The letters would announce the pending action, call for a fee, and suggest to registrants that they coordinate with their suppliers. EPA also anticipates that trade associations could assist in the coordination efforts. In the event of an overage, EPA will refund the excess in proportion to the amount each company submitted. In the event of a shortage, it will contact those who have already paid a portion and request additional money. The revised proposal still lacks any provision to force payment of tolerance fees for inert ingredients.
Tolerances are unlike registrations.
A tolerance is a public rulemaking, belonging to no one, whereas a registration is a license. An inert ingredient manufacturer could simply choose not to pay a share of the tolerance fees and still enjoy the ability to market the product for use in pesticides as long as somebody paid the fee. In the revised proposal, EPA recognizes that not all inert manufacturers may wish to support the reassessment of a tolerance or exemption, but anticipates that those with an economic stake will. As EPA concedes, some or all manufacturers may find it most strategic to simply abandon the pesticide inert market rather than incur tolerance reassessment expenses. Since pesticide inerts often represent only a small percentage of total production of a commodity chemical, the number of such abandonments may well be significant.