On April 16-20 Katy Lee, Secretariat of the International Grain Trade Coalition, will travel to Rome, Italy to participate in the IPPC Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM). During this meeting the IGTC will act as an observer at the annual CPM event, considered the “parliament” of the 183 contracting governments to the IPPC. The agenda of the CPM includes issues of highest importance to the IGTC, including:

• The role of the grain trade in global food security and economic development;
• The status of the draft International Standard on Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM) for grain;
• Discussions among IPPC contracting parties on “Conceptual challenges in commodity standard development”;
• The IPPC Ephyto Solution and tprogress of the worldwide pilot project on IPPC ePhytos;

During the meeting the IGTC will also hold individual meetings with the leaders of the CPM, countries sitting on the Standards Committee and IPPC staff. A notice to post for this travel is available here.