0274 Ss 20180926

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Importation of Peppers from Certain Central American Countries

OMB NO. 0579-0274

2018

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” (Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations 319.56 through 319.56-81, 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.

The fruits and vegetables regulations allow certain types of peppers grown in approved registered production sites in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama to be imported, under certain conditions, into the United States without treatment while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests into the United States.

APHIS is asking the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve, for an additional 3 years, its use of these information collection activities, associated with its efforts to prevent the spread of plant pests and plant diseases 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.

APHIS uses the following information activities to verify whether types of peppers grown in approved registered production sites in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama can be imported into the United States without treatment.

7 CFR 319.56-40(a)(2) Inspection – (foreign government) (business)

A pre-harvest inspection of the growing site must be conducted by the national plant protection organization (NPPO) of the exporting country for those pests listed in the bilateral workplan provided to APHIS by the NPPO of the exporting country, including any of the following pests: The weevil Faustinus ovatipennis, pea leafminer, tomato fruit borer, lantana mealybug, passionvine mealybug, melon thrips, bacterial wilt, the rust fungus Puccinia pampeana, Andean potato mottle virus, and tomato severe leaf curl virus. If any of the pests listed in the workplan are found to be generally infesting the growing site, the NPPO may not allow export from that production site until the NPPO has determined that risk mitigation has been achieved.

7 CFR 319.56-40(a)(4) & (b)(7) Phytosanitary Certificate (foreign government) (business) The exporting country’s NPPO is responsible for export certification, inspection, and issuance of phytosanitary certificates. Each shipment of peppers must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the NPPO and bear the declaration, “These peppers were grown in an area recognized to be free of Medfly, and the shipment has been inspected and found free of the pests listed in the requirements.”

7 CFR 319.56-40(b)(7) Labeling of Boxes (business)

Boxes containing peppers from Certain Central American Countries must be labeled with the identity of the production site.

7 CFR 319.56-40(b)(3)(ii) Monitor Traps (foreign government) (business)

A pre-harvest inspection of the growing site must be conducted by the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of the exporting country for the pest. The NPPO may not allow export from the production site until it has determined that risk mitigation has been achieved.

7 CFR 319.56-40(b)(4)Trapping Records (foreign government)

The exporting country’s NPPO must maintain records of trap placement, checking of traps, and any Medfly captures. The trapping records must be maintained 3 years for APHIS’ review.

7 CFR 319.56-40(a)(2) Bilateral Workplan (foreign government)

All exporting countries are to provide APHIS with a bilateral workplan by the NPPO of the exporting country.

7 CFR 319.56-40(b)(1) Production Site Registrations (foreign government) (business)

The peppers must be grown in approved production sites registered with the NPPO of the exporting country. Initial approval of the production sites will be completed jointly by the exporting country's NPPO and APHIS

7 CFR 319.56-40(b)(4) Quality Control Program (foreign government)

The exporting country’s NPPO must maintain an APHIS-approved quality control program to monitor or audit the trapping program.

Emergency Action Notification (PPQ Form 523) (business)

If a single live plant pest in any stage of development is found, the consignment will be held until an investigation is completed and appropriate remedial actions have been implemented. Inspectors will complete the PPQ form 523 when there is an interception of a pest, and fax the form to the importer for signature and quarantine action.

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 their phytosanitary certificate. However, APHIS is involved with the governmentwide utilization of the International Trade Data System (ITDS) via the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) to improve business operations and further agency missions. This will allow respondents to submit the data required by the United States Customs Border Protection and its Partner Government Agencies (PGAs), such as APHIS to import and export cargo, such as peppers through a Single Window concept.

PPQ Form 523 is used by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to generate records and perform analysis necessary to carry out the program. This may include exporting records or portions of records to the International Trade Data System (ITDS) or the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). The records may be used by designated employees of CBP and/or the State agricultural cooperators for the following purposes:

(a) Generate the Emergency Action Notification (PPQ Form 523) for the purpose of notification of noncompliance and administrative instructions to importers/shippers/property owners at ports of entry or domestic locations regarding available options for safeguarding their shipment/property against an identified agricultural risk.

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 to prevent the introduction of plant pests and plant diseases into the United States, and to prevent the spread of diseases within the United States. The information 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, in connection with this program, is the minimum needed to

protect the United States from insect pests such as the Medfly from entering the United States. APHIS has estimated that 75 percent of the 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.

Failing to collect this information would cripple APHIS’ ability to ensure that peppers from certain Central American countries are not carrying plant pests and would cause a significant and negative economic impact to United States agriculture.

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.

requiring respondents to report informa­tion to the agency more often than quarterly;requiring respondents to report informa­tion to the agency more often than quarterly;

Daily Log
For purposes of security, facility operators must maintain a daily log to record the entry and exit of all persons entering and leaving the facility while quarantine is in progress.  

requiring respondents to prepare a written response to a collection of infor­ma­tion in fewer than 30 days after receipt of it;

Licensees and permittees must immediately, but no later than 2 days, send stop distribution and sale notices to any jobbers, wholesalers, dealers, foreign consignees, or other persons known to have any such veterinary biological product in their possession, which instruct them to stop the preparations, distribution, sale, barter, exchange, shipment, or importation of any such veterinary biological product.  All notification shall be documented in writing by the licensee or permittee.

