May 2011 NHC NEWS A Monthly Bulletin of the Northwest Horticultural Council NAPPO An industry that exports to over 70 countries with shipments representing 30% of the bounty of our region’s orchards doesn’t need to be reminded of the increasing complexity of international trade.  This complexity is a daily fact of life for growers, packers and allied industries in this unique corner of U.S. agriculture. Pest and disease restrictions are a big part of this complexity.  At the time the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1985, the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) came into force. The WTO-SPS Agreement recognizes the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) as the relevant international standard-setting organization for the development of measures to help ensure that pest and disease restrictions are not used as unjustified barriers to trade. Much of the work of the IPPC occurs within the cooperative framework of the world’s nine regional plant protection organizations.  For example, the North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO) represents the national plant protection organizations of Canada, Mexico and the United States in developing regional phytosanitary standards. However, since many phytosanitary issues are not limited to North America, standards first developed by NAPPO can have a significant influence on the scope and nature of similar IPPC standards.  NAPPO’s global influence is coordinated by a staff of four persons, located in Ottawa, Ontario, in cooperation with regulatory personnel, government scientists and industry representatives from all three countries. NHC participates in NAPPO at its annual meetings and through  Dr. Mike Willett’s membership on NAPPO’s Fruit Panel, which meets twice a year, most recently last month in Salinas, California.  Over the past few years, NHC’s focus in working with the panel has been to ensure that both regional and international standards aimed at the preventing the spread of fruit pests, take into account the biology and commercial host range of the temperate zone pests encountered in the production regions of the Pacific Northwest. ¨ “Path Forward” The Obama Administration has made a number of announcements this year regarding trade policy priorities of importance to the tree fruit industry.  The U.S. Mexico dispute over cross-border trucking and the free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea and Panama all received positive attention.  The trade agreement with Korea leads the way towards possible congressional enactment following new provisions negotiated in December of 2009.  A multistep plan to resolve the NAFTA cross-border trucking dispute with Mexico was announced in March.  This month USTR announced important breakthroughs on the trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.  Labor has been at the heart of the inertia on these trade policy issues in Washington, D.C. for many years.  The difference this year is that a path forward is now being blazed even though organized labor remains largely opposed to any forward progress.  While hardly a yellow brick road, if the path is followed it will lead to commercial benefits for apple, pear and cherry growers in the Pacific Northwest.  What remains to be charted, in the case of the various trade agreements, is the path forward with the U.S. Congress.  Also conspicuously absent is the World Trade Organization Doha Development Agenda’s path forward.  Currently, all foot trails for this 153 member trade organization lead to the edge of a cliff.    ♦ May 19 – Annual meeting of the Northwest Horticultural Council, Yakima, Washington. Travel Chris Schlect May 1-5 – United Fresh 2011 Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana. May 23-26 – Minor Crop Farmer Alliance’s “ESA Workshop”, Denver, Colorado Mike Willett   May 23-26 – Minor Crop Farmer Alliance’s “ESA Workshop”, Denver, Colorado Of seed-time or harvest…of the grass in the orchard made white with broken blossoms, or strewn with fallen fruit, we know nothing and can know nothing.  For us there is only one season, the season of Sorrow. Letters of Oscar Wilde Northwest Horticultural Council 105 South 18th Street, Suite 105 Yakima, Washington 98901, USA Voice: (509) 453-3193, Fax: (509) 457-7615 E-mail general@nwhort.org