March 10th deadline to comment on new USDA import regs.

JLHudson La Honda, CA Mar 09, 2005

I hope no one minds that I'm cross-posting with the "International Trading" forum, but though you folks would like to know about this issue. I've been following this for a while - it will have very serious ramifications for people in the US, and is expected to be a model for other countries. Essentially, it will create a "clean list" (or "white list") of species that can enter the US, and everything that is not permitted will require "risk assessment" before being allowed. Very, very bad...

Note that the deadline to comment is March 10th.

Here are links to pages I've created, and mirror pages:

Extracts of the proposal, with commentary:

http://www.geocities.com/nowhitelist/Docket_Extract.htm

or: http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/USDADocketNo03-069-1.htm

Full text of the proposal, with parts highlighted in red (yes, its a gruesome amount of bureaucratese to wade through. but the highlighting should help):

http://www.geocities.com/nowhitelist/Docket_No._03-069-1.htm

or: http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/DocketNo03-069-1.htm

And my own comments to the USDA:

http://www.geocities.com/nowhitelist/Comments.htm

or: http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/Comments.htm

I hope folks who are interested in keeping their freedom to trade seeds with other countries will comment. Although this is only about imports at this time, the USDA has stated its intention to apply a similar system within the US to cover interstate movement.

Thanks!