. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/USA/197
19 November 1999
(99-5038)
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 may be provided in addition, whereapplicable).  Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or
practicable:  Organophosphate pesticide
4. Title and number of pages of the notified document: Organophosphate Pesticide:
Availability of Preliminary Risk Assessments for Chlorpyrifos (2 pages plus related
documents)
5. Description of content: This notice announces the availability of documents that were
developed as part of the EPA's process for making reregistration eligibility decisions for the
organophosphate pesticides and for tolerance reassessments consistent with the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of1996 (FQPA).  These documents are the preliminary human health and ecological risk
assessments and related documents for chlorpyrifos.  This notice also starts a 60-day public
comment period for the preliminary risk assessments. Comments are to be limited to issues
directly associated with the one organophosphate that has the risk assessments placed in the
docket and should be limited to issues raised in those documents. By allowing access and
opportunity for comment on the preliminary risk assessments, EPA is seeking to strengthen
stakeholder involvement and help ensure our decisions under FQPA are transparent andbased on the best available information.  The tolerance reassessment process will ensure
that the United States continues to have the safest and most abundant food supply.  The
Agency cautions that these risk assessments are preliminary assessments only and that
further refinements of the risk assessments will be appropriate for some, if not all, of these
organophosphate pesticides.  These documents reflect only the work and analysis conductedas of the time they were produced and it is appropriate that, as new information becomes
available and/or additional analyses are performed, the conclusions they contain may
change.
6. Objective and rationale: [  X ] food safety,  [     ] animal health,  [     ] plant protection,
[    ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease, [     ] protect territory from
other damage from pests           G/SPS/N/USA/197
Page 2
7. An international standard, guideline or recommendation does not exist [    ].
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate
reference and briefly identify deviations: Some differences currently exist between the
United States MRLs for organophosphate pesticides and CXLs under Codex Alimentarius.
Making these documents available at this stage is meant to increase transparency and publicinvolvement in the US tolerance reassessment process for organophosphate pesticides.
8. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  64 FR 57876,
27 October 1999 (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:  27 December 1999
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
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/FSTSDATTN: Carolyn F. Wilson
Room 5545 South Agriculture Building
Stop 1027
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20250Phone (202) 720-2239
Fax (202) 690-0677
E-mail Address: ofsts@fas.usda.gov