Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service September 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The comment period for a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on environmental impacts that may result from the potential approval of petitions seeking a determination of nonregulated status of cultivars of dicamba herbicide resistant soybeans and cotton produced by the Monsanto Company will remain open until October 10, 2014. This action will allow interested persons additional time to prepare and submit comments.

We are advising the public of our determination that three varieties of herbicide resistant corn and soybeans produced by Dow AgroSciences LLC are no longer considered regulated articles under our regulations governing the introduction of certain genetically engineered organisms. Our determination is based on our evaluation of data submitted by the Dow AgroSciences LLC in its three petitions for a determination of nonregulated status, our analysis of publically available scientific data, and comments received from the public on the petition for nonregulated status and its associated environmental impact statement and plant pest risk assessments. This notice also announces the availability of our written determination and record of decision.

We are amending the regulations concerning the importation of fruits and vegetables to allow the importation of mangoes from Jamaica into the continental United States. As a condition of entry, the mangoes must be produced in accordance with a systems approach employing a combination of mitigation measures for certain fruit flies, soft scale insects, and diseases and must be inspected prior to exportation from Jamaica and found free of these pests and diseases. The mangoes must be imported in commercial consignments only and be treated to mitigate the risk of fruit flies. The mangoes must also be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate. This action will allow the importation of mangoes from Jamaica while continuing to protect against the introduction of plant pests into the United States.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's intention to request an extension of approval of an information collection associated with the voluntary Trichinae Certification Program to enhance the ability of U.S. pork producers to export pork and pork products to overseas markets.

We are proposing to amend our regulations governing the importations of fruits and vegetables by broadening our existing performance standard to provide for approval of all new fruits and vegetables for importation into the United States using a notice-based process. We are also proposing to remove the region- or commodity- specific phytosanitary requirements currently found in these regulations. Likewise, we are proposing an equivalent revision of the performance standard in our regulations governing the interstate movements of fruits and vegetables from Hawaii and the U.S. territories (Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and the removal of commodity-specific phytosanitary requirements from those regulations. This proposal would allow for the approval of requests to authorize the importation or interstate movement of new fruits and vegetables in a manner that enables a more flexible and responsive regulatory approach to evolving pest situations in both the United States and exporting countries. It would not however, alter the science-based process in which the risk associated with importation or interstate movement of a given fruit or vegetable is evaluated or the manner in which risks associated with the importation or interstate movement of a fruit or vegetable are mitigated.

We are amending the fruits and vegetables regulations to allow the importation of litchi and longan fruit from Vietnam into the continental United States. As a condition of entry, litchi and longan fruit from Vietnam will be subject to a systems approach that includes requirements for treatment and inspection and restrictions on the distribution of the fruit. This action will allow for the importation of litchi and longan fruit from Vietnam into the United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests.