. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/USA/619
23 July 2002
(02-4081)
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 Certain 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 47 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 "non-contributor" tolerances have no reported pesticide residue detections in the monitoring data
being used in the OP cumulative risk assessment (CRA)(US Department of Agriculture's
(USDA) Pesticide Data Program PDP).  Thes e non-contributor tolerances 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 section 408 (q).  This Notice discusses
the concept and basis for this approach to reassessing selected OP tolerances based on
available information relating to the OP CRA.  Nothing in this Notice is intended to modify
in any way any determination or requiremen t set forth in individual pesticide Interim
Reregistration Eligibility Decisions (IREDs), or affect regulatory agreements or use
cancellation actions required for some other purpose (eg, due to worker or ecological risk
concerns).  This Notice closely relates to a previous Federal Register Notice of
22 May 2002, 66 FR 35991 (notified to the WT O 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 identifying
tolerances 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/619
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 46972,
17 July 2002 (Available in English)
10. Proposed date of adoption:   The reassessment of these tolerances is effective as of
17 July 2002.
11. Proposed date of entry into force:   The reassessment of these tolerances is effective as of
17 July 2002.
12. Final date for comments:
Agency or authority designated to handl e 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
Tel:  (202) 720-2239
Fax:  (202) 690-0677
E-mail:  fstsd@fas.usda.gov