The Twelfth Session of the Commission of Phytosanitary Measures Ceremoniously Opened in Incheon the Republic of Korea

The twelfth Session of the Commission of Phytosanitary Measures (CPM 12) was ceremoniously opened at the Songdo Convensia, Incheon, the Republic of Korea, in the afternoon of 5 April 2017. This is the first CPM that is held outside of Rome in the IPPC history. The opening ceremony was attended by Mr. Jae-soo Kim (Minister of MAFRA of the Republic of Korea), Ms. Kundhavi Kadiresan (Assistant Director General of RAP-FAO), Mr. Kunio Mikuriya (Secretary General of the World Customs Organization, WCO), Mr. Jeong-Bok Yoo (Mayor of Incheon City), Mr. Bong-kyun Park (Commissioner of Animal and Plant Quarantine and Inspection, APQI), Ms. Lois Ransom (CPM Chair), and Mr. Jingyuan Xia (IPPC Secretary).

The opening ceremony was moderated by Ms. Kyu-Ock Yim (former CPM chairperson and current Bureau member from the Republic of Korea), with over 250 participants from 126 national plant protection organizations (NPPOs), 9 regional plant protection organizations (RPPOs), and more than 20 relevant international and regional organizations.

In her opening remarks, the FAO ADG Kadiresan recalled the importance of CPM deliberations and the IPPC mandate, and explained that the FAO vision of a hunger-free world can only be accomplished with healthy plants that are free of pests. In his welcome address, the Korean Minister Kim ensured Korea s full support to calls for increased efforts for plant protection in the increasing agriculture trade leading to increased pest risks.

Following brief introductory remarks on the IPPC annual theme for 2017 Plant Health and Trade Facilitation by IPPC Secretary Xia, the WCO SG Mikuriya presented a keynote speech on 2017 IPPC theme. Mr. Mikuriya stated that WCO and IPPC are similarly involved in standard setting, implementation and information exchange activities. He further highlighted that border agency cooperation is one of the key commitments of the recently ratified Trade Facilitation Agreement of the WTO, and that IPPC and WCO can create synergies especially in the area of data exchange and the increasing use of single window systems around the world.

Links:

• The video recording of the CPM-12 opening session can be found here.

• CPM-12 papers available here.

• CPM-12 Twitter story available here.

• CPM-12 news on WCO website here.

• CPM 12 news on CABI blog here.