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Zealand into the United Sutes, APHIS asked the Forest Service to conduct two more pest 

 risk assessments. APHIS used these risk assessments to develop mitigation measures to 

 minimize the potential for plant pest introduction in the United States. Since then, we have 

 published interim rules that provide for the safe importation of Monterey pine logs from 

 Chile and Monterey pine and Douglas fir logs from New Zealand. 



During the course of these actions, it became apparent that it was necessary to 

 develop comprehensive regulations to govern the importation of timber and timber products 

 on a worldwide basis. Therefore, on January 20, 1994, APHIS published a proposed rule in 

 the Federal Register that would establish general guidelines for the importation of logs, 

 lumber and other unmanufactured wood products. Under these guidelines, importers would 

 be able to import logs from any country under universal treatment requirements that include 

 debarking and heat treatment. If an importer finds meeting these universal requirements 

 commercially impractical, the importer can request that a risk assessment be conducted for a 

 specific product. In this case, other treatment alternatives may be approved. The proposed 

 rule would also incorporate two previous interim rules that establish specific treatment 

 requirements for certain logs from New Zealand and Chile. In the proposed rule, we 

 solicited public comment and have received about 80 written comments. We are still in the 

 midst of the administrative rulemaking process, so I am not at liberty to discuss any final 

 action at this time. However, I assure you that every comment we received dtiring the 

 comment period in response to the proposed rule will be considered and addressed in our 

 final rule. 



