SSPeppers from Republic of Korea 0282

Supporting Statement

Importation of Peppers from the Republic of Korea

OMB NO: 0579-0282

A. JUSTIFICATION March 2012

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 (USDA) 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 (CFR) 319.56 though 319.56-50, 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 with the United States.

APHIS’ fruits and vegetables regulations allow for the importation of peppers from the Republic of Korea under certain conditions into the continental United States. As a condition of entry, the peppers must be grown in approved insect-proof, pest-free greenhouses and packed in pest-exclusionary packinghouses.

This collection allows for the importation of peppers from the Republic of Korea into the continental United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantined pests.

APHIS is asking the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve, for 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 activity to allow the importation of peppers, from the Republic of Korea, into the United States under the conditions they would be grown in approved insect-proof, pest-free greenhouses, and packed in pest-exclusionary packinghouses.

Phytosanitary Certificate (foreign) with Declaration

Each consignment of peppers must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate of inspection issued by the National Plant Quarantine Service (NPQS) bearing the following additional declaration: “These peppers were grown in greenhouses in accordance with the conditions in

7 CFR 319.56–42 and were inspected and found free from Agrotis segetum, Helicoverpa armigera, Helicoverpa assulta, Mamestra brassicae, Monilinia fructigena, Ostrinia furnacalis, Scirtothrips dorsalis, Spodoptera litura, and Thrips palmi. ”

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 the phytosanitary certificate.

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 entry of injurious plant pests, diseases, and noxious weeds 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 in connection with its program is the minimum needed to

protect the United States from plant pests and diseases from entering the United States. APHIS has determined that the current respondent is a small entity.

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 Korea are not carrying plant pests and would cause millions of dollars in damage 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 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.

In 2011, APHIS held productive consultations with the following individuals concerning the information collection activities associated with its program to import peppers from the Republic of Korea:

Agrexco USA LTD

Attn: Yoram Shaley, President

15012 132^nd Avenue

NewYork, NY 11434-3596

Phone: 718- 481-8700

yorams@agrexco.com

Village Farms Greenhouses

Attn: Douglas Kling, Senior Vice President

Executive Office

7 Christopher Way

Eatontown, NJ 07724

Phone: 732-676-3008

www.Villagefarms.com

United Fresh Produce

Robert Guenther, Senior Vice President

for Public Policy

1901 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20006

Phone: 202-303-3400

united@unitedfresh.org

On Thursday, October 20, 2011, pages 65162-65163, 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 (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. 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 the NPQS of Korea. The total hour burden hours to the respondent are 3. The hourly salary is based on the Korean National Statistical Office (28) located at: www.worldsalaries.org/korea.

APHIS arrived at this figure by multiplying the total hours by the estimated average hourly wage of the above respondents. 3 x $10.83 = $32.49

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 $53.00. (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	5	0	0	-603	0	608
Annual Time Burden (Hr)	3	0	0	-305	0	308
Annual Cost Burden ($)	0	0	0	0	0	0

There is program change of -603 annual responses and -305 burden hours due to the previous program specialist estimating the number of responses per respondent as 600 which was much too high. The current responses per respondent are 5; this is a more realistic figure that has been verified by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

Also, inspections which were previously accounted for as a separate item of 8 hours burden have been removed from this submission because they should have been accounted for under the requirement for phytosanitary certificate of inspection with declaration, not as a separate item.

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

APHIS has no plans to publish any data with this information collection.

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 used 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.