Latest news with #phytosanitary
Zawya
6 days ago
- Health
- Zawya
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) launch second phase of the Africa Phytosanitary Programme
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), in collaboration with the Government of South Africa, represented by the Department of Agriculture, launched the second phase of the Africa Phytosanitary Programme (APP) today – representing a major effort to stop the spread of plant pests and diseases in Africa using cutting-edge digital tools. The launch event was hosted by the Government of South Africa and brought together over 50 phytosanitary specialists from nine countries: Algeria, Cape Verde, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Liberia, Malawi, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. They will participate in a weeklong Train-the-Trainer (ToT) workshop in advanced pest surveillance techniques, including the use of customised digital tools and applications for monitoring, detecting and reporting major pests of economic, regulatory and environmental importance in Africa. Participants will receive state-of-the-art tablets for geospatial pest surveillance, use field survey protocols developed by technical experts, and undertake practical sessions using the pest survey tools. 'Africa stands at a turning point. With immense biodiversity, rising agricultural productivity, and growing opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we are well-positioned to become a global leader in the trade of high-quality plant products. But this vision can only be achieved if we ensure that the movement of plants and plant products is safe, traceable, and fully compliant with international phytosanitary standards' said John Henry Steenhuisen, Honourable Minister of Agriculture, in South Africa, in remarks read on his behalf by Jan Hendrik Venter, South Africa's Director of Plant Health. 'Well-trained, well-equipped plant health officials across the continent are our best line of defence in maintaining pest-free or low-prevalence status, an essential condition for accessing these lucrative markets', he added. The first and pilot phase of APP started in 2023, engaging phytosanitary specialists from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Phase 2 builds on achievements made in the pilot phase and aims to train plant health officers, who upon their return to their countries will teach their peers in the national plant protection organisations (NPPOs) and other government stakeholders on the use of the APP suite of digital tools. "We are building a critical mass of phytosanitary inspectors, technicians and officers across Africa by equipping plant health officers with the tools and skills to prevent and address major plant pest threats, that ultimately jeopardize food security, agricultural trade, economic growth and the environment", said Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General and Officer-in-Charge of the IPPC, in her video message. Funded through generous contributions from the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, APP phase two builds on support from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) which funded phase one in 2023. FAO and the IPPC are working to replicate and scale up the benefits from APP to more African countries and other regions. Mitigating the pest problem in Africa Worldwide, plant pests destroy about 40 percent of crop yields, resulting in approximately USD 220 billion in economic losses[1]. In Africa, the impacts of climate change are worsening the problem, with invasive pests – such as, fruit flies, false codling moth, maize lethal necrosis disease, citrus greening and fall armyworm – causing major damages. Fall armyworm alone is estimated to cause the highest yield loss in Africa – USD 9.4 billion annually –, based on data from the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI). The African Union's Plant Health Strategy for Africa highlights that limited technical capability remains a key barrier to achieving sustainable agriculture on the continent. Through APP, FAO, the IPPC and partners aim to strengthen plant health systems and build national phytosanitary capacity across Africa. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): Regional Office for Africa.