Shipments of live VHS-regulated fish must be presented for inspection at a port of entry.  For live fish entering through certain limited ports listed in APHIS’ regulations, the importer must notify the APHIS port veterinarian at least 72-hours in advance of the arrival in the United States of the shipment.  This notification is necessary to ensure APHIS is prepared for the arrival of the shipment at the port of entry, to ensure that inspectors and facilities are available for inspection in the United States, and to contact appropriate persons if any questions arise concerning the importation.  This prior notification to the port veterinarian may be made via phone, fax, or e-mail.

requiring respondents to submit more than an original and two copies of any docu­ment;
requiring respondents to retain re­cords, other than health, medical, governm­ent contract, grant-in-aid, or tax records for more than three years;

Testing records to support an aquaculture facility's claim of disease freedom from VHS virus must be maintained for a maximum of 4 years.  This recordkeeping will provide APHIS with historical documentation to determine the risk of spreading VHS from a given facility.  

APHIS is requiring herd owners to maintain their herd records for as long as the herd remains in the CWD program.  This time varies from herd to herd.

in connection with a statisti­cal sur­vey, that is not de­signed to produce valid and reli­able results that can be general­ized to the uni­verse of study;
requiring the use of a statis­tical data classi­fication that has not been re­vie­wed and approved by OMB;
that includes a pledge of confiden­tiali­ty that is not supported by au­thority estab­lished in statute or regu­la­tion, that is not sup­ported by dis­closure and data security policies that are consistent with the pledge, or which unneces­sarily impedes shar­ing of data with other agencies for com­patible confiden­tial use; or
requiring respondents to submit propri­etary trade secret, or other confidential information unless the agency can demon­strate that it has instituted procedures to protect the information's confidentiality to the extent permit­ted by law.

 requiring respondents to report information to the agency more often than quarterly;

 requiring respondents to prepare a written response to a collection of information in fewer than 30 days after receipt of it;

 requiring respondents to submit more than an original and two copies of any document;

 requiring respondents to retain records, other than health, medical, government contract, grant-in-aid, or tax records for more than three years;

 in connection with a statistical survey, that is not designed to produce valid and reliable results that can be generalized to the universe of study;

 requiring the use of a statistical data classification that has not been reviewed and approved by OMB;

 that includes a pledge of confidentiality that is not supported by authority established in statute or regulation, that is not supported by disclosure and data security policies that are consistent with the pledge, or which unnecessarily impedes sharing of data with other agencies for compatible confidential use; or

 requiring respondents to submit proprietary trade secret, or other confidential information unless the agency can demonstrate that it has instituted procedures to protect the information's confidentiality to the extent permitted by law.

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.

APHIS held productive consultations with the following individuals concerning the information collection activities associated with its program to import peppers from Central American countries:

Anita Kaial Avenida Reforma 7-01, Zona 10
Guatemala City, Guatemala 01010Physical Location:
Avenida Reforma 7-01, Zona 10
Guatemala City, Guatemala 01010

Agricultural attache

United States Embassy-Costa Rica

Calle 98 Vía 104,

Pavas, San José, Costa Rica

William Rowland

United States Embassy, Honduras

Avenida La Paz
Tegucigalpa M.D.C.
Honduras
Phone: (504) 2236-9320

Charisse Phillips

Director of Mission

U.S. Embassy Guatemala City
Avenida Reforma 7-01, Zona 10
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Phone: (502) 2326-4000

On Thursday, July 26, 2018, page 35455, APHIS published in the Federal Register, a 60-day notice seeking public comments on its plans to request a 3-year renewal of this collection of information. No comments from the public were received.

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 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.

(SORN) APHIS-10: APHIS Comprehensive Electronic Permitting System (ePermits)

FR Doc E8-9407[Federal Register: April 30, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 84)]

No additional assurance of confidentiality is provided with this information collection. Any and all information obtained in this collection shall not be disclosed except in accordance with

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.

Respondents are growers and shippers from Central America, and the National Plant Protection Organization. The total burden costs to the respondents is $73,702.00. APHIS arrived at this figure by multiplying the total hours (4,285) by the estimated average hourly wage ($17.20) of the above respondents. 4,285 x $17.20 = $73,702.00

Information regarding average salary wage for Central American workers was provided by APHIS’ International Services liaisons via plant protection officials in Central America.

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 $98,717.00 (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.

ICR Summary of Burden:

	Requested	Program Change Due to New Statute	Program Change Due to Agency Discretion	Change Due to Adjustment in Agency Estimate	Change Due to Potential Violation of the PRA	Previously Approved
Annual Number of Responses	791,479	0	1	0	0	791,478
Annual Time Burden (Hr)	4,285	0	-269	0	0	4,554
Annual Cost Burden ($)	0	0	0	0	0	0

Overall there is an increase of 1 response and decrease of 269 total burden hours due to program changes under Agency discretion.

These program changes are due to the emergency action notifications (PPQ form 523) being added to this renewal, as it was erroneously left off the previous submission. The foreign government respondent for production site registrations was also erroneously left off the previous submission, which has also been added. The previous submission also included a miscalculation of the length of time to complete phytosanitary certificates, which has been corrected.

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.

The PPQ Form 523 is used in multiple information collections; therefore, it is not practical to include an OMB expiration date because of the various expiration dates for each collection. APHIS is seeking approval to not display the OMB expiration date on this form.

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.