[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 74 (Monday, April 17, 2000)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 20384-20387]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-9492]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

9 CFR Parts 91 and 161

[Docket No. 99-053-1]


Origin Health Certificates for Livestock Exported From the United 
States

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: We are proposing to amend the animal export regulations to 
allow origin health certificates issued for animals intended for export 
from the United States to be valid for longer than 30 days in some 
cases, based on the requirements of the country of destination. 
Currently, origin health certificates for animals intended for export 
from the United States must certify that the animals were inspected 
within the 30 days prior to the movement for export. They must also 
contain information about any tests required to be conducted prior to 
export. Generally, the animals are inspected and tested (or samples are 
taken for testing) on the same day. However, some countries require or 
allow testing to be conducted more than 30 days prior to the date of 
export. This action would allow animals to be inspected for the origin 
health certificate as early as the required testing or sampling may be 
performed, in accordance with the requirements of the country of 
destination. We believe this can be allowed without increasing the risk 
of infected or exposed animals being exported, since all livestock 
leaving the United States by sea or air are inspected again by a U.S. 
Department of Agriculture veterinarian within 24 hours of export; and 
animals exported to Canada or Mexico by land are inspected by those 
nations prior to crossing the land border. This action would simplify 
the export process and reduce costs for exporters.

DATES: We invite you to comment on this docket. We will consider all 
comments that we receive by June 16, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Please send your comment and three copies to: Docket No. 99-
053-1, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Suite 3C03, 
4700 River Road, Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that 
your comment refers to Docket No. 99-053-1.
    You may read any comments that we receive on this docket in our 
reading room. The reading room 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.
    APHIS documents published in the Federal Register, and related 
information, including the names of organizations and individuals who 
have commented on APHIS rules, are available on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Najam Q. Faizi, Senior Staff 
Veterinarian, Animals Program, National Center for Import and Export, 
VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 39, Riverdale, MD 20737-1231; (301) 
734-5256.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The regulations in 9 CFR part 91, ``Inspection and Handling of 
Livestock for Exportation'' (referred to below as the regulations), 
prescribe conditions for exporting animals from the United States. 
Section 91.3 of the regulations provides, among other things, that all 
animals intended for exportation to a foreign country must be 
accompanied from the State of origin of the export movement to the port 
of embarkation or the border of the United States by an origin health 
certificate. The origin health certificate must certify that the 
animals were inspected within the 30

[[Page 20385]]

