§ 319.56-2r - Administrative instructions governing the entry of apples and pears from certain countries in Europe.

(a) Importations allowed. Pursuant to § 319.56(c), the Administrator has determined that the following fruits may be imported into the United States in accordance with this section and other applicable provisions of this subpart:

(1) Apples from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland;

(2) Pears from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

(b) Trust fund agreement. Except as provided in paragraph (h) of this section, the apples or pears may be imported only if the national plant protection service of the exporting country (referred to in this section as the plant protection service) has entered into a trust fund agreement with Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) for that shipping season. This agreement requires the plant protection service to pay in advance all estimated costs incurred by PPQ in providing the preclearance inspections prescribed in paragraph (d) of this section. These costs will include administrative expenses incurred in conducting the inspection services; and all salaries (including overtime and the federal share of employee benefits), travel expenses (including per diem expenses), and other incidental expenses incurred by the inspectors in performing these services. The agreement requires the plant protection service to deposit a certified or cashier's check with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for the amount of these costs, as estimated by PPQ. If the deposit is not sufficient to meet all costs incurred by PPQ, the agreement further requires the plant protection service to deposit with APHIS a certified or cashier's check for the amount of the remaining costs, as determined by PPQ, before the inspection will be completed.

(c) Responsibilities of the exporting country. The apples or pears may be imported in any single shipping season only if all of the following conditions are met:

(1) Officials of the plant protection service must survey each orchard producing apples or pears for shipment to the United States at least two times between the time of spring blossoming and harvest. If the officials find any leaf mines that suggest the presence of Leucoptera malifoliella in an orchard, the officials must reject any fruit harvested from that orchard during that growing season for shipment to the United States. If the officials find evidence in an orchard of any other plant pest referred to in paragraph (g) of this section, they must ensure that the orchard and all other orchards within 1 kilometer of that orchard will be treated for that pest with a pesticide approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in accordance with label directions and under the direction of the plant protection service. If the officials determine that the treatment program has not been applied as required or is not controlling the plant pest in the orchard, they must reject any fruit harvested from that orchard during that growing season for shipment to the United States.

(2) The apples or pears must be identified with the orchard from which they are harvested (the producing orchard) until the fruit arrives in the United States.

(3) The apples or pears must be processed and inspected in the approved packing sheds as follows:

(i) Upon arrival at the packing shed, the apples or pears must be inspected for insect pests as follows: For each grower lot (all fruit delivered for processing from a single orchard at a given time), packing shed technicians must examine all fruit in one carton on every third pallet (there are approximately 42 cartons to a pallet), or at least 80 apples or pears in every third bin (if the fruit is not in cartons on pallets). If they find any live larva or pupa of Leucoptera malifoliella, they must reject the entire grower lot for shipment to the United States, and the plant protection service must reject for shipment any additional fruit from the producing orchard for the remainder of the shipping season.

(ii) The apples or pears must be sorted, sized, packed, and otherwise handled in the packing sheds on grading and packing lines used solely for fruit intended for shipment to the United States, or, if on grading and packing lines used previously for other fruit, only after the lines have been washed with water.

(iii) During packing operations, apples and pears must be inspected for insect pests as follows: All fruit in each grower lot must be inspected at each of two inspection stations on the packing line by packing shed technicians. In addition, one carton from every pallet in each grower lot must be inspected by officials of the plant protection service. If the inspections reveal any live larva or pupa of Leucoptera malifoliella, the entire grower lot must be rejected for shipment to the United States, and the plant protection service must reject for shipment any additional fruit from the producing orchard for the remainder of that shipping season. If the inspections reveal any other insect pest referred to in paragraph (g) of this section, and a treatment authorized in part 305 of this chapter is available, the fruit will remain eligible for shipment to the United States if the entire grower lot is treated for the pest under the supervision of a PPQ inspector. However, if the entire grower lot is not treated in this manner, or if a plant pest is found for which no treatment authorized in part 305 of this chapter is available, the entire grower lot will be rejected for shipment to the United States.

(4) Apples or pears that pass inspection at approved packing sheds must be presented to PPQ inspectors for preclearance inspection as prescribed in paragraph (d) of this section or for inspection in the United States as prescribed in paragraph (h) of this section.

(5) Apples and pears presented for preclearance inspection must be identified with the packing shed where they were processed, as well as with the producing orchard, and this identity must be maintained until the apples or pears arrive in the United States.

(6) Facilities for the preclearance inspections prescribed in paragraph (d) of this section must be provided in the exporting country at a site acceptable to PPQ.

(7) Any apples or pears rejected for shipment into the United States may not, under any circumstance, be presented again for shipment to the United States.

(d) Preclearance inspection. Preclearance inspection will be conducted in the exporting country by PPQ inspectors. Preclearance inspection will be conducted for a minimum of 6,000 cartons of apples or pears, which may represent multiple grower lots from different packing sheds. The cartons examined during any given preclearance inspection will be known as an inspection unit. Apples or pears in any inspection unit may be shipped to the United States only if the inspection unit passes inspection as follows:

(1) Inspectors will examine, fruit by fruit, a biometrically designed statistical sample of 300 cartons drawn from each inspection unit.

(i) If inspectors find any live larva or pupa of Leucoptera malifoliella, they will reject the entire inspection unit for shipment to the United States. The inspectors also will reject for shipment any additional fruit from the producing orchard for the remainder of the shipping season. However, other orchards represented in the rejected inspection unit will not be affected for the remainder of the shipping season because of that rejection. Additionally, if inspectors reject any three inspection units in a single shipping season because of Leucoptera malifoliella on fruit processed by a single packing shed, no additional fruit from that packing shed will be accepted for shipment to the United States for the remainder of that shipping season.

