The Eleventh Session of the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures successfully held in Rome

The Eleventh Session of the Commission of Phytosanitary Measures (CPM 11) was successfully held from 4-8 April 2016, in FAO-HQ, Rome, Italy. The CPM 11 was the first meeting for the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) towards next five years (2016-2020). The theme for the CPM 11 was Plant Health and Food Security. Mr Daniel Gustafson, Deputy Director General of FAO for Operations, delivered the opening remarks, noting the importance of the IPPC to the promotion of global-concerned issues on food security, trade facilitation, and environment protection. Mr Jingyuan Xia, the Secretary to the IPPC, made a presentation on the IPPC towards 2020; and Prof. Rudy Rabbinge from the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands, presented the first keynote address for CPM on Plant Health and Food Security. The meeting was chaired by Ms Kyu-Ock Yim, the Chair of the CPM, and attended by over 360 participants from 136 countries (123 countries with credentials), 12 International Organizations and four Non-Governmental Organizations.

The CPM 11 completed 18 scheduled agenda items, undertook one pre-CPM 11 training on capacity development, organized seven side-events, and held five focus (small) group meetings. Ten key achievements were achieved at CPM 11:

1) approval of five IPPC annual themes towards 2020 (2016-2020), each year with a specified theme; 2) adoption of nine new international standards (two International Standards on Phytosanitary Measures, two Phytosanitary Treatments, and five Diagnostic Protocols; 3) support for the implementation of the ePhyto pilot project from STDF; 4) establishment of the IPPC Steering Committee for the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH) in 2020; 5) creation of three Focus (small) Groups for important issues on the oversight of the Implementation and Capacity Development Committee (ICDC), on surveillance pilot project, and on standard setting process; 6) organization of a Special Topic Session on phytosanitary risks and sea containers; 7) discussion on the concept of commodity standards; 8) strengthening of cooperation between the standard setting and implementation; 9) renewal of efforts to address sustainable resource support for the IPPC towards 2020 and beyond to 2030; 10) conduct of the second IPPC photo-contest on the Shocking Impacts of Pests.

The CPM 11 decided that the Twelfth Session of CPM (CMP 12), with the theme Plant Health and Trade Facilitation, will be held from 5-11 April 2017 in Incheon, Republic of Korea. This will be the first time that the CPM will be held outside Rome. In his concluding remarks, the IPPC Secretary Xia urged the whole IPPC Community to attend CPM 12, and to plan well ahead to ensure that all preparations for CPM 12 are timely and sufficient for its success.