23 



sor would be looked on to provide information and records that 

 would demonstrate that the products that they were importing 

 come from certified waters consistent with the standards that are 

 in place in the United States. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. But the foreign country would not have that re- 

 sponsibility. 



Mr. Billy. Well, the foreign country could be the means by 

 which that certification process occurs, and we would be, as we are 

 now, seeking on a voluntary basis agreements with countries that 

 are prepared to operate water quality monitoring and certification 

 systems equivalent to those in the United States. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. Voluntary agreements would make me very 

 uneasy when we are talking about enforcement of water quality in 

 other nations, particularly when you may have within the adminis- 

 tration points of view that are extremely unwilling to put trade re- 

 strictions or what appears to be trade restrictions on other coun- 

 tries. Don't you think that would make it less likely that you would 

 put teeth in enforcement without a statutory provision? 



Mr. Billy. What we do now for those cooperative agreements is 

 verify that, in fact, the countries are following the requirements as 

 spelled out under the National Shellfish Sanitation Program. We 

 verify that through periodic inspections of their programs in their 

 countries. 



At the outset before we will sign an agreement, we determine 

 that, in fact, they have both the capacity and the program in place 

 to handle the harvesting and processing of safe shellfish and then 

 we periodically audit that program by visiting there and checking 

 their system. We verify that their laboratories are still competent 

 to do the necessary analysis, and we also monitor the products as 

 they come into the United States. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. How frequently is that done and what would be 

 the means by which the United States would shut off the importa- 

 tion of that shellfish? 



Mr. Billy. Currently we monitor foreign country programs be- 

 tween — once every year to once every three years. 



Mrs. Unsoeld. My time has run out, Mr. Chairman, and I will 

 wait and come back to it after, but don't forget where we are, Mr. 

 Billy. I will return to that. 



Mr. Manton. The Chair recognizes Mr. Hamburg from the State 

 of California. 



Mr. Hamburg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, just a couple of ques- 

 tions. These are actually for anybody that can shed some light. I 

 would like to know first how extensive contamination of seafood is 

 that is caused by toxics, heavy metals, PCBs, pesticides. Is that a 

 problem that we should be very concerned about, and I would like 

 to know what is being done to alleviate whatever problems we do 

 have? 



Mr. Billy. I can take the first shot at that. We work cooperative- 

 ly with the Environmental Protection Agency in monitoring chemi- 

 cal contamination of the marine environment. Based on the nioni- 

 toring programs that are in place, what we find basically is where 

 extensive chemical contamination from PCBs or other types of con- 

 taminants tend to be localized and associated with certain types ot 

 industries that manufacture those compounds or use them in some 