(ii) If the inspectors find evidence of any other plant pest referred to in paragraph (g) of this section, and a treatment authorized in part 305 of this chapter is available, fruit in the inspection unit will remain eligible for shipment to the United States if the entire inspection unit is treated for the pest under the supervision of a PPQ inspector. However, if the entire inspectional unit is not treated in this manner, or if a plant pest is found for which no treatment authorized in part 305 of this chapter is available, the inspectors will reject the entire inspection unit for shipment to the United States. Rejection of an inspection unit because of pests other than Leucoptera malifoliella will not be cause for rejecting additional fruit from an orchard or packing shed.

(iii) Apples and pears precleared for shipment to the United States as prescribed in this paragraph will not be inspected again in the United States (except as necessary to ensure that the fruit has been precleared) unless the preclearance program with the exporting country is terminated in accordance with paragraph (e) of this section. If the preclearance program is terminated with any country, precleared fruit in transit to the United States at the time of termination will be spot-checked by PPQ inspectors upon arrival in the United States for evidence of plant pests referred to in paragraph (g) of this section. If any live larva or pupa of Leucoptera malifoliella is found in any carton of fruit, inspectors will reject that carton and all other cartons in that shipment that are from the same producing orchard. In addition, the remaining cartons of fruit in that shipment will be reinspected as an inspection unit in accordance with the preclearance procedures prescribed in paragraph (d) of this section.

(e) Termination of preclearance programs. The Administrator may terminate the preclearance program in a country if he determines that any of the conditions specified in paragraph (c) of this section are not met or because of pests found during preclearance inspections. Termination of the preclearance program will stop shipments of apples or pears from that country for the remainder of that shipping season. Termination of the preclearance program for findings of Leucoptera malifoliella in preclearance inspections in any country will be based on rates of rejection of inspection units as follows:

(1) Termination because of findings of Leucoptera malifoliella. The pre-clearance program will be terminated with a country when, in one shipping season, inspection units are rejected because of Leucoptera malifoliella as follows:

(i) 5 inspection units in sequence among inspection units 1-20, or a total of 8 or more of the inspection units 1-20;

(ii) 5 inspection units in sequence among inspection units 21-40, or a total of 10 or more of the inspection units 1-40;

(iii) 5 inspection units in sequence among inspection units 41-60, or a total of 12 or more of the inspection units 1-60;

(iv) 5 inspection units in sequence among inspection units 61-80, or a total of 14 or more of the inspection units 1-80;

(v) 5 inspection units in sequence among inspection units 81-100, or a total of 16 or more of the inspection units 1-100;

(vi) 5 inspection units in sequence among inspection units 101-120, or a total of 18 or more of the inspection units 1-120.

(Sequence can be continued in increments of 20 inspection units by increasing the number of rejected inspection units by 2.)

(2) Termination because of findings of other plant pests. The preclearance program will be terminated with a country when, in one shipping season, inspection units are rejected because of other insect pests as follows:

(i) 10 or more of the inspection units 1-20;

(ii) 15 or more of the inspection units 1-40;

(iii) 20 or more of the inspection units 1-60;

(iv) 25 or more of the inspection units 1-80;

(v) 30 or more of the inspection units 1-100; or

(vi) 35 or more of the inspection units 1-120.

(Sequence can be continued in increments of 20 inspection units by increasing the number of rejected inspection units by 5.)

(f) Cold treatment. In addition to all other requirements of this section, apples or pears may be imported into the United States from France, Italy, Portugal, or Spain only if the fruit is cold treated for the Mediterranean fruit fly in accordance with § 319.56-2d of this subpart.

(g) Plant pests; authorized treatments. (1) Apples from Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and West Germany; and pears from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain may be imported into the United States only if they are found free of the following pests or, if an authorized treatment is available, they are treated for the pest under the supervision of a PPQ inspector: the pear leaf blister moth (Leucoptera malifoliella (O.G. Costa) (Lyonetiidae)), the plum fruit moth (Cydia funebrana (Treitschke) (Tortricidae)), the summer fruit tortrix moth (Adoxophyes orana (Fischer von Rosslertamm) (Tortricidae)), a leaf roller (Argyrotaenia pulchellana (Haworth) (Tortricidae)), and other insect pests that do not exist in the United States or that are not widespread in the United States.

(2) Authorized treatments are listed in part 305 of this chapter.

(h) Inspection in the United States. Notwithstanding provisions to the contrary in paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section, the Administrator may allow apples or pears imported under this section to be inspected at a port of arrival in the United States, in lieu of a preclearance inspection, under the following conditions:

(1) The Administrator has determined that inspection can be accomplished at the port of arrival without increasing the risk of introducing insect pests into the United States;

(2) Each pallet of apples or pears must be completely enclosed in plastic, to prevent the escape of insects, before it is offloaded at the port of arrival;

(3) The entire shipment of apples or pears must be offloaded and moved to an enclosed warehouse, where adequate inspection facilities are available, under the supervision of PPQ inspectors.

(4) The Administrator must determine that a sufficient number of inspectors are available at the port of arrival to perform the services required.

(5) The method of inspection will be the same as prescribed in paragraph (d) of this section for preclearance inspections.