Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 203 / Thursday, October 20, 2011 / Notices 65165 

1 ISPMs are developed under the auspices of the 

International Plant Protection Convention, to which 

the United States is a signatory. To view this and 

other ISPMs on the Internet, go to http:// 

www.ippc.int/ and click on the ‘‘Adopted 

Standards’’ link under the ‘‘Core activities’’ 

heading. 

number of responses multiplied by the 

reporting burden per response.) 

All responses to this notice will be 

summarized and included in the request 

for OMB approval. All comments will 

also become a matter of public record. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 14th day of 

October 2011. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2011–27172 Filed 10–19–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

[Docket No. APHIS–2011–0092] 

Importation of Plants for Planting; 

Risk-Based Sampling and Inspection 

Approach and Propagative Monitoring 

and Release Program 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: We are advising the public of 

our decision to implement a risk-based 

sampling approach for the inspection of 

imported plants for planting. In our 

previous approach, we inspected 2 

percent of consignments of imported 

plants for planting regardless of 

previous evidence of the risk posed by 

the plants for planting. The risk-based 

sampling and inspection approach will 

allow us to target high-risk plants for 

planting for more extensive inspection 

to help ensure that plants for planting 

infested with quarantine pests do not 

enter the United States, while providing 

a speedier inspection process for lowerrisk plants for planting. In addition, for 

taxa of plants for planting that pose an 

extremely low risk, we are establishing 

a Propagative Monitoring and Release 

Program under which consignments of 

those taxa will be periodically 

monitored but not every consignment 

will be inspected. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

Gordon Muraoka, National Plant 

Inspection Station Coordinator, PPQ, 

APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 133, 

Riverdale, MD 20737; (301) 734–0932; 

or Dr. Mary Palm, Senior Mycologist 

and Lab Director, National Identification 

Services, Molecular Diagnostic Lab, 

PPQ, APHIS, B–580, BARC-East, 

Powder Mill Road, Beltsville, MD 

20705; (301) 504–7154. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

regulations in 7 CFR part 319 prohibit 

or restrict the importation of certain 

plants and plant products into the 

United States to prevent the 

introduction of plant pests that are not 

already established in the United States 

or plant pests that may be established 

but are under official control to 

eradicate or contain them within the 

United States. 

The regulations in ‘‘Subpart—Plants 

for Planting,’’ §§ 319.37 through 319.37– 

14 (referred to below as the regulations), 

restrict the importation of plants for 

planting. Plants for planting is defined 

in § 319.37–1 as plants intended to 

remain planted, to be planted or 

replanted. The definition of plant in that 

section includes any plant (including 

any plant part) for or capable of 

propagation, including a tree, a tissue 

culture, a plantlet culture, pollen, a 

shrub, a vine, a cutting, a graft, a scion, 

a bud, a bulb, a root, and a seed. 

All plants for planting imported into 

the United States must be presented for 

inspection. Inspectors examine the 

plants for planting to determine whether 

they show any visual evidence of being 

infested with quarantine pests or 

infected with quarantine pathogens. 

After inspection, the plants may be 

allowed entry into the United States 

(with treatment, if necessary), 

destroyed, or reexported, depending on 

the results of the inspection. 

Plants for planting that are required to 

be imported under a written permit 

under § 319.37–3(a)(1) through (a)(6) 

and that are not from Canada must be 

imported or offered for importation at a 

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 

plant inspection station. Under 

§ 319.37–3(a)(5), lots of 13 or more 

articles (other than seeds, bulbs, or 

sterile cultures of orchid plants) from 

any country or locality except Canada 

may be imported into the United States 

only after issuance of a written permit. 

Therefore, most consignments of plants 

for planting must be imported or offered 

for importation at a USDA plant 

inspection station. Such stations are 

listed in § 319.37–14. Plants for planting 

that are offered for inspection at a USDA 

plant inspection station are inspected by 

Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) 

inspectors. 

