. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/USA/457
25 June 2001
(01-3146)
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:  Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service - APHIS
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where
applicable).  Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or
practicable:  Imported plants and products
4. Title and number of pages of the notified document:  Procedures and Standards
Governing the Consideration of Import Requests (6 pages)
5. Description of content:  In accordance with section 412(d) of the Plant Protection Act, we
are publishing for public comment a description of the procedures and standards that
govern the consideration by the Agency's Plant Protection and Quarantine programmes of
import requests.
The Plant Protection Act was signed into law on 20 June 2000.  We are publishing this
notice in accordance with sec. 412(d) of the Plant Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 7712(d)), which
states:  Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall
publish for public comment a notice describing the procedures and standards that govern
the consideration of import requests.  The notice shall:
(1) specify how public input will be sought in advance of and during the
process of promulgating regulations necessitating a risk assessment in order toensure a fully transparent and publicly accessible process; and (2) include
consideration of the following:
(a) public announcement of import requests that will necessitate a risk 
assessment;
(b) a process for assigning major/non routine or minor/routine status to
such requests based on current state of supporting scientific
information;
(c) a process for assigning priority to requests;
(d) guidelines for seeking relevant scientific and economic 
information in advance of initiating informal rulemaking;
(e) guidelines for ensuring availability and transparency of
assumptions and uncertainties in the risk assessment process
including applicable risk mitigation measures relied upon
individually or as components of a system of mitigative measures
proposed consistent with the purposes of this title.G/SPS/N/USA/457
Page 2
6. Objective and rationale: [    ] food safety,  [    ] animal health,  [  X ] plant protection,
[    ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease, [    ] protect territory from
other damage from pests           
7. An international standard, guideline or recommendation does not exist [  X ].
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate
reference and briefly identify deviations:
8. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  66 FR 32923,
19 June 2001 (Available in English)
9. Proposed date of adoption:  To be determined.
10. Proposed date of entry into force:  To be determined.
11. Final date for comments:  APHIS invites you to comment on the procedures and standards
described in this notice. APHIS will consider all comments received by 20 August 2001.
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service [    ] National notification authority, [     ] National enquiry point, or
address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body:  Detailed
instruction on where and how to send comments is in the body of the full text - which will
be sent upon request to the address in paragraph 12.
12. 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. WilsonRoom 5545 South Agriculture Building
Stop 1027
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20250
Tel:  (202) 720-2239Fax:  (202) 690-0677
E-mail:  ofsts@fas.usda.gov