APEC FSCF Regulatory Cooperation Plan Pesticide MRLs Roadmap

APEC FSCF Regulatory Cooperation Plan Pesticide MRLs Roadmap Megan Crowe U. S. Department of Commerce Administrator, APEC Food Safety Cooperation Forum Partnership Training Institute Network November 6, 2013

FSCF Hunter Valley Statement • “ …better coordination of food safety capacity building activities is crucial to building robust food safety systems, to accelerating progress towards harmonisation of food standards with international standards, and to improving public health and facilitating trade. ”

APEC Regulatory Cooperation Plan • In 2012 APEC Ministers instructed officials to continue implementing the APEC Regulatory Cooperation Plan, which directed APEC fora with regulatory activities to – report on how they are adopting these principles into their work programs – share results of other work to promote trade and innovation consistent with regulatory objectives.

Overview of FSCF Action Plan (endorsed April 2013 in Surabaya) 1) Overall objective 2) Areas of Focus a) Export Certificates b) Pesticide Maximum Residue Limits 3) How the FSCF intends to set and achieve regulatory cooperation goals for priority areas

Overall objective Promote alignment to relevant international standards wherever possible consistent with WTO obligations (the goal to which APEC Ministers agreed in 2011 and reaffirmed in 2012).

Areas of Focus • Export Certificates – Duplicative, redundant, unavailable, and/or unnecessary export certification requirements are trade restrictive. – Past work includes 2 PTIN workshops and a Principles Paper • Pesticide maximum residue limits (MRLs) – Differences in approaches to assessing risk can lead to variability of MRLs among APEC Members – Past work includes FSCF agreement on common approaches agreed to in 2011 at Big Sky.

Process In Surabaya, “lead economies” and “supporting economies and other stakeholders” were identified to form a working group. • Pesticide MRL WG Leads: – Australia and China – Working group Members: • • • United States Chinese Taipei Thailand Grocery Manufacturers Association Wine Regulators Forum

Roadmap • Objective: Outlines a way forward towards regulatory cooperation on MRLs • Develop 2 year plan for greater harmonization of pesticide MRLs between APEC economies, with initial focus on MRLs for pesticides on wine grapes. • Builds on FSCF endorsed paper from 2011: “Recognition of Maximum Residue Limits” – Initial step towards aligning MRL standards with Codex MRL or APEC MRL economy standards.

Proposed draft principles • Participate in development of MRLs in Codex • Incorporate Codex compliant MRLs in domestic legislation • Work share or exchange data to support establishment of pesticide MRLs by member economies, to encourage adoption of Codex MRLs, where no domestic equivalent for member economy • Unilateral recognition, where appropriate, in domestic regulation of specific pesticide/commodity MRLs of trading partners on a case-by-case basis.

Key Milestones • Identify key issues, and consider agreement on the broad principles on harmonization of MRLs within the APEC region, and set priorities for action plan. • Review work by the World Wine Trade Group (WWTG) on pesticide MRLs for wine grapes • Secure FSCF, SCSC and Trade Ministers endorsement for broad principles

Steps • Working groups will meet electronically to continue to advance roadmaps • Report on progress of roadmap during FSCF special session in China’s APEC host year in 2014: endorse broad principles and prioritize work. • Note progress in 2014 Ministers and Leaders Statements

Thank you! For more information please see Fscf-ptin. apec. org