WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/482 
30 March 2004 
 (04-1427) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
 
WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL PLANT  PROTECTION CONVENTION (IPPC) 
 
Statement by the Secretariat of the IPPC at the Meeting of 17-18 March 2004
 
 
 
 This report outlines the main developments which have taken place since the last SPS 
Committee in October 2003.  
Standard Setting 
 Draft standards
 
 
1. Work is currently continuing on 14 draft Intern ational Standards for Phytosanitary Measures 
(ISPMs). 
2. Since the last SPS Commi ttee in October 2003, seven Expert  Working Groups have met to 
develop or revise the following ISPMs: 
- Revision of ISPM No. 1 ( Principles of Plant Quarantine as Related to International Trade ).  This 
standard was originally approved in 1993.  The re vision was undertaken to align it with the IPPC 
which was adopted in 1997, and also to take acc ount of the SPS Agreement which came into force 
two years after the standard was originally approved; 
- Revision of ISPM No. 2 ( Guidelines for Pest Risk Analysis ).  The first version of this standard 
was approved in 1995, before the adoption of the IPPC and before many National Plant Protection 
Organizations had experience with pest risk anal ysis.  It is now revised to provide general 
guidelines for pest risk analysis for all phytosanitary purposes; 
- Revision of ISPM No. 3 ( Code of Conduct for the Import and Release of Exotic Biological 
Control Agents ); 
- Revision of ISPM No. 5 ( Glossary of Phytosanitary Terms ); 
- Draft standard on requirements for the establishm ent, maintenance and verification of areas of 
low pest prevalence; 
- Draft standard on inspection methodology; - Draft standard on phytosanitary guidelines for transit. 
 
3. Most of these drafts will be presented to the St andards Committee at the end of April, with 
the aim of sending them for country consultation this year. 
4. E-mail discussions have also been held on some new and existing drafts:  Equivalence , 
Efficacy of Measures , Use of Integrated Measures in a Syst ems Approach for Pest Risk Management 
of Citrus Fruit for Citrus Canker  and Guidelines for Formatting Specific Diagnostic Protocols for 
Regulated Pests . 
5. In November 2003, the Standards Committee reviewed comments received during country 
consultation on three draft ISPMs:  Guidelines for a Phytosanitary Import Regulatory System;  Pest G/SPS/GEN/482 
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 Risk Analysis for Regulated Non-quarantine Pests;  and Supplement to ISPM No. 11 ( Pest Risk 
Analysis for Quarantine Pests ) on Pest Risk Analysis for Living Modified Organisms .  Over 300 
separate comments were received on each draft stan dard, from 24 individual countries, the European 
Communities and its members States, and one Re gional Plant Protection Organization (RPPO).  
Comments arising from four IPPC Regional Workshops on draft ISPMs were also considered 
(attended by 62 countries from Asia/P acific, Near East, Latin Ameri ca/Carribean and French-speaking 
Africa, some of them having sent individual nationa l comments after the workshops).  The Standards 
Committee modified the drafts, which will be presen ted to the Interim Commission for Phytosanitary 
Measures (ICPM) for approval at the end of this month.  
Other issues
 
 
6. In February, the International Forestry Quar antine Research Group met in Rome.  It is 
currently developing a process to review and accep t treatment methods in relation with ISPM No. 15 
on Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade .  A proposal will be 
made to the ICPM when a proposal has been finalized. 
7. All FAO languages of the following standards are now available in green book form or on the 
International Phytosanitary Portal (IPP - www.ippc.int): 
- ISPM No. 11 Rev. 1:  Pest Risk Analysis  for Quarantine Pests including Analysis of 
Environmental Risks  
- ISPM No. 15:  Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade  
- ISPM No. 18:  Guidelines for the Use of  Irradiation as a Phytosanitary Measure  
- ISPM No. 19:  Guidelines on Lists of Regulated Pests   8. In addition, Spanish versions of ISPMs No. 14 to 19 have been published on the IPP and are 
being printed.  
9. The Standards Committee also started discussing the possible publication of all ISPMs in a 
book format and further analysis w ill be made in the coming months. 
 
Information Exchange  
 
10. The development of the International Phytosanita ry Portal (IPP) is continuing in order to 
provide the structure for countries to fulfil their reporting obligations under the IPPC.  The IPPC is 
also taking an active part in the International Portal on Food Safety Animal and Plant Health 
(IPFSAPH) , which is a joint undertaking among standard-se tting organizations and WTO.  In January, 
a Support Group met in Rome to review the IPP and ta ke decisions with regard to the improvement of 
its structure and content.  The IPP will be gr eatly modified and improved in the coming months, 
mostly in relation to data entry by National Pl ant Protection Organizations (NPPOs).  A capacity-
building programme will later be implemented in the form of regional workshops to ensure that 
members have the capability and traini ng to exchange official information through the IPP in order to 
meet their obligations under the IPPC.   
Technical Assistance 
 
11. Capacity-building projects are continuing in many countries and regions through the FAO 
Technical Cooperation Programme, and the IPPC Secretariat has currently two staff members 
working in this area.  There are over 20 projects running, at national or regional scale, involving more than 40 countries, and new requests are regularly received.  G/SPS/GEN/482 
 Page 3 
 
 
 12. During 2003, regional workshops were conducte d to promote understanding and application 
of the Phytosanitary Capacity Evaluation Tool (PCE ), and the PCE has been applied in a supervised 
manner in over 30 countries.  The revised PCE has been produced as a CD-Rom and can also be 
downloaded from the IPP.  It will assist countries in undertaking an assessment of the phytosanitary 
system of the National Plant Protection Organization,  and will serve as a diagnostic tool for the NPPO 
to gauge the capacity gap between the current situa tion and what is needed to meet the requirements 
of international standards.  
13. In the area of information exchange, it is envisaged that the programme should include 
capacity-building actions in the form of regional workshops, in order to ensure that members can fulfill their IPPC reporting obligations using the International Phytosanitary Portal.  
14. Regarding standard setting, the ICPM will pr opose that Regional Workshops on draft ISPMs, 
which allow countries to take part in the standard -setting process by commenting on draft standards, 
should be pursued. 
 
ICPM  
 
15. The ICPM will be meeting in two weeks time, from the 29 March to 2 April in Rome.  It will 
discuss the annual IPPC activities, including issu es such as improvement of the standard-setting 
process, and future programmes on standard-setting, technical assistance and information exchange.  
The documents for that meeting are now available on the IPP ( www.ippc.int
) in all FAO languages. 
 
Special trust fund  
 
16. A special trust fund has been put in place for the exclusive use to the direct benefit of 
developing countries.  It will be used to facilitate  their participation and involvement in all IPPC 
activities, including in the ICPM, in Regional Work shops on draft ISPMs, in Expert Working Groups, 
and also in phytosanitary capacity-building and in formation exchange.  C ontributions have been 
received from New Zealand and from the Canadian International Development Agency.  The ICPM will make decisions on expenditures from the trust fund.  The special trust fund will be an essential 
element to support and improve the pa rticipation of developing countries. 
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