This notice announces our decision to 

standardize our approach to sampling 

and inspecting consignments of plants 

for planting offered for importation at 

USDA plant inspection stations based 

on the pest risk presented by the plants 

for plant for planting. 

To this point, PPQ inspectors have 

inspected a minimum of 2 percent of 

every consignment of plants for planting 

presented for inspection. We have 

assessed our sampling and inspection 

methods and found that we can use our 

resources more effectively by targeting 

our efforts towards plants for planting 

that are known to present a higher risk, 

based on past inspection results for 

those plants for planting. Such an 

approach would be consistent with 

International Standard for Phytosanitary 

Measures (ISPM) #31, ‘‘Methodologies 

for Sampling of Consignments.’’ 1

Therefore, we are standardizing our 

sampling and inspection approach to 

adjust the intensity of our inspection of 

imported plants for planting based on 

the risk they present of introducing 

quarantine pests into the United States. 

We will evaluate the risk associated 

with combinations of taxa of plants for 

planting and countries from which they 

are exported and assign risk ratings to 

those articles. 

Plants for planting determined to 

present an extremely low risk will be 

inspected under the Propagative 

Monitoring and Release Program 

(PMRP). Taxa of plants for planting 

included in this program will be 

periodically monitored at plant 

inspection stations. Not every 

consignment of plants for planting 

included in the PRMP will be inspected, 

but those consignments that are 

inspected will be inspected at normal 

levels to confirm the plants’ continued 

eligibility for the PMRP. 

Subsequently, we will also implement 

a risk-based sampling plan for all other 

plants for planting. We will implement 

this approach initially by considering 

all taxa of plants for planting to be high 

risk. All plants for planting will be 

sampled at high risk rates until we have 

gathered sufficient data to establish that 

the plants for planting present a 

medium or low risk. 

If a taxon of plants for planting from 

a certain country is determined to 

present a medium or low risk, it will be 

sampled at the plant inspection stations 

at a less intensive rate than high-risk 

plants for planting. We will continue to 

sample some consignments of the taxon 

at higher rates to monitor whether the 

taxon should still be considered to be 

medium or low risk. We will update our 

categorizations of taxa regularly in 

response to data from all inspections. 

This approach will allow us to target 

our resources towards taxa of plants for 

planting that pose the greatest risk and 

thus to provide greater security against 

the introduction of quarantine pests into 

the United States. 


sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
65166 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 203 / Thursday, October 20, 2011 / Notices 

For importers of plants for planting, 

this approach may increase or decrease 

inspection time at the plant inspection 

station, depending on the risk level of 

the material. We believe this new 

sampling and inspection approach will 

result in increased effectiveness and 

that the difference in inspection time 

will be an incentive for importers to 

present high-quality, pest-free plants for 

planting for inspection at plant 

inspection stations. 

We plan to implement the PMRP on 

October 17, 2011. The risk-based 

sampling will be implemented 

following further analysis of the 

sampling protocol. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 14th day of 

October 2011. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2011–27173 Filed 10–19–11; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

[Docket No. APHIS–2011–0091] 

International Sanitary and 

Phytosanitary Standard-Setting 

Activities 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with legislation 

implementing the results of the Uruguay 

Round of negotiations under the General 

Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, we are 

informing the public of the international 

standard-setting activities of the World 

Organization for Animal Health, the 

Secretariat of the International Plant 

Protection Convention, and the North 

American Plant Protection Organization, 

and we are soliciting public comment 

on the standards to be considered. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

by either of the following methods: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to 

http://www.regulations.gov/ 

#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2011-0091- 

0001. 

• Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: 

Send your comment to Docket No. 

APHIS–2011–0091, Regulatory Analysis 

and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 

3A–03.8, 4700 River Road, Unit 118, 

Riverdale, MD 20737–1238. 

