USA cancels non-payment pesticide approvals

According to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)’s requirement, U.S. EPA will cancel 204 pesticide registrations because annual registration maintenance fees were unpaid due by January 15, 2012. FIFRA requires that all pesticide registrants pay an annual registration maintenance fee, due by January 15 of each year, to keep their registrations in effect. This requirement applies to all registrations granted under FIFRA section 3 as well as those granted under FIFRA section 24(c) to meet special local needs. Registrations for which the fee is not paid are subject to cancellation by order and without a hearing.

Maintenance fees have been paid for about 15,420 FIFRA section 3 registrations, or about 96% of the registrations on file in December 2011. Fees have been paid for about 2,028 FIFRA section 24(c) registrations, or about 88% of the total on file in December 2011. Cancellations for non-payment of the maintenance fee affect about 182 FIFRA section 3 registrations and about 22 FIFRA section 24(c) registrations.

The cancellation orders generally permit registrants to continue to sell and distribute existing stocks of the canceled products until January 15, 2013, one year after the date on which the fee was due. Existing stocks already in the hands of dealers or users, however, can generally be distributed, sold, or used legally until they are exhausted. Existing stocks are defined as those stocks of a registered pesticide product which are currently in the United States and which have been packaged, labeled, and released for shipment prior to the effective date of the cancellation order.