[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 207 (Thursday, October 25, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53978-53979]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-26895]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

[Docket No. 01-057-1]


International Standards Under the International Plant Protection 
Convention

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

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SUMMARY: We are giving notice of a public meeting on a draft 
international standard for the environmental impact of quarantine 
pests, including quarantine pests that are invasive.
    Place, Date, and Time of Meeting: The meeting will be held at the 
Yates Auditorium at the Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street NW., 
Washington, DC. The meeting will be held on November 15, 2001, from 1 
p.m. to 3 p.m. Please use the entrance at C Street.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Ron A. Sequeira, Biological 
Scientist, CPHST, PPQ, APHIS, 1017 Main Campus Drive, Suite 2500, 
Raleigh, NC 27606-5202; (919) 513-2662.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The International Plant Protection 
Convention (IPPC) is a multilateral convention adopted in 1952 for the 
purpose of securing international cooperation in the control and 
prevention of the spread and introduction of pests of plants and plant 
products and to promote appropriate measures for their control. Under 
the IPPC, the understanding of plant protection has been, and continues 
to be, broad, encompassing the protection of both cultivated and 
noncultivated plants from direct or indirect injury by plant pests. 
Activities addressed by the IPPC include the development and 
establishment of international plant health standards, the 
harmonization of phytosanitary activities through emerging standards, 
the facilitation of the exchange of official and scientific information 
among countries, and the furnishing of technical assistance to 
developing countries that are signatories to the IPPC. The IPPC is 
recognized by the World Trade Organization as the standard-setting body 
for international plant quarantine issues.
    The IPPC is placed under the authority of the United Nations' Food 
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the members of the Secretariat 
of the IPPC are appointed by the FAO. The IPPC is implemented by 
national plant protection organizations in cooperation with regional 
plant protection organizations, the Interim Commission on Phytosanitary 
Measures (ICPM), and the Secretariat of the IPPC. The United States has 
played a major role in all standard-setting activities under the IPPC 
and has representation on FAO's highest governing body, the FAO 
Conference.
    The United States became a contracting party to the IPPC in 1972 
and has been actively involved in furthering the work of the IPPC ever 
since. The IPPC was amended in 1979, and the amended version entered 
into force in 1991 after two-thirds of the contracting countries 
accepted the amendment. More recently, in 1997, contracting parties 
completed negotiations on further amendments that were approved by the 
FAO Conference and submitted to the parties for acceptance. This 1997 
amendment updated phytosanitary concepts and formalized the standard-
setting structure within the IPPC. The 1997 amended version of the IPPC 
will enter into force once two-thirds of the current contracting 
parties notify the Director General of FAO of their acceptance of the 
amendment.
    The IPPC has been, and continues to be, administered at the 
national level by plant quarantine officials whose primary objective is 
to safeguard plant resources from injurious pests. In the United 
States, the national plant protection organization is the Plant 
Protection and Quarantine unit of the Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service.
    In June 2000, an IPPC working group identified the need to 
supplement the current pest risk analysis guidelines with additional 
guidance regarding the consideration of potential environmental risks 
of plant pests and recommended that a draft standard be developed. The 
entire report from the June 2000 working group meeting is available on 
the Internet at http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/agricult/agp/agpp/
pq/en/archive/wg__gmos/recom.htm. 
    In April 2001, the IPPC's ICPM agreed to establish a technical 
expert working group to develop an IPPC standard for considering the 
environmental impact of quarantine pests, including quarantine pests 
that are invasive. The technical expert working group charged with 
developing the draft standard met in August 2001.
    The first draft of the standard includes consideration of the 
following five elements relating to potential environmental risks of 
plant pests, which were identified in the June 2000 working group 
meeting:
    1. Reduction or elimination of endangered (or threatened) native 
plant species;
    2. Reduction or elimination of a keystone plant species (a species 
that plays a major role in the maintenance of an ecosystem);
    3. Reduction or elimination of a plant species that is a major 
component of a native ecosystem;
    4. Ecosystem destabilization caused by a change to plant biological 
diversity;
    5. Control, eradication, or management programs that would be 
needed if a quarantine pest were introduced, and impacts of such 
programs (e.g., pesticides or release of nonindigenous predators and 
parasites) on biological diversity.

The draft standard is available on the Internet at http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/agpp/pq/ and http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/pim/standards/#01. 

[[Page 53979]]

    The draft standard is a supplement to the existing ``International 
Standard for Phytosanitary Measures Number 11 (Pest Risk Analysis for 
Quarantine Pests),'' which is available on the Internet at http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/agpp/pq. 
    The purpose of the meeting is to solicit public comment on the 
draft standard as part of the country consultation process. The meeting 
will be open to the public and the public is invited to participate. 
Also, you may file written statements on meeting topics with the 
Committee before or after the meeting by sending them to the person 
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, or you may file written 
statements at the meeting. Please refer to Docket No. 01-057-1 when 
submitting your statements.
    Preregistration is not required. However, upon arrival, all 
participants will be asked to sign in. Also, members of the public will 
be required to present valid photo identification, and Federal 
employees will be required to present valid government identification.

    Done in Washington, DC, this 19th day of October 2001.
W. Ron DeHaven,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 01-26895 Filed 10-24-01; 8:45 am]
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