days prior to the date of the movement of the animals for export and 
that they were found to be healthy and free from evidence of 
communicable disease and exposure to communicable disease. The origin 
health certificate must be issued by an Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service (APHIS) representative or an accredited veterinarian 
and must be endorsed by an authorized APHIS veterinarian in the State 
of origin of the export movement. The origin health certificate must 
individually identify the animals in the shipment as to species, breed, 
sex, and age and, if applicable, must also show registration name and 
number, natural markings, and acquired markings. The origin health 
certificate must also include all test results, certifications, or 
other statements required by the country of destination.
    Section 91.3(c) requires that all samples for tests required by the 
regulations be taken by an inspector or accredited veterinarian in the 
State of origin of the export movement. Further, Sec. 91.3 requires 
that the samples be taken and tests made within the 30 days prior to 
the date of the export movement, with the following exceptions: The 
Administrator may permit sampling and testing more than 30 days prior 
to the date of export if required by the receiving country, and the 
tuberculin test may be conducted within the 90 days prior to the date 
of the movement of the animals for export.
    The provision allowing sampling and tests more than 30 days prior 
to the date of export if required by the receiving country is intended 
to cover those cases where the country of destination either allows 
testing earlier than 30 days prior to the date of export, or requires 
earlier testing. For example, sometimes the country of destination 
wishes to test the animals again upon arrival. Since a certain interval 
of time must elapse between tests, the country requires pre-export 
testing to be conducted more than 30 days prior to the date of export.
    When preparing animals for exportation, exporters normally request 
the accredited veterinarian or APHIS representative who takes samples 
for testing to inspect the animals and issue the origin health 
certificate at the same time. Exporters who have their animals 
inspected and obtain an origin health certificate more than 30 days 
prior to the date of export arrive at the port of embarkation or the 
border with an invalid origin health certificate. This is because, as 
explained earlier, Sec. 91.3(a) requires the origin health certificate 
to certify that the animals were inspected within the 30 days prior to 
the date of export. Exporters must then obtain a second origin health 
certificate. The services of an APHIS representative or accredited 
veterinarian are required, there is a fee for the issuance of the 
origin health certificate, and the exporter is inconvenienced.
    We are proposing to amend the regulations to allow animals to be 
inspected for the origin health certificate as early as the required 
sampling or testing may be performed, in accordance with the 
requirements of the country of destination. Although this change will 
mean that some animals will be inspected for export in the State of 
origin more than 30 days prior to export, all animals leaving the 
country are inspected an additional time. In accordance with Sec. 91.15 
of the regulations, all animals leaving the country by sea or air must 
be inspected by an APHIS veterinarian within 24 hours of embarkation at 
an export inspection facility at an authorized port. All animals 
offered for exportation into Mexico or Canada through a land border 
port are inspected at the border by Mexican or Canadian officials 
before being authorized entry into Mexico or Canada. Thus, there is 
another opportunity to inspect the animals for evidence of disease or 
exposure to disease before they are exported from the United States.
    This action would simplify the export process and reduce costs for 
those exporters who now must secure a new origin health certificate at 
the port of embarkation or border because they were unaware of the 
current time limitations for the export certificates.
    In conjunction with this proposed amendment, we also propose to 
amend Sec. 91.3(c). As explained earlier in this document, Sec. 91.3(c) 
now provides that the Administrator may permit sampling and testing 
more than 30 days prior to the date of export if required by the 
receiving country. This wording does not adequately cover cases where a 
receiving country allows (rather than requires) sampling or testing 
more than 30 days prior to the date of export. Therefore, we propose to 
change this language to provide that the Administrator may permit 
sampling and testing more than 30 days prior to the date of export when 
required or allowed by the country of destination.
    We also propose to amend Sec. 91.3(a) and (c) to replace the phrase 
``the date of the movement of the animals for export'' with ``the date 
of export.'' We currently use both phrases in Sec. 91.3(a) and (c) in 
various places. It is not clear from ``the date of the movement of the 
animals for export'' whether we mean the date that animals move from 
their premises of origin to the port of embarkation or border, or the 
date the animals move from the port of embarkation or across the 
border. We mean the latter, and we believe using the term ``date of 
export'' consistently will help clarify that.
    Further, we propose to amend 9 CFR part 161, ``Requirements and 
Standards for Accredited Veterinarians and Suspension or Revocation of 
Such Accreditation.'' Currently, Sec. 161.3(b) states that 
certificates, forms, records, and reports issued by an accredited 
veterinarian shall be valid for 30 days following the date of 
inspection of the animal identified on the document. We propose to 
amend Sec. 161.3(b) to allow an origin health certificate to be valid 
for more than 30 days when the Administrator allows the animals to be 
inspected more than 30 days prior to the date of export in accordance 
with Sec. 91.3.

Executive Order 12866 and Regulatory Flexibility Act

    This proposed rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12866. 
The rule has been determined to be not significant for the purposes of 
Executive Order 12866 and, therefore, has not been reviewed by the 
Office of Management and Budget.
    The regulations currently require all animals intended for 
exportation from the United States to be accompanied from the State of 
origin to the port of embarkation or the border of the United States by 
an origin health certificate. The origin health certificate must be 
issued by an APHIS representative or an accredited veterinarian. It 
must certify that the animals were inspected within 30 days of being 
exported and were found to be healthy and free from evidence of 
communicable disease and exposure to communicable disease. The origin 
health certificate must also include all test results, certifications, 
or other statements required by the country of destination. If required 
by the country of destination, the Administrator may permit sampling 
and testing more than 30 days prior to the date of export.
    We are proposing to amend part 91 to allow animals to be inspected 
for the origin health certificate as early as the sampling or testing 
may be performed. We also propose to amend part 161 to allow an origin 
health certificate to be valid for more than 30 days when animals are 
allowed to be inspected more than 30 days prior to the date of movement 
for export in accordance with Sec. 91.3.

Costs

    Currently, exporters who have their animals inspected and obtain an 
origin health certificate more than 30 days

[[Page 20386]]

prior to the date of export must obtain a new origin health certificate 
when the animals arrive at the port of embarkation or the border. On 
average, it costs $150 to have a veterinarian inspect animals for 
export and issue an origin health certificate. If this proposal is 
adopted, the original origin health certificate will still be valid 
when the animals arrive at the port of embarkation or the border, and 
the exporter will not incur the costs of obtaining an additional origin 
health certificate.

