The Secretary shall require consultation between the Administrator of the Service and the heads of other appropriate agencies and offices of the Department of Agriculture, including the Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, prior to relaxing or removing any restriction on the importation of any agricultural commodity into the United States.
The Secretary shall consult with the United States Trade Representative prior to relaxing or removing any restriction on the importation of any agricultural commodity or a product thereof into the United States.
The Secretary shall monitor the compliance of World Trade Organization member countries with the sanitary and phytosanitary measures of the Agreement on Agriculture of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. If the Secretary has reason to believe that any country may have failed to meet the commitment on sanitary and phytosanitary measures under the Agreement in a manner that adversely impacts the exports of a United States agricultural commodity, the Secretary shall-
(1) provide such information to the United States Trade Representative of the circumstances surrounding the matter arising under this subsection; and
(2) with respect to any such circumstances that the Secretary considers to have a continuing adverse effect on United States agricultural exports, report to the Committee on Agriculture, and the Committee on Ways and Means, of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and the Committee on Finance, of the Senate-
(A) that a country may have failed to meet the sanitary and phytosanitary commitments; and
(B) any notice given by the Secretary to the United States Trade Representative.
(
1996-Subsec. (c).