[Federal Register: July 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 142)]
[Notices]
[Page 44487]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26jy04-21]
[[Page 44487]]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. 04-007-1]
Process for Foreign Animal Disease Status Evaluations;
Availability of Informational Document
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) has prepared an informational document that
describes the process APHIS follows when conducting foreign animal
disease status evaluation, regionalization, risk analysis, and related
rulemaking. We are making this informational document available to the
public.
ADDRESSES: You may request a copy of the informational document by
calling or writing to the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. The informational document is being posted on the Internet as
a public resource. Instructions for accessing the informational
document on the Internet are provided below under SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION.
Reading Room: You may also read the informational document 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.
Other Information: APHIS documents published in the Federal
Register, and related information, including the names of organizations
and individuals who have commented on APHIS dockets, are available on
the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Anne Goodman, Supervisory Staff
Officer, Regionalization Evaluation Services, Sanitary Trade Issues
Team, National Center for Import and Export, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road
Unit 38, Riverdale, MD 20737-1231; (301) 734-8667.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (the Department) regulates the importation of
animals and animal products to guard against the introduction of animal
diseases into this country. The regulations pertaining to the
importation and exportation of animals and animal products are set
forth in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), title 9, chapter I,
subchapter D (9 CFR parts 91 through 99).
On October 28, 1997, APHIS published a notice in the Federal
Register (62 FR 56027-56033, Docket No. 94-106-8) in which we informed
the public we were adopting a policy of recognizing regions, and levels
of risk among those regions, with regard to the importation of animals
and animal products. That same day, we published in the Federal
Register a final rule (62 FR 56000-56026, Docket No 94-106-9) in which
we established procedures (1) for recognizing regions, and (2) by which
regions may request permission to export animals and animal products
into the United States under specified conditions, based on the
regions' disease status.
The procedures set forth in our October 1997 final rule are the
procedures that we use today in accepting and evaluating requests for
regionalization. When a chief veterinary officer (CVO) of a foreign
region requests consideration for regionalization and permission to
import animals and animal products into the United States, we ask that
the request include information about the region's animal disease
status, veterinary infrastructure, livestock demographics, and degree
of physical or other separation from regions of higher disease risk. (A
list of the topics for which we require information is included in the
regulations in 9 CFR 92.2.) Using the information provided by the CVO
of the region, along with information available to us from other
sources, we use a science-based approach to evaluate whether such
importations can be safely allowed, either with or without risk
mitigation measures.
As part of our process of considering a request for regionalization
or other disease status recognition, we make available to the public
the information upon which we conducted our evaluation. This
information is posted to the APHIS Veterinary Services Web site and is
discussed in any rulemaking documents we publish in the Federal
Register regarding our evaluation of the request.
However, until now we have not made available to the public a
document that describes the way in which APHIS applies risk analysis to
the decisionmaking process for regionalization. We believe that, in
order for our evaluation process to be transparent to both domestic
entities and individuals, as well as to our trading partners, a
description of that process should be made available to the public. The
purpose of this notice is to inform the public that such a document is
available and may be accessed by several means (discussed below).
The document, titled ``Process for Foreign Animal Disease Status
Evaluations, Regionalization, Risk Analysis, and Rulemaking,''
describes the following:
The process for initiation of an evaluation;
The composition of the review teams that participate in
various components of the evaluation;
The role of site visits in evaluations;
The types of risk analyses that are conducted and the
situations in which different types of analyses are used;
The assignment of responsibility for conduct of risk
analysis;
The basis for recommendations to APHIS management
regarding requests;
The regulatory process APHIS follows to seek public
comment on recommendations to recognize regions and allow the requested
importations; and
Time considerations from initial request to final
rulemaking.
Accessing the Informational Document on the Internet
The informational document is available on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ncie/reg-request.html.
At the bottom of that Web
site page, click on http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ncie/reg-request.html.
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1622 and 8301-8317; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a;
31 U.S.C. 9701; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.4.
Done in Washington, DC, this 20th day of July, 2004.
W. Ron DeHaven,
Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 04-16926 Filed 7-23-04; 8:45 am]
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