Live Animal Exports

    United Nations trade data show that U.S. exports of live animals 
are worth more than half a billion dollars a year (see tables 1 and 2). 
On average, U.S. exports of live animals from 1993 through 1998 were 
distributed as follows: More than 40 percent went to Mexico and Canada, 
approximately 15.3 percent went to Japan, approximately 2 percent went 
to Brazil, 1.4 percent went to Turkey, 1.1 percent went to the Republic 
of Korea (Korea), and less than 1 percent went to Egypt or Taiwan. Of 
these countries, Brazil, Egypt, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey 
provide for sampling and testing of live animals more than 30 days 
prior to exportation from the country of origin.

                                                         Table 1.--U.S. Exports of Live Animals
                                                                       [In $1,000]
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                                                                                                                                     Rest of
                   Year                       Mexico     Canada     Brazil     Egypt      Japan      Korea      Taiwan     Turkey   the world    Total
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1993......................................   $108,679   $127,058    $12,339     $1,337    $39,667     $4,777     $3,116     $2,339   $219,615   $518,927
1994......................................    149,747    146,578     12,415      2,800     47,516      6,740      3,496      1,136    216,924    587,352
1995......................................     31,409    124,974     14,179      2,196    110,646      8,856      2,791      7,689    216,502    519,242
1996......................................     81,119    105,130     10,598      6,362    103,228      7,412      3,236      9,307    206,141    532,533
1997......................................    207,854    104,699     13,358      2,261    108,049      7,975      2,237      2,042    235,364    683,839
1998......................................    140,632    132,178      9,969      5,569     72,156      3,568      1,919      9,616    302,545    678,152
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                                                         Table 2.--U.S. Exports of Live Animals
                                                          [As a percent of total U.S. exports]
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                                                                                                                                         Brazil, Egypt,
                                                            Mexico                                                                       Japan, Korea,
               Year                   Mexico     Canada      and       Brazil     Egypt      Japan      Korea      Taiwan     Turkey      Taiwan, and
                                                            Canada                                                                           Turkey
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1993..............................         21         25       45.4        2.4        0.3        7.6        0.9        0.6        0.5               12.3
1994..............................         26         25       50.5        2.1        0.5        8.1        1.1        0.6        0.2               12.6
1995..............................          6         24       30.1        2.7        0.4       21.3        1.7        0.5        1.5               28.2
1996..............................       15.2       19.7       35.0        2.0        1.2       19.4        1.4        0.6        1.7               26.3
1997..............................         30         15       45.7        2.0        0.3       15.8        1.2        0.3        0.3               19.9
1998..............................         21         20       40.2        1.5        0.8       10.6        0.5        0.3        1.4               15.2
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    Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan also provide for sampling 
and testing of live animals more than 30 days prior to exportation from 
the country of origin. These three Central Asian countries have 
imported relatively few live animals in the 6-years period from 1993 
through 1998 and none from the United States. Table 3 shows the value 
of live animals imported into these three countries, based on United 
Nations data.

                                        Table 3.--Imports of Live Animals
                                                   [In $1,000]
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                         Year                           Kazakhstan  Turkmenistan   Uzbekistan    All countries
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1993.................................................         $600          $551  ...........         $8,965,958
1994.................................................           29  ............         $400          9,556,484
1995.................................................          427  ............          200         10,020,452
1996.................................................          137  ............          200          9,925,704
1997.................................................          231  ............          200          8,991,483
1998.................................................          433  ............          200          8,991,071
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    This proposed rule would facilitate live animal exports from the 
United States to Brazil, Egypt, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Taiwan, 
Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and other countries that may allow or 
require animals to be tested, or samples to be taken for testing, more 
than 30 days prior to export from the United States. Approximately 19 
percent of live animal exports from the United States went to these 
countries over the 6-year period from 1993 through 1998. We do not know 
how many of these shipments were made by small entities. However, all 
U.S. entities, including small entities, who export live animals to 
these countries would benefit from this proposal, albeit in a 
relatively small way, by not having to bear the costs of an additional 
origin health certificate, estimated at approximately $150 per 
shipment.
    Under these circumstances, the Administrator of the Animal and 
Plant Health Inspection Service has determined that this action would 
not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities.

[[Page 20387]]

Executive Order 12372

    This program/activity is listed in the Catalog of Federal Domestic 
Assistance under No. 10.025 and is subject to Executive Order 12372, 
which requires intergovernmental consultation with State and local 
officials. (See 7 CFR part 3015, subpart V.)

