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This paper was presented at the “Standards and Priorities For Developing Pest Lists In Countries Of South East Asia” workshop , Kuala Lumpur, December 2003.

Role of various ASEAN Plant Health Organizations Including

the ASWGC and EWGSPS Efforts to Build Regional Pest Lists

in ASEAN 1/

Somchai Charnnarongkul 2/


The economics of South East Asia have requested assistance to build pest lists to underpin negotiations for expanding trade in Agricultural commodities. In the meantime ASEAN members need to develop pest lists showing the distribution of pests in different production areas to grain access to markets for their agricultural commodities. The information contained in pest lists is a critical short-term solution to the problem of undertaking pest risk analysis to support negotiations for international trade in agricultural commodities. Many countries have experienced problems in gaining market access for commodities because of pest reports that were incorrect. Although pest lists based on records need to be carefully guarded to ensure that there are not used to impede trade. The specimens and associated information can be validated or re-examined to verify the record. While the well-populated collections contain multiple specimens from many production areas and hosts, providing opportunities to determine the distribution of pest and establish pest free areas. National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) are now building pest lists through targeted survey across many production areas and loading specimens in well-maintained plant disease herbaria and arthropod pest collections to support the plant health status of selected commodities. Most member countries did not have comprehensive endemic pest lists due to lack of information on the specimens, lack of experience and knowledge of how to undertake surveys to build pest lists and lack of experience in managing data and sensitivities related to the reliability of information held by various countries in the region. The development of endemic pest lists is important for determining the quarantine status of pests and the current endemic pest lists of Member countries needs to be updated and validated.

The concept of harmonizing pest lists was the subject of discussion at a meeting of the Expert Working Group on Harmonization of Phytosanitary Measures in ASEAN held in conjunction with the Ninth ASEAN Sectoral Working Group on Crops, 11-13 April 2002, in Hanoi, Vietnam. Delegates recommended that a workshop be held to consider and plan a work program to address requested from regional economic for assistance in developing pest lists and assistance in harmonizing pest lists across ASEAN. The effort to harmonize SPS measures in ASEAN is therefore an important element in the facilitation measures to support further expansion of intra – ASEAN trade. While the harmonization of SPS measures in ASEAN is intended to facilitate greater trade with in the region, the process itself should be consideration with the International commitments of Member Countries, particularly with respect to the agreement on SPS measures under the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Activities to build regional pest lists conducted by the Experts Working group on Harmonization of Phytosanitary Measures.

There are five meetings of the Experts Working Group on the Harmonization of Phytosanitary Measures in ASEAN as follows:

  1. The First Meeting; held in Indonesia, 1997
  2. The Second Meeting; held in Philippines, 1998
  3. The Third Meeting; held in Singapore, 1999
  4. The Fourth Meeting; held in Vietnam , 2002
  5. The Fifth Meeting; held in Brunei Darussalum, 2003

According to the above meetings, the compilation of the Endemic of selected commodities was assigned to each ASEAN Member Country to carry out as follows:

1.Rice-milled (Phillippines)

2.Mango-fruits (Indonesia)

3.Coconut-husked and de-husked (Malaysia)

4.Dendrobium orchids-cut-flowers (Singapore)

5.Ginger-rhizomes(Thailand)

6.Orange-fruit (Brunei Darussalum)

7.Round Cabbage-vegetable (Indonesia)

8.Black Pepper-corn (Malaysia)

9.Potato-tuber (Thailand)

10.Groundnut-shelled & unshelled (Vietnam)

The compilation of the Endemic/ Quarantine Pest List and Import Summary on the above 10 commodities were yet to complete. There are only a few Member Countries has submitted the required information to the assigned country coordinators. This was due to several reasons, such as unaware of the agreed template, lack of understanding clarify of how to fill up the form, the change/retirement of respective officers and the absence of the Philippines representative in the Fifth EWG meeting for two consecutive years. In order to address the problems, and to expedite the process, the following transpired;

  1. To improve coordination and to have closer consultation among contact points, an updated list of the EWG Contact Persons and the Alternates was provided.
  2. All Member Countries to submit / re-submit the update Endemic/Quarantine Pest List and Import summery for the selected 10 commodities to respective coordinating countries.
  3. Submission should be in soft copies using MS Excel format. A copy should be provided to the respective coordinating country with copy furnished to the Chairperson and the ASEAN Secretariat.
  4. Unavailable data/information on any particular commodity should also be informed to the respective coordinating countries.
  5. Respective coordinating countries of the assigned commodities would carry out comparative analysis of the data for the Ranking of Pests Present in ASEAN.

To expedite the progress of compilations and compare their analysis of Endemic and Quarantine pest risk the EWG meeting agreed to focus 5 prioritized commodities with the new assigned level countries as follow;

1. Rice - milledMalaysia

2.Orange-fruitBrunei Darussalum

3.Mango-fruitsIndonesia

4.Potato-tuberThailand

5.Dendrobium orchids - cut - flowersSingapore

Member countries was requested to submit on update the Endemic/ Quarantine Pest list and Import summary for the 5 prioritized commodities representative coordinating of the assigned commodities would carry out comparative analysis of the data for the Ranking of Pests Present in ASEAN based on the available information submitted by member countries.

PROCESS FOR HARMONIZATION OF PHYTOSANITARY REQUIREMENTS FOR PLANT COMMODITIES

Thailand was assigned to carry out comparative analysis of the data for the Ranking of Pests Present in ASEAN for Potato-Tuber, based on the available information submitted by 6 countries; Brunei Darussalum, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. The result of comparative analysis of the data, we found that there are many pests found among the 7 countries (including Thailand) are the common pests but there is some pest found in some country is a Quarantine pest in another country, such as Potato Spindle Tuber Viroid found in Indonesia but not found in Thailand. The results of the comparative analysis should be considered and discussed in the Workshop on the Harmonization of Phytosanitary Requirements in ASEAN would be held in February 2004, Thailand.