1.

Notifying Member: United States of America

If applicable, name of local government involved:  

2.

Agency responsible: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

3.

Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where applicable): Bananas

4.

Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable:

[ ]       All trading partners  

[X]     Specific regions or countries: Philippines

5.

Title of the notified document: Proposed Rule: Importation of Fresh Bananas From the Philippines into Hawaii and US Territories (Docket No. APHIS-2013-0045)  Language(s): English  Number of pages: 5

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2013-0045-0001

6.

Description of content: The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is proposing to amend the regulations concerning the importation of fruits and vegetables to allow the importation of fresh bananas from the Philippines into Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands. As a condition of entry, the bananas would have to be produced in accordance with a systems approach that would include requirements for importation of commercial consignments, monitoring of fruit flies to establish low-prevalence places of production, harvesting only of hard green bananas, and inspection for quarantine pests by the national plant protection organization of the Philippines. The bananas would also have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that they were grown, packed, inspected, and found to be free of quarantine pests in accordance with the proposed requirements. This action would allow the importation of bananas from the Philippines while continuing to protect against the introduction of plant pests into Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Federal Register Vol. 79, No. 18, Tuesday, 28 January 2014, Pages 4410-4414.

7.

Objective and rationale: [ ] food safety, [ ] animal health, [X] plant protection, [ ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease, [ ] protect territory from other damage from pests.  

8.

Is there a relevant international standard? If so, identify the standard:

[ ]       Codex Alimentarius Commission (e.g.  title or serial number of Codex standard or related text)  

[ ]       World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) (e.g. Terrestrial or Aquatic Animal Health Code, chapter number)  

[X]     International Plant Protection Convention (e.g. ISPM number)  

[ ]       None

Does this proposed regulation conform to the relevant international standard? 

[X] Yes   [ ] No

If no, describe, whenever possible, how and why it deviates from the international standard:  

9.

Other relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:    

10.

Proposed date of adoption (dd/mm/yy): Not applicable

Proposed date of publication (dd/mm/yy): Not applicable

11.

Proposed date of entry into force: [ ] Six months from date of publication, and/or (dd/mm/yy): Not applicable

[X]     Trade facilitating measure  

12.

Final date for comments: [ ] Sixty days from the date of circulation of the notification and/or (dd/mm/yy): 31 March 2014

Agency or authority designated to handle comments: [ ] National Notification Authority, [ ] National Enquiry Point. Address, fax number and e?mail address (if available) of other body:

You may submit comments by either of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2013-0045-0001.

Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Send your comment to

Docket No. APHIS-2013-0045,

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-2013-0045.

For further information contact:

Ms Meredith Jones,

Senior Regulatory Coordination Specialist,

RPM, RCC,

PPQ, APHIS,

4700 River Road Unit 133, Riverdale,

MD 20737-1231;

+(1 301) 851 2289.

13.

Texts available from: [X] National Notification Authority, [ ] National Enquiry Point. Address, fax number and e?mail address (if available) of other body:

United States SPS National Notification Authority,

USDA Foreign Agricultural Service,

International Regulations and Standards Division (IRSD),

Stop 1014, Washington D.C. 20250;

Tel: +(1 202) 720 1301;

Fax: +(1 202) 720 0433;

 E-mail: us.spsenquirypoint@fas.usda.gov