Establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 was heralded as providing a new era in trade liberalisation. While trade in agricultural commodities has expanded, the obligations imposed by the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) has created new difficulties for some developing countries. The difficulty is attributed to these countries having inadequate herbarium collections of plant pests which limits their ability to describe the health of their agricultural and forest industries. The main consequence is that National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) cannot perform robust and credible pest risk analyses, essential in trade negotiations, as there are difficulties in accessing the necessary pest specimens and in obtaining sufficient information about the specimens. While this situation remains, the developing countries of the region will be at a significant disadvantage in negotiating access to new markets for their agricultural commodities.
A study of the insect pest collections and plant disease herbaria in ASEAN countries in 2002 recommended, among other things, support for countries to build pest lists. For countries that lack extensive biological collections needed to underpin trade negotiations, surveillance provides a way of fast-tracking a description of the health status of particular commodities. Host lists for particular pests complement pest lists for particular commodities.
Recognising the deficiencies in their biological collections and the need to fast-track the building of pest / host lists, regional countries are seeking guidance on how to undertake surveillance for plant pests. This project will provide a set of guidelines for plant health scientists planning surveillance programs, and is coordinated by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
The main stages of the project are to develop a detailed table of contents, to have the contents discussed by an expert panel for regional relevance, pitch, scope and comprehensiveness, followed by the coordination of written and photographic contributions by the expert Reference Group and members of the Office of the Chief Plant Protection Office r (OCPPO).
Progress to date:
1. The initial table of contents were developed based on available literature.
2. The proposed contents were then discussed at a workshop attended by a Reference Group. The Reference Group consisted of scientists from the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Fiji, Malaysia and across Australia. Observers from ACIAR and the co-funding body RIRDC also attended. This meeting was held at University House at the Australian National University, Canberra, on the 9th and 10th of November 2004, attended by 44 people. The workshop was highly successful, with relevant presentations and useful feedback and suggested improvements given. For example, it was agreed that the use of case studies were of great interest. Attendees identified relevant categories of surveys that would be most widely relevant and then volunteered to write the studies. Ideas about how the guideline structure and detailed entries might be improved were provided by all.
Following the workshop, the ideas have been collated and worked into a restructured table of contents which was sent electronically to the Reference Group for comments by the end of 2004. The writing is to commence early in 2005.