Kathmandu, 6 August:
Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Matrika Prasad Yadav has said that despite the initial turmoil created by recent policy change by the government in terms of pesticides in vegetables and fruits, and its retraction, it had created an avalanche of awareness.
He stressed the need to create awareness amongst the stakeholders regarding the issues related to World Trade Organization (WTO) and other regional and bilateral agreements.
The government had decided to make pesticides residue mandatory for the fruits and vegetables imports but withdrew the decision within 18 days.
Speaking at a discussion on sanitary and phytosanitary related international laws and practices, Minister Yadav reiterated the ministry’s commitment to WTO rules and regulations and that the misalignments was a result of lapses in procedure but not of intent.
Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MOICS) Kedar Bahadur Adhikari stressed the need to build legal, institutional and other mechanisms to regulate import and export.
He said that human resource was not a problem with the government but managing them properly is an issue. He said that the country had reached a stage where all the basic frameworks have been set up and hence was in a state to leapfrog and make rapid progress.
Dr. Posh Raj Pandey, Chairman of the South Asia Watch on Trade Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) pointed towards the need to build related institutions and coordination amongst the relevant government institutions.
He said that being a party to international agreements Nepal had to be mindful of both the rights and duties like the optimal way to protect plant, animal and human life while honouring the international, regional and bilateral agreements.
He further said that the country needed to make an attempt to discuss this issue with relevant stakeholders to build consensus for the way forward.
Presenting a paper on ‘SPS measures in Nepal’s agricultural trade’, Dr. Paras Kharel, Research Director of SAWTEE highlighted the high degree of import dependency on India for agricultural and food products, indicating that any disruptions at the borders will have severe implications.
Calling attention to the ‘letter’ – allegedly sent by Indian Embassy in Nepal in response to Nepal’s policy change regarding fruits and vegetables imports – Dr Kharel pointed out that it only talked about phytosanitary certificate, which, in reality, did not concern pesticides residue tests. According to him, there was a lack of legislations, institutional inadequacies, human resources constraints, and most importantly, extremely poor state of testing facilities.
Adoption of international standards for commodities that currently do not have standards, upgradation of laboratories, accreditation over the most important parameters and, ultimately, the mutual recognition agreements with the major trading partners, were pointed out as the likely way forward.
Emphasizing the need to protect the consumers from pesticides residue risks, Dr. Dilli Ram Sharma, Chief of Plant Quarantine and Pest Management Centre (PQPMC), pointed out the lapses made by the government while implementing the policy, particularly, the failure to notify the policy change in advance—six months being the legally binding international norms.
He also mentioned that pesticides test on each consignment of perishable items was not infeasible but also unprecedented globally and, hence, procedures like screening, certifications, risk-based sampling must be adopted to ensure that trade continues as usual and consumer health was not compromised.
He also informed that agriculture ministry and its other bodies were rapidly moving ahead with necessary changes and the upcoming meeting between National Plant Protection Organizations of India and Nepal 16 August 2019 would be taking crucial decisions in addressing these issues bilaterally.
Jyoti Baniya, Chairman of Forum for Consumer Protection, pointed out the lack of proper legislative framework as a key constraint. ‘Nepal has not promulgated new laws to replace the outdated Food Act and Import Export Act. Nepal is yet to come up with the much-needed Accreditation Act,’ he said.
Madhu Kumar Marasini, Joint Secretary of the MoICS, pointed out the need to undertake more such consultations for strengthening out sanitary and phytosanitary regime so that consumer health interest are preserved and trade disruptions are avoided.
The event was organized by the MoICS and SAWTEE. According to the organizers, the main objective of the programme was to create awareness on SPS issues in agriculture trade and discuss measures that Nepal should undertake in moving forward.
