[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 74 (Wednesday, April 17, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15994-15995]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-07665]
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Notices
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains documents other than rules
or proposed rules that are applicable to the public. Notices of hearings
and investigations, committee meetings, agency decisions and rulings,
delegations of authority, filing of petitions and applications and agency
statements of organization and functions are examples of documents
appearing in this section.
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Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 74 / Wednesday, April 17, 2019 /
Notices
[[Page 15994]]
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. APHIS-2017-0103]
Notice of Proposed Revision To Import Requirements for the
Importation of Fresh Fragrant Pears From China Into the United States
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that we have prepared a pest risk
analysis relative to the importation into the United States of fragrant
pears from an additional area of production in China. Based on the
findings of the analysis, we are proposing to authorize the importation
of fragrant pears from this additional area of production in China and
revise the conditions under which fragrant pears from authorized areas
of production in China may be imported into the United States. We are
making the pest risk analysis available to the public for review and
comment.
DATES: We will consider all comments that we receive on or before June
17, 2019.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by either of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2017-0103.
Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Send your comment to
Docket No. APHIS-2017-0103, 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-2017-
0103 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) 799-7039 before coming.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Marc Phillips, Senior Regulatory
Policy Specialist, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River Road Unit 133, Riverdale, MD
20737-1231; (301) 851-2114.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the regulations in ``Subpart L-Fruits
and Vegetables'' (7 CFR 319.56-1 through 319.56-12, referred to below
as the regulations), the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS) prohibits or restricts the importation of fruits and vegetables
into the United States from certain parts of the world to prevent plant
pests from being introduced into or disseminated within the United
States.
Section 319.56-4 of the regulations provides the requirements for
authorizing the importation of fruits and vegetables into the United
States, as well as revising existing requirements for the importation
of fruits and vegetables. Paragraph (c) of that section provides that
the name and origin of all fruits and vegetables authorized importation
into the United States, as well as the requirements for their
importation, are listed on the internet in APHIS' Fruits and Vegetables
Import Requirements database, or FAVIR (https://epermits.aphis.usda.gov/manual). It also provides that, if the
Administrator of APHIS determines that any of the phytosanitary
measures required for the importation of a particular fruit or
vegetable are no longer necessary to reasonably mitigate the plant pest
risk posed by the fruit or vegetable, APHIS will publish a notice in
the Federal Register making its pest risk analysis and determination
available for public comment.
Currently, fragrant pear from China is listed in FAVIR as a fruit
authorized importation into the United States, subject to phytosanitary
measures. In summary, these measures require that:
Fragrant pears may only be imported from China if they are
grown in the Korla region of Xinjiang Province at a production site
that is registered with the national plant protection organization
(NPPO) of China.
The fragrant pears must be produced from propagative
material that has been certified as free of quarantine pests.
Registered places of production are subject to pre- and
post-harvest inspections.
Fragrant pears must be packed in labeled cartons.
Fragrant pears must be held in a cold storage facility
while awaiting export.
If the cold storage facility also stores fruit from
unregistered production sites, the pears must be isolated from such
fruit.
Fragrant pears must be shipped in insect-proof containers.
Each consignment must be accompanied by a phytosanitary
certificate stating that the requirements listed above have been met
and that the consignment has been inspected and found free of
quarantine pests.
Fragrant pears are subject to inspection at the port of
entry into the United States.
Fragrant pears must be imported under permit.
APHIS received a request from the NPPO of China to allow imports of
fragrant pears from an expanded production area that would include the
Akesu region as well as the currently approved Korla region of Xinjiang
Province. The request was for market access to the entire United
States, comprising all 50 States and U.S. territories. In response to
the request, APHIS prepared a pest list to evaluate the pests of
quarantine significance that could follow the pathway of importation of
fragrant pears from the Akesu and Korla regions of Xinjiang Province in
China into the United States.
In preparing the pest list, we discovered that our existing
requirements for fragrant pear from China were based on a 1997 pest
risk assessment (PRA) for all pear species from all of China, rather
than limiting the assessment to fragrant pears from Xinjiang Province.
In that same 1997 PRA, we also misidentified the fragrant pears as
belonging to the species Pyrus sp. nr. communis, rather than the
species Pyrus x sinkiangensis Yu. Our new pest list corrects these
errors. The pest list identifies two pests of quarantine significance
that could follow the pathway of importation of fragrant pears from the
Akesu and Korla
[[Page 15995]]
regions of Xinjiang Province in China into the United States:
Eulecanium circumfluum Borchsenius, a soft scale, and Euzophera
pyriella Yang, the pyralid moth.
Based on the pest list, a risk management document (RMD) was
prepared to identify the phytosanitary measures that could be applied
to the importation of fragrant pears from the Akesu and Korla regions
of Xinjiang Province to mitigate the pest risk.
We have determined that fragrant pears can safely be imported from
the Akesu and Korla regions of Xinjiang Province subject to the
following phytosanitary measures:
The fragrant pears must be grown in the Akesu or Korla
region at a production site that is registered with the NPPO of China.
Registered production sites must have in place a
production site control program approved by APHIS and the NPPO of
China.
The NPPO of China is responsible for ensuring that
registered production sites are subject to field sanitation and that
growers are aware of quarantine pests and control measures to be taken
for their control. Such measures must be described in detail in an
operational workplan approved by the NPPO of China and APHIS.
Only intact fruits may be harvested for export and the
harvested fruit must be safeguarded against quarantine pests from the
production site until the consignment is shipped.
Fragrant pears must be packed in a packinghouse registered
with the NPPO of China.
The packinghouses must have a tracking system in place
that will allow for traceback of the fruit to individual production
sites.
Registered packinghouses are prohibited from packing
fragrant pears destined for other countries while packing fruit
destined for the United States.
Packinghouse procedures must be in accordance with the
operational workplan.
Each shipping box must be marked with the identity of the
packinghouse and grower.
Each consignment of fragrant pears must be accompanied by
a phytosanitary certificate issued by the NPPO of China attesting to
place of origin (production site and region) and stating that all APHIS
phytosanitary requirements have been met and that the consignment was
inspected and found free of quarantine pests.
Fragrant pears may be imported as commercial consignments
only.
Fragrant pears are subject to inspection at the port of
entry into the United States.
Fragrant pears must be imported under permit.
Therefore, in accordance with Sec. 319.56-4(c)(3), we are
announcing the availability of our pest list and RMD for public review
and comment. Those documents, as well as a description of the economic
considerations associated with the importation of fresh fragrant pears
from the Akesu and Korla regions of Xinjiang Province in China, may be
viewed on the Regulations.gov website or in our reading room (see
ADDRESSES above for a link to Regulations.gov and information on the
location and hours of the reading room). You may request paper copies
of these documents by calling or writing to the person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Please refer to the subject of the
analysis you wish to review when requesting copies.
After reviewing any comments we receive, we will announce our
decision regarding whether to revise the requirements for the
importation of fragrant pears from China in a subsequent notice. If the
overall conclusions of our analysis and the Administrator's
determination of risk remain unchanged following our consideration of
the comments, then we will revise the requirements for the importation
of fragrant pears from China in accordance with this notice.
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1633, 7701-7772, and 7781-7786; 21 U.S.C.
136 and 136a; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.3.
Done in Washington, DC, this 10th day of April 2019.
Kevin Shea,
Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2019-07665 Filed 4-16-19; 8:45 am]
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