Letter to the Hon. Sonny Perdue, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Newhouse, Collins Request USDA Conduct Full Risk Analysis of Polish Apple Imports

Letter

Dear Secretary Perdue:

Last year, we along with a number of our colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) Administrator Kevin Shea regarding a proposal to change the U.S. market import requirements for apples from certain countries in the European Union (EU) [Docket No. APHIS-2015-0073]. While we appreciate Administrator Shea's willingness to respond to this issue, our concerns remain over the impact and risk associated with APHIS not conducting a full disease and pest management risk analysis (PRA) for Poland.

As you know, the introduction of a single invasive plant, pest, or disease can have a devastating impact on our domestic tree fruit industry. We feel APHIS' systems approach proposal does not fully address key concerns raised by domestic apple growers about the potential risk from the importation of plant pests and diseases from Poland.

Since Poland has not previously met phytosanitary requirements for U.S. market access, unlike the other seven EU countries under consideration, we still request that APHIS conduct a thorough PRA for Poland prior to determining whether it is appropriate to allow access to Polish imports under this petition.

In addition, on May 11, 2017, you announced intentions to focus your tenure as Secretary on agricultural trade with the reorganization and establishment of the Undersecretary for Trade at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We believe this is a prime opportunity for the new undersecretary to ensure our trading partners that we will continue to honor our commitments and treat our trade partners with the proper and appropriate access.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Source