Close Cooperation of the IPPC with Canada in the Phytosanitary Areas

A bilateral meeting between the IPPC Secretariat and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) was held at the Oakwood Hotel in Incheon, Republic of Korea, on 3 April 2017 just before the CPM 12. The delegation of the IPPC, led by Mr. Jingyuan Xia (IPPC Secretary), was composed of Mr. Craig Fedchock (IPPC Advisor), Mr. Brent Larson (Lead of SSU), Mr. Orlando Sosa (Lead of IFU), Mr. Shane Sela (ePhyto Project Manager), and Mr. Marko Benovic (Executive Officer). The Canadian delegation, headed by Ms. Darlene Blair (Chief Plant Health Officer), also included Ms. Marie-Claude Forest (National Manager of Standard Setting), Ms. Reem Barakat (Deputy Director), and Mr. Dominique Pelletier (Senior Policy Analyst). The main objective of the meeting was to discuss possible funding from Canada for further support of the IPPC work programme.

Mr. Xia expressed his sincere appreciation to the Canadian government for its continuous and generous support of IPPC activities, both for the IPPC multi-donor trust fund (MDTF) and IPPC In-kind contributions. He especially expressed his gratitude to Canada for providing Mr. Sela to assist with the ePhyto Project. He noted his excellent performance as the ePhyto manager. Ms. Blair stressed that the Canadian government pays a great deal of attention to cooperation with the IPPC, as one of the Three sisters in agriculture. She stated that in addition to support of the IPPC with the In-kind contribution in 2016, and MDTF for 2017, the Canadian government will look into further support of IPPC in 2017/2018.

Based on the conversation, Mr. Xia and Ms. Blair agreed to cooperate further on ePhyto, standard setting, emergent pest issue, and the Implementation Review and Support System (IRSS).