Standards Committee: progressing the development of standards

The 28th IPPC Standards Committee (SC) convened from 9 to 13 May at FAO-HQ in Rome. The meeting was chaired by Mr Jan Bart Rossel (Australia) and attended by 20 out of 25 SC members and 4 observers. Key discussions included: the review and approval of ISPMs for country consultation, considering the reorganization of the suite of fruit fly standards, oversight of the work of the Technical Panels, and discussions on how to enhance the interactions between standard setting and implementation facilitation units.

Four draft ISPMs were approved for consultation: the draft standards on surveillance, temperature treatments requirements, the amendments to the Glossary and the International movement of wood.

All consultations on draft ISPMs this year will be conducted through the new Online Comment System (from 1 July to 30 September 2016), available at https://ocs-new.ippc.int/. Comments will also be requested on implementation issues for all standards that are submitted for country consultation.

The rationale and impact of the options for the reorganization of the suite of fruit fly standards will be presented to CPM-12 (2017) for their consideration. The SC requested the Secretariat to discuss the best approach for developing a Guide for implementing fruit fly ISPMs together with the Joint FAO/IAEA Division after CPM s decision on the reorganization of the suite of fruit fly standards.

The SC encouraged the Secretariat to investigate a searchable database on phytosanitary treatments that would include both adopted IPPC phytosanitary treatments and treatments posted on the Phytosanitary Resources website. The SC also agreed to explore the concept of a Certificate of Compliance that could be used to certify products against established requirements, a small SC group will draft a proposal to conduct an Implementation Review and Support System (IRSS) study to gather input from contracting parties on their views on the use of such a tool. This small SC group will also prepare a proposal for an IRSS survey on commodity standards, the outcomes of which would help the SC determine the criteria for this type of topic.

The SC report will soon be available at the following link: https://www.ippc.int/en/core-activities/standards-setting/standards-committee/