General Guidelines for Risk Analysis Relative to Veterinary Services
Compliance with WTO-SPS Requirements
The low-prevalence benchmark complies with WTO-SPS requirements to recognize
regions of low prevalence. In the case of each benchmark, the effort is to
develop import requirements, on a case-by-case basis, that would reduce risk to
a negligible level, a risk level similar to what might be presented by countries
currently classified as disease-free.
It is APHIS' policy to evaluate requests based on the merits of the individual
situation---and not according to a rigid classification scheme based on the five
benchmarks. All requests from potential reporting regions will be evaluated on
a case-by-case basis and each case will be evaluated based on the merits of the
individual situation. Based on the evaluation, APHIS may develop a proposal
regarding the appropriate import requirements that would be needed to present a
negligible level of risk to the United States. The proposal would be published
in the Federal Register to provide an opportunity for the public to review and
comment on the evaluation and the proposal and to provide any additional relevant
input to APHIS.
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