Supporting documents and any 

comments we receive on this docket 

may be viewed at http:// 

www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2011-0091 or 

in our reading room, which is located in 

room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 

14th Street and Independence Avenue, 

SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading 

room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., 

Monday through Friday, except 

holidays. To be sure someone is there to 

help you, please call (202) 690–2817 

before coming. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

general information on the topics 

covered in this notice, contact Mr. John 

Greifer, Associate Deputy Administrator 

for SPS Management, International 

Services, APHIS, room 1132, USDA 

South Building, 14th Street and 

Independence Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20250; (202) 720–7677. 

For specific information regarding 

standard-setting activities of the World 

Organization for Animal Health, contact 

Dr. Michael David, Director, 

International Animal Health Standards 

Team, National Center for Import and 

Export, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road, 

Unit 33, Riverdale, MD 20737–1231; 

(301) 734–5324. 

For specific information regarding the 

standard-setting activities of the 

International Plant Protection 

Convention or the North American Plant 

Protection Organization, contact Ms. 

Julie E. Aliaga, Program Director, 

International Phytosanitary Standards, 

PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River Road, Unit 140, 

Riverdale, MD 20737–1236; (301) 734– 

0763. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The World Trade Organization (WTO) 

was established as the common 

international institutional framework for 

governing trade relations among its 

members in matters related to the 

Uruguay Round Agreements. The WTO 

is the successor organization to the 

General Agreement on Tariffs and 

Trade. U.S. membership in the WTO 

was approved by Congress when it 

enacted the Uruguay Round Agreements 

Act (Pub. L. 103–465), which was 

signed into law on December 8, 1994. 

The WTO Agreements, which 

established the WTO, entered into force 

with respect to the United States on 

January 1, 1995. The Uruguay Round 

Agreements Act amended Title IV of the 

Trade Agreements Act of 1979 (19 

U.S.C. 2531 et seq.). Section 491 of the 

Trade Agreements Act of 1979, as 

amended (19 U.S.C. 2578), requires the 

President to designate an agency to be 

responsible for informing the public of 

the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) 

standard-setting activities of each 

international standard-setting 

organization. The designated agency 

must inform the public by publishing an 

annual notice in the Federal Register 

that provides the following information: 

(1) The SPS standards under 

consideration or planned for 

consideration by the international 

standard-setting organization; and (2) 

for each SPS standard specified, a 

description of the consideration or 

planned consideration of that standard, 

a statement of whether the United States 

is participating or plans to participate in 

the consideration of that standard, the 

agenda for U.S. participation, if any, and 

the agency responsible for representing 

the United States with respect to that 

standard. 

‘‘International standard’’ is defined in 

19 U.S.C. 2578b as any standard, 

guideline, or recommendation: (1) 

Adopted by the Codex Alimentarius 

Commission (Codex) regarding food 

safety; (2) developed under the auspices 

of the World Organization for Animal 

Health (OIE, formerly known as the 

Office International des Epizooties) 

regarding animal health and welfare, 

and zoonoses; (3) developed under the 

auspices of the Secretariat of the 

International Plant Protection 

Convention (IPPC) in cooperation with 

the North American Plant Protection 

Organization (NAPPO) regarding plant 

health; or (4) established by or 

developed under any other international 

organization agreed to by the member 

countries of the North American Free 

Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the 

member countries of the WTO. 

The President, pursuant to 

Proclamation No. 6780 of March 23, 

1995 (60 FR 15845), designated the 

Secretary of Agriculture as the official 

responsible for informing the public of 

the SPS standard-setting activities of 

Codex, OIE, IPPC, and NAPPO. The 

United States Department of 

Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and 

Inspection Service (FSIS) informs the 

public of Codex standard-setting 

activities, and USDA’s Animal and 

Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) 

informs the public of OIE, IPPC, and 

NAPPO standard-setting activities. 

FSIS publishes an annual notice in 

the Federal Register to inform the 

public of SPS standard-setting activities 

for Codex. Codex was created in 1962 by 

two United Nations organizations, the 

Food and Agriculture Organization 

(FAO) and the World Health 

Organization. It is the major 

international organization for 

encouraging international trade in food 

and protecting the health and economic 

interests of consumers. 


sroberts on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES