(

a) The Director of Pesticide Regulation, upon the director’s initiative, or upon receipt of a request pursuant to this division for the release of data submitted and designated as a trade secret by a registrant or applicant, shall determine whether any or all of the data so submitted is a properly designated trade secret. In order to assure that the interested public has an opportunity to obtain and review pesticide safety and efficacy data and to comment before the expiration of the public comment period on a proposed pesticide registration, the director shall provide notice to interested persons when an application for registration enters the registration evaluation process. (

b) If the director determines that the data is not a trade secret, the director shall notify the registrant or applicant by certified mail. (

c) The registrant or applicant shall have days after receipt of this notification to provide the director with a complete justification and statement of the grounds on which the trade secret privilege is claimed. This justification and statement shall be submitted by certified mail. (

d) The director shall determine whether the data is protected as a trade secret within days after receipt of the justification and statement or, if no justification and statement is filed, within days of the original notice. The director shall notify the registrant or applicant and any party who has requested the data pursuant to this division of that determination by certified mail. If the director determines that the data is not protected as a trade secret, the final notice shall also specify a date, not sooner than days after the date of mailing of the final notice, when the data shall be available to any person requesting information pursuant to

Section 7924.300. (

e) This

article does not prohibit any person from maintaining a civil action for wrongful disclosure of a trade secret. (f) “Trade secret” means data that is nondisclosable under

Section 10(d)(1) of the federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. Sec. 136h(d)(1)).