Lesson 6: Updating Existing Market Access Requirements
Topic 1: New Pests, New Treatments, and Other Reasons for Updating
In this topic, you’ll learn about reasons you might need to update market access requirements.
Objective:
- Identify the four most common reasons why existing market access requirements might need to be updated after they are initially established
The most obvious reason to update sanitary and phytosanitary measures is that they are not adequately protecting the importing country from pests. A systems approach may set a goal of completely excluding a pest from imported fruit, but inspection at the port of entry may then reveal that the fruit is infested with the pests targeted by the systems approach. Likewise, a country certifies that its animals are free of a disease, but later outbreaks are traced back to the imported animals. When this happens, APHIS will notify the exporting country, in accordance with the IPPC and OIE guidelines, and take emergency action to further restrict or prohibit imports until the source of risk can be identified and addressed.
Even when a program is working properly, it can be necessary to update sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions. Three major categories can lead to such changes: the pests present in a country, the measures available to mitigate the relevant pests, and the quarantine pest status of a pest.
Pests often spread from country to country, and new pests emerge frequently as well. When this happens, the pests associated with a commodity that is currently authorized for importation from a country may change. For example, in recent years, the tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta, has emerged as a major pest of tomatoes and of other commodities in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. APHIS has had existing programs in place for the importation of tomatoes from, among other places, Spain, France, Morocco, Western Sahara, and the countries in the Economic Community of West African States, but these programs have focused on the risk associated with fruit flies. In order to ensure that T. absoluta is not introduced into the United States through the importation of tomatoes from those countries, additional measures need to be put in place.
A country may also eradicate a pest or limit it to a certain area within the country, which means that some restrictions on imports from that country or area might no longer be justified. On the animal health side, APHIS maintains restrictions that apply to all countries where FMD is considered to exist. When APHIS determines that a country or an area within the country is FMD-free, many restrictions on the importation of ruminants and their products from those countries are lifted. With respect to plant pests, Chile was declared to be free of the Mediterranean fruit fly in 2010 after a lengthy eradication effort by Chile’s NPPO. As a result, APHIS removed all Medfly-related restrictions on the importation of fruits and vegetables from Chile.
New measures can also become available to mitigate pests for which current measures exist. Research in phytosanitary treatments can reveal new ways to treat pests; for example, the hot-water dip treatment for fruit flies in mangoes from Mexico and South America, in which the fruits are held in hot water for a specified length of time, originated as an alternative to ethylene dibromide fumigation. Research can also reveal that existing treatments can be less stringent. In 2006, APHIS reduced the required minimum absorbed-radiation dose for several fruit flies, based on scientific evidence. While this did not remove the requirement for irradiation treatment for affected commodities, it made it easier and potentially more cost-effective to administer the treatment.
APHIS regulations for the movement of live animals often require the use of specific tests to determine whether the animals are infected with a disease. If a new test becomes available, it might be necessary to update the regulations to provide for the use of that test, especially if the new test is cheaper, faster, or more accurate. For example, APHIS regularly updates its regulations for the interstate movement of cattle with new tests for tuberculosis; the use of those tests is required for importation as well.
Sometimes, APHIS determines that a plant pest should no longer be considered a quarantine pest. You might recall that a quarantine pest, according to the IPPC, is “a pest of potential economic importance to the area endangered thereby and not yet present there, or present but not widely distributed and being officially controlled.” APHIS may begin an official control program for a pest and then find that the pest is too widespread to meaningfully control it, or an introduction of a pest might demonstrate that it is not actually of economic importance to the United States. In 2012, APHIS removed several pests from its list of quarantine pests after conducting a review, and APHIS expects to do this more in the future. The removal of these pests from the list of quarantine pests removed the restrictions that had gone along with the importation of plants and plant products that could be infested with these pests.
Changing business practices or other circumstances might also make a requirement difficult to fulfill. A treatment facility in an exporting country might close for lack of business, or rising labor costs might make it uneconomical for producers to invest labor in fulfilling the requirements of a systems approach. Requirements might also become unnecessary due to business practices. For example, if a commercial producer decides to grow bananas in pesticide-impregnated bags as a quality measure, some phytosanitary measures designed to prevent infestation of bananas on the plant might become unnecessary.
In this topic, you learned about reasons you might need to update market access requirements.
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