. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SPS/N/USA/217
24 January 2000
(00-0275)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Original:  English
NOTIFICATION
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  UNITED STATES
If applicable, name of local government involved:           
2. Agency responsible:  Environmental Protection Agency - EPA
3. Products covered (provide tariff item number(s) as specified in national schedules
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable).Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable:
Organophosphate pesticides
4. Title and number of pages of the notified document: Organophosphate Pesticides:
Availability of Preliminary Risk Assessments for Mevinphos and Phosalone (3 pages plus
related documents)
5. Description of content:  This notice announces the availability of documents that were
developed as part of the EPA's process for making reregistration eligibility decisions for
the organophosphate pesticides and for tolerance reassessments consistent with the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Actof 1996 (FQPA).  These documents are the preliminary human health risk assessments and
related documents for Mevinphos and Phosalone.  This notice also starts a 60-day public
comment period for the preliminary risk assessments. Comments are to be limited to
issues directly associated with these two organophosphate risk assessments and should be
limited to issues raised in those documents.  By allowing access and opportunity for
comment on the preliminary risk assessments, EPA is seeking to strengthen stakeholder
involvement and help ensure our decisions under FQPA are transparent and based on thebest available information.  The tolerance reassessment process will ensure that the United
States continues to have the safest and most abundant food supply.  The Agency cautions
that these risk assessments are preliminary assessments only and that further refinements
of the risk assessments will be appropriate for some, if not all, of these organophosphate
pesticides.  These documents reflect only the work and analysis conducted as of the timethey were produced and it is appropriate that, as new information becomes available
and/or additional analyses are performed, the conclusions they contain may change.
6. Objective and rationale: [  X ] food safety,  [    ] animal health,  [    ] plant protection,
[    ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease, [     ] protect territory from other
damage from pests           G/SPS/N/USA/217
Page 2
7. An international standard, guideline or recommendation does not exist [    ].
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate
reference and briefly identify deviations:  Some differences currently exist between the
United States MRLs for organophosphate pesticides and CXLs under Codex Alimentarius.
Making these documents available at this stage is meant to increase transparency and publicinvolvement in the US tolerance reassessment process for organophosphate pesticides.
8. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:  65 FR 1867,
12 January 2000 (Available in English)
9. Proposed date of adoption:  To be determined.
10. Proposed date of entry into force:  To be determined.
11. Final date for comments:  13 March 2000
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [     ] National notification
authority, [     ] National enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if
available) of other body:  Environmental Protection Agency
Detailed instruction on where and how to send comments is in the body of the full text -
which will be sent upon request to the address in paragraph 12.
12. Texts available from: [  X ] National notification authority, [  X ] National enquiry point
or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body:
United States SPS Enquiry Point/Notification Authority
USDA/FAS/FSTSDATTN: Carolyn F. Wilson
Room 5545 South Agriculture Building
Stop 1027
1400 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20250Phone (202) 720-2239
Fax (202) 690-0677
E-mail Address: ofsts@fas.usda.gov