refined sugars, and requested suggestions on other approaches for identifyingtolerances that do not contribute risk to the OP cumulative risk assessment.
7. Objective and rationale:  [  X ] food safety, [   ] animal health, [   ] plant protection,
[   ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease,  [   ]  protect territory from other
damage from pestsG/SPS/N/USA/633
Page 2
8. International standard, gu ideline or recommendation:
[ X ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [   ] Office International des Epizooties,
[   ] International Plant Prot ection Convention, [   ] None
If an international standard , guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate
reference and briefly identify deviations:
9. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  67 FR 52987,
14 August 2002.  Available in English.
10. Proposed date of adoption:  The reassessment of these tolerances is effective as of
23 July 2002.
11. Proposed date of entry into force:  The reassessment of these tolerances is effective as of
23 July 2002.
12. Final date for comments:
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [   ] National notification
authority, [   ] National enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if
available) of other body:   Environmental Protection Agency.
The full text will be sent upon request to the address in paragraph 13.
13. Texts available from:  [ X ] National notification authority,  [ X ]  National enquiry
point,  or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body:
United States SPS Enquiry Point/Notification Authority
USDA/FAS/FSTSD
ATTN: Carolyn F. Wilson
Room 5545 South Agriculture Building
Stop 10271400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20250
Phone (202) 720-2239
Fax (202) 690-0677
E-mail Address: fstsd@fas.usda.gov