Ss

April 2008

Supporting Statement

Importation of Tomatoes from Souss-Massa, Morocco

Docket No. APHIS 2008-0017
OMB No. 0579-XXXX

A. Justification

1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary. Identify any legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection.

The United States Department of Agriculture is responsible for preventing plant pests and noxious weeds from entering the United States, preventing the spread of plant diseases not widely distributed in the United States, and eradicating those imported pests and noxious weeds when eradication is feasible.

Under the Plant Protection Act (7 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.), the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to carry out operations or measures to detect, eradicate, suppress, control, prevent, or retard the spread of plant pests new to the United States or not known to be widely distributed throughout the United States.

The regulations in “Subpart-Fruits and Vegetables” (7 CFR 319.56-1 through 319.56-47, referred to as the regulations) prohibit or restrict the importation of fruits and vegetables into the United States from certain parts of the world to prevent the introduction and dissemination of plant pests that are new to or not widely distributed within the United States.

Currently, the regulations in §319.56-28(c)authorize the importation of pink tomatoes from the provinces of El Jadida and Safi in Morocco and the province of Dahkla in Western Sahara into the United States subject to a system approach. This system approach requires pest-free growing structures, growth in specified regions, shipping date restrictions, packinghouse safeguards, and the export of only pink tomatoes.

APHIS is proposing to allow the importation of commercial consignments of tomatoes from the Souss-Massa region of Morocco subject to a systems approach similar to that which is already in place for tomatoes imported into the United States from other areas of Morocco. The tomatoes would have to be produced under conditions that would include requirements for pest exclusion at the production site, fruit fly trapping inside the production site, and pest-exclusionary packinghouse procedures.

The tomatoes would also be required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the Moroccan national plant protection organization with an additional declaration stating that the tomatoes have been grown in registered greenhouses in the Souss-Massa region and were 60 percent or less pink at the time of packing.

This action would allow for the importation of commercial consignments of tomatoes from the Souss-Massa region of Morocco into the United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests.

APHIS is asking OMB to approve the use of this information activity, for 3 years, associated with its efforts to prevent the spread of plant diseases and plant pests from entering into the United States.

2. Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is used. Except for a new collection, indicate the actual use the agency has made of the information received from the current collection.

Phytosanitary Certificate (foreign) - Tomatoes imported from Souss-Massa, Morocco, into the United States would be required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the Moroccan National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) with an additional declaration stating that the tomatoes have been grown in registered greenhouses in the Souss-Massa region and were 60 percent or less pink at the time of packing.

This information is used as a guide to the intensity of the inspection that APHIS must conduct when the shipment arrives. Without this information, all shipments would need to be inspected very thoroughly, thereby requiring considerably more time. This would slow the clearance of international shipments.

Records of Trap Placement and Medfly Captures – Division of Plant Protection, Inspection, and Enforcement(DPVCTRF)must maintain records of trap placement, checking of traps, and any Medfly captures, and make the records available to APHIS upon request. DPVCTRF must maintain an APHIS-approved quality control program to monitor or audit the trapping program. The trapping records must be maintained for 1 year for APHIS review.

Inspection of Traps – Tomatoes imported from Souss-Massa, Morocco into the United States must be grown in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco in insect-proof greenhouses registered with, and inspected by, the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, Division of Plant Protection, Inspection, and Enforcement (DPVCTRF).

3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses, and the basis for the decision for adopting this means of collection. Also, describe any consideration of using information technology to reduce burden.

APHIS has no control or influence over when foreign countries will automate these certificates.

4. Describe efforts to identify duplication. Show specifically why any similar information already available cannot be used or modified for use for the purpose described in item 2 above.

The information APHIS collects is exclusive to its mission of preventing the introduction of exotic fruit flies into the United States and is not available from any other source.

5. If the collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities, describe any methods used to minimize burden.

The information APHIS collects is the minimum needed to protect the United States from destructive plant pests while increasing the number and variety of fruits and vegetables that can be imported from other countries. APHIS has determined that 2 percent of the total respondents are small entities.

