[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 48 (Friday, March 12, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12281-12282]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-6127]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food Safety and Inspection Service
[Docket No. 99-009N]


Equivalence Evaluation Process for Foreign Meat and Poultry Food 
Regulatory Systems

AGENCY: Food Safety and Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting and document availability; request for 
comments.

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SUMMARY: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is announcing 
the availability of a document that describes the Agency's process for 
evaluating foreign meat and poultry food regulatory systems to 
determine whether they are equivalent to the United States system. The 
Agency is soliciting public comments on the document and will hold a 
public meeting on April 14, 1999, to discuss the equivalence evaluation 
process.


[[Page 12282]]


DATES: The meeting will be held on April 14, 1999, from 9:00 a.m. to 
3:00 p.m.
    To receive full consideration, written comments should be received 
on or before May 11, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the equivalence evaluation document are available 
from the FSIS Docket Clerk, Room 102 Cotton Annex, 300 12th Street, SW, 
Washington, DC 20250-3700. A copy may also be obtained from the FSIS 
home page at
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/. Written comments on the equivalence 
evaluation document should refer to Docket #99-009N and be submitted in 
triplicate to the FSIS Docket Clerk at the address shown above. 
Facsimile copies of comments may be sent to 202-205-0381. All comments 
received will be available for public inspection in the FSIS Docket 
Room from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
    The meeting will be held at the Washington Plaza Hotel at 10 Thomas 
Circle NW (at Massachusetts Avenue and 14th Street), Washington, DC 
20009, (202) 842-1300. Attendees requiring sign-language interpreters 
or other special accommodation should contact Mr. Mark Manis 
(identified below in FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT) by April 7, 1999. 
No pre-registration is required. Transcripts of the meeting will be 
available in the FSIS Docket Room, Room 102, 300 12th Street, SW., 
Washington, DC 20250-3700. In addition to publishing this Federal 
Register notice, FSIS will alert consumers and industry groups of the 
meeting through its Constituent Alert before the meeting date.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Mark Manis, Director, 
International Policy Division; Office of Policy, Program Development, 
and Evaluation; (202) 720-6400, or by electronic mail to 
``[email protected]''.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    ``Equivalence'' is a relatively new international concept that is 
applied in the evaluation of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures 
taken by different nations to protect human, animal, or plant life or 
health. The equivalence concept was introduced in the Agreement on the 
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the ``SPS 
Agreement''), which appears in the Final Act of the Uruguay Round of 
Multilateral Trade Negotiations signed in Marrackech on April 15, 1994. 
The SPS Agreement became effective in January 1995, concurrently with 
establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which superseded 
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) as the umbrella 
organization for international trade. The United Stats is a signatory 
to the SPS Agreement and a member of the WTO.
    SPS measures include, among other things, all relevant laws, 
decrees, regulations, requirements, and procedures--including food 
regulatory systems--for protecting human or animal life within the 
territory of a WTO member government from disease, toxins, pests, and 
food or feed additives or contaminants.
    Under Article 4 of the SPS Agreement, an importing member nation 
must accept an exporting member's SPS measures as equivalent to its own 
measures if the exporting member has objectively demonstrated that its 
measure achieve the importing member's appropriate level of sanitary or 
phytosanitary protection (ALOP). In other words, each member nation of 
the WTO, including the United States, must accept as equivalent to its 
own food regulatory system the food regulatory system of another member 
that has been demonstrated to furnish the same level of public health 
protection. However, the burden of demonstrating equivalence is on the 
exporting country.
    Equivalent regulatory systems need not be identical. The specific 
SPS measures applied by an exporting nation may differ from those 
required by an importing nation. On the other hand, while WTO members 
are encouraged to adopt international food standards in order to 
``harmonize'' the world's food regulatory systems and facilitate trade, 
an importing country remains free to set its ALOP at any level it deems 
appropriate to abate or eliminate risks from a foodborne hazard. An 
importing country has the right to decide whether a food regulatory 
system employed by an exporting country is equivalent to its own or is 
adequate to achieve the importing country's appropriate level of 
sanitary or phytosanitary protection. The importing country also has 
the right to decide whether the evidence provided to demonstrate 
equivalence is adequate.

Request for Comments

    FSIS has developed a process for evaluating whether a foreign 
country's meat and poultry regulatory system and that country's 
specific sanitary measures are equivalent to the U.S. system and 
measures. This process is described in a January 1999 document entitled 
``FSIS Process for Evaluating the Equivalence of Foreign Meat and 
Poultry Regulatory Systems,'' copies of which are available at the 
location indicated above in ADDRESSES. FSIS will use the comments it 
receives as a basis for further development of its equivalence 
evaluation process.

    Done at Washington, DC on: March 5, 1999.
Thomas J. Billy,
Administrator.
[FR Doc. 99-6127 Filed 3-11-99; 8:45 am]
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