Executive Order 12988

    This proposed rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12988, 
Civil Justice Reform. If this proposed rule is adopted: (1) All State 
and local laws and regulations that are inconsistent with this rule 
will be preempted; (2) no retroactive effect will be given to this 
rule; and (3) administrative proceedings will not be required before 
parties may file suit in court challenging this rule.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    This proposed rule contains no information collection or 
recordkeeping requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

Lists of Subjects

9 CFR Part 91

    Animal diseases, Animal welfare, Exports, Livestock, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements, Transportation.

9 CFR Part 161

    Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Veterinarians.
    Accordingly, we propose to amend 9 CFR parts 91 and 161 as follows:

PART 91--INSPECTION AND HANDLING OF LIVESTOCK FOR EXPORTATION

    1. The authority citation for part 91 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 21 U.S.C. 105, 112, 113, 114a, 120, 121, 134b, 134f, 
136, 136a, 612, 613, 614, and 618; 46 U.S.C. 466a and 466b; 49 
U.S.C. 1509(d); 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.2(d).

    2. In Sec. 91.3, paragraph (a) and the second sentence in paragraph 
(c) would be revised to read as follows:


Sec. 91.3  General export requirements.

    (a) All animals intended for exportation to a foreign country, 
except by land to Mexico or Canada, must be accompanied from the State 
of origin of the export movement to the port of embarkation by an 
origin health certificate. All animals intended for exportation by land 
to Mexico or Canada must be accompanied from the State of origin of the 
export movement to the border of the United States by an origin health 
certificate. The origin health certificate must certify that the 
animals were inspected within the 30 days prior to the date of export, 
except as follows: When the Administrator allows sampling or testing to 
be done more than 30 days prior to the date of export, in accordance 
with paragraph (c) of this section, then the animals also may be 
inspected within that same time period, and the origin health 
certificate will remain valid for that time period. The origin health 
certificate must certify that the animals were found upon inspection to 
be healthy and free from evidence of communicable disease and exposure 
to communicable disease. The origin health certificate must be endorsed 
by an authorized APHIS veterinarian in the State of origin and must 
include any test results added by the authorized APHIS veterinarian 
pursuant to Sec. 161.3(k) of this chapter (any added test results must 
be initialed by the authorized veterinarian). The origin health 
certificate must individually identify the animals in the shipment as 
to species, breed, sex, and age and, if applicable, must also show 
registration name and number, tattoo markings, or other natural or 
acquired markings. The origin health certificate must include all test 
results, certifications, or other statements required by the country of 
destination.
* * * * *
    (c) * * * The samples must be taken and tests must be made within 
the 30 days prior to the date of export, except that the Administrator 
may allow such sampling or testing to be conducted more than 30 days 
prior to the date of export if required or allowed by the receiving 
country, and the tuberculin test may be conducted within the 90 days 
prior to the date of export. * * *
* * * * *

PART 161--REQUIREMENTS AND STANDARDS FOR ACCREDITED VETERINARIANS 
AND SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF SUCH ACCREDITATION

    3. The authority citation for part 161 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 1828; 21 U.S.C. 105, 111-114, 114a, 114a-1, 
115, 116, 120, 121, 125, 134b, 134f, 612, and 613; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, 
and 371.2(d).

    4. In Sec. 161.3, paragraph (b) would be revised to read as 
follows.


Sec. 161.3  Standards for accredited veterinarian duties.

* * * * *
    (b) An accredited veterinarian shall not issue, or allow to be 
used, any certificate, form, record or report, until, and unless, it 
has been accurately and fully completed, clearly identifying the 
animals to which it applies, and showing the dates and results of any 
inspection, test, vaccination, or treatment the accredited veterinarian 
has conducted, except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, and 
the dates of issuance and expiration of the document. Certificates, 
forms, records, and reports shall be valid for 30 days following the 
date of inspection of the animal identified on the document, except 
that origin health certificates may be valid for a longer period of 
time as provided in Sec. 91.3(a) of this chapter. The accredited 
veterinarian must distribute copies of certificates, forms, records, 
and reports according to instructions issued to him or her by the 
Veterinarian-in-Charge.
* * * * *

    Done in Washington, DC, this 11th day of April 2000.
Bobby R. Acord,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 00-9492 Filed 4-14-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P