Nine Standards Adopted and Noted by Consensus at CPM-11

The Eleventh Session of the Commission of Phytosanitary Measures (CPM 11), with the theme Plant Health and Food Security, was successfully held from 4-8 April 2016, in FAO-HQ, Rome, Italy. Nine Standards were adopted and noted by consensus at CPM-11, including: two International Standards on Phytosanitary Measures, two Phytosanitary Treatments, and five Diagnostic Protocols. This is one of the Commission s biggest achievements, as the IPPC is the only international standard setting organization for plant protection. All these standards will soon be available in all FAO languages.

During CPM 11, the IPPC contracting parties also added 3 new topics to the List of topics for IPPC standards and noted the review of 30 standards by Language Review Groups and 198 standards to incorporate ink amendments. CPM-11 also adopted a new Standard Setting Procedure to help ensure inclusiveness and transparency in setting standards, as well as the IPPC Framework for Standards and Implementation, which will support the cooperative work on setting and implementing standards. The CPM 11 discussed the concept of a commodity standard and agreed to Terms of Reference for a working group to further discuss the concept.

The standard setting team organized a very successful special topics session on sea containers, with 8 speakers presenting different views, which was webcast to the world. CPs applauded the efforts of the presenters to provide a global view on this hot topic and decided to put the development of the draft standard on hold, requesting the Bureau to develop complimentary actions.

Over 70 participants attended the side-session on the new Online Comment System (OCS), also available online. The standard setting team showcased the new technology for gathering comments on standards and other IPPC documents, and CPs congratulated the secretariat on a fantastic side session.

In addition, broad coverage of standard setting activities and specifically on the sea containers topic was granted through webcasting and photo shooting, and through one FAO news item, one radio and two video interviews provided by the IPPC standard setting team.