Fraud and Contracting Guidelines

In compliance for FAS Market Access Program regulations NAEGA has submitted its Fraud prevention and contracting guidelines to FAS for approval. NAEGA’s Fraud Prevention policies help to prevent fraud in the use of NAEGA funds and MAP program expenses. The Contracting guidelines lay out rules NAEGA staff must follow when soliciting contracts from outside vendors of more than $35,000. Both policies comply with FAS rules regarding fraud prevention and contracting procedures.

A copy of the Fraud Prevention policy can be found here. A copy of the Contracting Procedures can be found here. For more information, please contact Ryan.

Contribution Report

On Thursday, June 29 NAEGA submitted its annual 2016 Contribution Report to FAS, officially closing out the 2016 MAP Program Year. The contribution report highlights industry and staff contributions to NAEGA’s Unified Export Strategy (UES) efforts. Per MAP regulations, NAEGA and NAEGA industry personnel must contribute the same amount of money to NAEGA’s UES as allocated in its MAP agreement, plus 10 percent. In 2016, NAEGA and its membership contributed 167 percent of its MAP allocation to its UES objectives. Thank you to all NAEGA members and member personnel who worked to accomplish NAEGA’s UES objectives, proving once again that NAEGA is dedicated to “working together to make trade work”!

A copy of the NAEGA contribution report can be found here. For more information, please contact Ryan.

IGTC Newsletter

The latest IGTC newsletter is now available! This week’s newsletter welcomes the Ukrainian Grain Association to IGTC membership, includes a debrief on the IPPC ePhyto IAG meetings in Arlington and an update on Gary’s visit to Geneva for an IGTC Strategy Session.  

For more details, read the IGTC Newsletter here or visit the IGTC website at www.igtcglobal.org.

IPPC ePhyto IAG Meeting

On June 27 and 28 the IGTC Secretariat Katy Lee and President Gary Martin participated in the International Plant Protection Convention’s (IPPC) ePhyto Industry Advisory Group meeting in Arlington, VA. The IPPC, the main UN body leading a pilot project on the exchange of electronic phytosanitary certificates, led the meeting which involved 15 countries including Argentina, Australia, China, USA, Netherlands and Egypt. The IAG is currently advising the IPPC on the ePhyto program, which will allow National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) to exchange phytosanitary certificates.  The program is currently being tested and the pilot will officially be up and running by September 2017. Following the meeting, IAG participants also conducted an outreach session with D.C. Embassies from around the world.  During the session, Gary gave a presentation that raised the awareness of the potential benefits of trade digitization, including increased efficiency, cost reduction and more secure transactions.

ISF Meetings Trip Report

A trip report is now available for Katy’s travel to the International Seed Federation’s (ISF) World Congress and Plant Breeding Innovation Working Group meeting in Budapest, Hungary. In Budapest Katy attended the Plant Breeding Innovation Working Group meeting of the International Seed Federation (ISF) and the annual World Seed Congress, which included an “open session” of the Plant Breeders meeting. During the meetings, IGTC made progress on its Plant Breeding Innovation file, one of its most important in 2017. Over the past year, the IGTC has been considering policy and information sharing plans with the ISF related to new plant breeding innovations (PBI). Over this period, the IGTC and the ISF have been working closely to find common ground and develop common communications plans toward securing international regulatory coherence and compatibility on PBIs.

A copy of the trip report can be found here.