6. Describe the consequences to Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.

If this information is not collected, APHIS’ ability to protect the United States from exotic insect pests would be severely compromised.

7. Explain any special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the general information collection guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5.

No special circumstances exist that would require this collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the general information collection guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. Describe efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting form, and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported. If applicable, provide a copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the agency's notice, soliciting comments on the information collection prior to submission to OMB.

In 2007-2008, APHIS held productive consultations with the following individuals concerning the information collection activities associated with its program to import tomatoes from Souss-Massa, Morocco.

GPA Morocco

325 Av Hassan II Agadir-Maroc

Tel: 212288459 06/07

Fax: 21228845905

President: KABBAGE Tariq

Directeur general: OUGUELLIT Abedelkrim

Directeur commercial: CHARROUG Abdellah

Delassue

9, Rue Khalid Ben Oualid Ain Sebaa – Cassablanca

Tel: 212 22 35 39 06

Fax: 212 22 35 33 98

President: BENNANI SMIRES Kacem

Responsible commercial: CHARRAT Fatiha

Idyl

French Morocco Consortium

18, Rue de Madrid-Agadir-Maroc

Tel: 212 28 82 19 25

Fax: 212 28 84 32 14

President: TAZU Momomed

Directeur: PUECH Pierrick

APHIS’ proposed rule (APHIS 2008-0017) will describe its information gathering requirements and also provide a 60-day comment period. During this time, interested members of the public will have the opportunity to provide APHIS with their input concerning the usefulness, legitimacy, and merit of the information collection activities APHIS is proposing.

9. Explain any decisions to provide any payment or gift to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.

This information collection activity involves no payments (other than appropriate, program-related payments) or gifts to respondents.

10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for the assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.

No additional assurance of confidentiality is provided with this information collection. However, the confidentiality of information is protected under 5 U.S.C.552a.

11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and others that are considered private. This justification should include the reasons why the agency considers the questions necessary, the specific uses to be made of the information, the explanation to be given to persons from whom the information is requested, and any steps to be taken to obtain their consent.

This information collection activity asks no questions of a personal or sensitive nature.

12. Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information. Indicate the number of respondents, frequency of response, annual hour burden, and an explanation of how the burden was estimated.

• Indicate the number of respondents, frequency of response, annual hour burden, and an explanation of how the burden was estimated. If this request for approval covers more than one form, provide separate hour burden estimates for each form and aggregate the hour burdens in Item 13 of OMB Form 83-I.

See APHIS Form 71 for hour burden estimates.

• Provide estimates of annualized cost to respondents for the hour burdens for collections of information, identifying and using appropriate wage rate categories.

The cost to the public is determined by multiplying the total number of burden hours times the wage per hour rate.

$12.00 X 390 hours = $4,680.

The hourly rate is derived from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics June 2003 Report – National Compensation Survey; Occupational Wages in the United States, July 2002. See http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/ncb10539.pdf

13. Provide estimates of the total annual cost burden to respondents or recordkeepers resulting from the collection of information, (do not include the cost of any hour burden shown in items 12 and 14). The cost estimates should be split into two components: (a) a total capital and start-up cost component annualized over its expected useful life; and (b) a total operation and maintenance and purchase of services component.

There is zero annual cost burden associated with capital and start-up costs, maintenance costs, and purchase of services in connection with this program.

14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government. Provide a description of the method used to estimate cost and any other expense that would not have been incurred without this collection of information.

The estimated cost for the Federal Government is $ 1,467.67.

(See APHIS Form 79.)

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported in Items 13 or 14 of the OMB Form 83-1.

This is a new program.

16. For collections of information whose results are planned to be published, outline plans for tabulation and publication.

APHIS has no plans to tabulate or publish the information collected.

17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons that display would be inappropriate.

There are no USDA forms involved in this information collection.

18. Explain each exception to the certification statement identified in the "Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act."

APHIS is able to certify compliance with all the provisions in the Act.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

Statistical methods are not used in this information collection.