Hindustan Times
19-06-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
India, EU to focus on market access in fast-tracked FTA talks
NEW DELHI: India and the European Union have fast-tracked their free trade negotiations, proposing intensive deliberations on crucial market access issues such as eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers in the next round of talks starting July 7 in Brussels, people familiar with the matter said adding that the two sides have already agreed on nearly a fourth of the 24-chapter deal. With only about six months left to a previously stated deadline to conclude a balanced, equitable and mutually beneficial deal, both sides are focused on core elements of the proposed free trade agreement (FTA), thee people added, requesting anonymity. Core elements include key matters such as removing tariff and non-tariff barriers on trade in goods, services trade, bilateral investment, rules of origin (ROO), sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, and technical barriers to trade (TBT), they said. 'We have already achieved near consensus on several peripheral chapters, also crucial for smooth functioning of the FTA. These include good regulatory practices (GRP), transparency, mutual administrative assistance in customs matters, trade facilitation, and intellectual property rights (IPR),' one of them said. Common grounds have also been achieved in several other chapters, a second person said. 'Talks have intensified and negotiations have gained significant momentum. Frequency of meetings, both virtual and face-to-face, have gone up significantly after leaders agreed to have a deal by the end of 2025,' he said. During the EU college of commissioners' India visit on February 28, 2025, its President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the FTA agreement would be concluded by the end of this calendar year. 'Earlier, negotiation rounds happened once in a quarter or so. After the explicit deadline, talks are happening almost every month. In fact, engagements are so intense that both teams are constantly engaged even between two rounds. For example, before and after the 11th round that officially started on May 12 and ended on May 16 in New Delhi, the two sides held several sessions on May 11 and May 17,' the second person added. Even before the commencement of the 12th round, some tracks are working bilaterally this week, he added. While negotiating teams of India and EU are fully engaged, several key decisions and concessions would require political direction. It is expected that the EU member countries and the Indian political leadership will take necessary decisions at the right time, a third person said. 'Prime Minister Modi's first ever visit to Croatia, on his way back from the G7 Summit in Canada, is also significant for the proposed FTA as it is one of the EU members,' he said. In an interview with the Akashvani News in Zagreb, Indian Ambassador to Croatia Arun Goel said that the first ever visit of an Indian Prime Minister is of 'vital importance' in facilitating India-EU FTA. Earlier, addressing CEOs in Cyprus on Monday, PM said: 'Last month, there was an agreement between India and the UK on an ambitious FTA. Now, we are committed to completing an FTA between India and the EU by the end of the year. Talks have picked up pace. Its benefits will be available to all of you.' India and the EU resumed their FTA negotiations in June 2022 after a gap of nine years. Since then, they have finished 11 rounds of negotiation. The EU members are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. India and the EU have strong bilateral trade and investment relationship. According to government data, bilateral merchandise trade with the EU stood at over $135 billion (with exports to EU at $76 billion and imports from EU at $59 billion) making it the largest trading partner for India in goods. Bilateral trade in services in 2023 stood at $53 billion (comprising Indian exports worth $30 billion and imports worth $23 billion). EU investments in India are valued at over $117 billion with around 6,000 European companies present in India. Indiaʼs investments in the EU are valued at around $40 billion. According to people mentioned above, FTAs are one of the engines to boost India's trade. India is actively pursuing three FTAs. While the one with the United Kingdom is already concluded and expected to be signed after legal scrubbing, deals are expected with the EU and the United States soon, they said. Besides, talks are on with New Zealand, Peru and Chile for three other FTAs they added,
Hindustan Times
28-04-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Free trade must also be fair trade
With Donald Trump guillotining the multilateral trading order by first declaring differentiated tariffs on other countries and then announcing that the US will conduct bilateral negotiations to remove them, there are many who are mourning the demise of free trade in the world. While what is happening today is far from ideal, free trade always had an Orwellian twist of being freer for richer countries. This inequality of opportunity in accessing export markets was achieved through myriad mechanisms other than tariffs which put a prohibitive economic burden on developing countries. These non-tariff barriers (NTBs) have taken multiple forms over the years; sometimes as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, sometimes as hefty financial obligations on developing economies in the name of trade facilitation and, in the more recent period, concerns around environmental sustainability. There is nothing wrong in principle with the purpose which these NTBs seek to serve. But the advanced countries dictating them conveniently forget the point about the historical asymmetry in the development of capitalism which means that today's 'clean' rich countries have exploited these 'dirty' opportunities to grow their economic fortunes. The grandstanding over the environment on account of advanced economies is particularly hypocritical because their agro-industrial complexes continue to enjoy a large subsidy despite being heavily carbon intensive. That the global climate accord was far from delivering the financial resources that advanced economies should have given to developing countries for mitigation of the climate crisis even before US President Donald Trump killed the Paris deal only makes the entire thing even more obnoxious. These entrenched asymmetries, when read with the EU insisting on 'sustainability' clauses – HT reported it on Monday – in the ongoing Indo-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations are reason enough for India to not agree to such demands. Ceding to such demands will amount to a double injustice: India being shortchanged in the ongoing bilateral negotiations where its exporters lose market access for not adhering to what are extremely expensive standards, and the largest block of advanced economies unfairly imposing these conditions on a developing economy. The importance of holding back against any such concession in the ongoing Indo-EU FTA negotiations is even more important because it could set a precedent in other ongoing negotiations. This is not to dismiss the importance of environmental sustainability. It is only to reiterate that free trade must also be fair to be palatable to the entire world.
