WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/USA/1621 
20 June 2007  
 (07-2613) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd 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):  Pumpkin, barley, cranberry, cattle, horse, goat, sheep, hog, milk, coffee, 
cotton, apple, wheat, egg, poultry, cucumber 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected , to the extent relevant or practicable :  Any 
US trade partners  
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:  PROPOSED RULE.  
Amitraz, Atrazine, Ethephon, Ferbam, Linda ne, Propachlor, and Simazine; Proposed 
Tolerance Actions (available in English, 13 pages) 
6. Description of content:  By means of this rule and on the basis of available data, the 
Agency proposes the following ch anges to existing federal regulations for the pesticide 
ethephon: 
Due to a lack of registered uses, EPA is pr oposing to revoke the tolerances for residues of 
ethephon in or on "cranberry" and "fig " and "barley, pearled barley". 
Because active registrations with use for ethephon on pumpkins prohibit harvesting for 
human or animal consumption and limit use to seed production only, the Agency has 
determined that the tolerance on pumpkin is no longer needed. Therefore, EPA is 
proposing to revoke the tolerance on "pumpkin". 
EPA is proposing that tolerances on the fa t and meat of cattle, goats, hogs, horses, and 
sheep be decreased from 0.1 to 0.02 ppm; to lerances on meat byproduc ts of cattle, goats, 
horses, and sheep should be separated into "meat byproducts, except kidney" and "kidney" 
and the tolerances on meat byproducts, except kidney should be increased from 0.1 to 0.2 
ppm and tolerances on kidney should be increas ed from 0.1 to 1.0 ppm; and the tolerance 
on milk should be decreased from 0.1 to 0.01 ppm.  In addition, EPA is proposing to 
decrease tolerances on "cattle, fat" , "cattle, meat", "goat, fat", "goat, meat", "hog, fat", 
"hog, meat", "horse, fat", "horse, meat", "sheep, fat" and "sheep, meat" to 0.02 ppm. 
Further, EPA is proposing to change some commodity terminology by revising the 
terminology "cattle, meat byproducts", "goa t, meat byproducts", "hog, meat byproducts", 
"horse, meat byproducts", and "sheep, meat by products" to read "cattle, meat byproducts, 
except kidney", "cattle, kidney", "goat, meat byproducts, except kidney", "goat, kidney", 
"hog, meat byproducts, except kidney", "hog,  kidney", "horse, meat byproducts, except 
kidney", "horse, kidney" and "sheep, meat byproducts, except kidney", and "sheep, 
kidney", respectively.   G/SPS/N/USA/1621 
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  EPA is also proposing to increase tolerances on "cattle, meat byproducts, except kidney"; 
"goat, meat byproducts, except kidney", "hog, meat byproducts, except kidney", "horse, meat byproducts, except kidney" and "sheep, meat byproducts, except kidney" to 0.2 ppm; and to increase tolerances on "cattle, kidney" , "goat, kidney", "hog, kidney", "horse, 
kidney", and "sheep, kidney" to 1.0 ppm; and decrease the tolerance on "milk" to 0.01 ppm. 
The Agency determined that the increased tolerances are safe; i.e., there is a reasonable 
certainty that no harm will result from aggr egate exposure to the pesticide chemical 
residue. 
The Agency is proposing to increase the tolera nce on "coffee, bean, green" and on "cotton, 
undelinted seed" to 0.5 ppm, and 6.0 ppm, respectively. 
The Agency is proposing to establish a toleran ce for residues of ethephon on "apple, juice" 
at 10.0 ppm. 
The Agency is proposing to establish a tolerance on "cotton, gin byproducts" at 180.0 ppm. The Agency is proposing to establish a tolerance on "wheat, germ" at 5.0 ppm. EPA is proposing to establish tolerances on "e gg" at 0.002 ppm; "poultry, fat" at 0.02 ppm; 
"poultry, meat" at 0.01 ppm; "poultry, meat byproducts, except liver" at 0.01 ppm; and 
"poultry, liver" at 0.05 ppm. 
Cucumber was not included in the dietary risk assessment for ethephon because the use 
was to become non-food; i.e., limited to cu cumbers grown for seed production and product 
labels were to include that limitation and a r estriction to prohibit the harvesting of treated 
cucumbers for human or animal consumption. Therefore, the ethephon RED recommended 
revocation of the tolerance on cucumber. However, based on the estimated acute and 
chronic dietary risks of ethephon are 77% of the aPAD and 16% of the chronic population adjusted dose (cPAD), the relatively low to lerance level for cucumber (0.1 ppm) and 
maximum estimate of 1% crop treated (about 2000 acres), the Agency determined that the addition of cucumbers to the dietary risk ass essment would not significantly contribute to 
dietary or drinking water risk estimates. Cu rrently, the Agency is in the process of 
confirming the completeness of amendments for two active registrations concerning the 
inclusion of the limitation and restriction on cucumber use (particularly under the product 
label application instructions for Californ ia only). Consequently, the Agency will not 
propose to take action on the cucumber toleran ce for ethephon at this time, but expects to 
address it in a future publication in the Federal Register. 
7. Objective and rationale:  [ X ] food safety, [ X ] animal health, [ X ] plant protection, 
[ X ] protect humans from animal/plant pest  or disease, [ ] protect territory from 
other damage from pests     G/SPS/N/USA/1621 
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  8. International standard, guideline or recommendation:  
[ X ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [ ] World Organization for Animal Health 
(OIE), [ ] International Plant Protection Convention, [ ] None  
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the 
appropriate reference and briefly identify deviations:   The proposed tolerance actions 
herein for ethephon, to implement the reco mmendations of the ethephon TRED, reflect use 
patterns in the United States which support a di fferent tolerance than the Codex value on 
cotton seed; chicken eggs; meat of poultry; meat of cattle, goats, hogs, horses, and sheep; 
and milk of cattle, goats, and sheep. However,  compatibility exists between the reassessed 
US tolerances and Codex MRLs for ethe phon residues in or on apples, blueberries, 
cherries, pineapples, tomatoes, and walnuts. 
9. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  Federal Register: 
13 June 2007 (Volume 72, Number 113 ) Proposed Rules Page 32570-32582; 
http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-PEST/2007/June/Day-13/p11324.htm 
10. Proposed date of adoption:  N/A 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:  This is a notice of availability which may or may not 
result in further regulatory action.  
12. Final date for comments:  Comments must be received on or before 13 August 2007, and 
may be identified by docket number EPA-HQ-OPP-2007-0187. 
Agency or authority designated to handl e comments:  [ ] National notification 
authority, [ X ] National enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if 
available) of other body:    Registration Division, (7505P), Office of Pesticide Programs, 
Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001 
13. Texts available from:  [ X ] National notification authority, [ ] National enquiry point, 
or address, fax number and E-mail add ress (if available) of other body:   United States 
SPS National Notification Authority, USDA Fore ign Agricultural Service, International 
Regulations and Standards Divi sion (IRSD), Stop 1027, Washington D.C. 20250;  Tel:  +(1  
202) 720-1301;  Fax:  +(1 202) 690- 0677;  E-mail:  fstsd@fas.usda.gov