Agriculture Think Tank #3 What is SPS?

Key:
BNYC – Bahamas National Youth Council
BAFY – Bahamas Agricultural Forum for Youth
BCOC – Bahamas Chamber of Commerce
BIS – Bahamas Information Services
CAFY – Caribbean Agriculture Forum for Youth
CITES - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
EPA - Economic Partnership Agreement
IICA – Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture
BAPA – Bahamas Agricultural Producers Association
BNT – Bahamas National Trust
MAMR – Ministry of Agriculture & Marine Resources
OIE - World organization for animal health
CODEX - The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO and WHO to develop food standards, guidelines and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. The main purposes of this Programme are protecting health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.
WTO - World Trade Organization
BAFY Blog - http://bahamasagriculturalforumforyouth.blogspot.com/

Meeting Notes:

The Meeting got started with a short Welcome and Introduction of the feature Presenter: Dr. Maurice Isaacs (Veterinary Officer – Department of Agriculture)
Power point presentation on: What is SPS?

Danette Malcolm – Is there progress towards a lab based surveillance program?

Dr. Isaacs – We are not members of the OIE or WTO. We should be doing surveillance and testing (lab based program) e.g. in 1998 – tested for rabies. There is a book sent out on the status of each disease for each country.

Tim Hauber – might feel extra vulnerable with Conch, for example then can propose to keep certain things out of the country.

Dr. Isaacs – mad cow disease the meat was banned from the Bahamas even though they said it was safe (in Europe).

Dr. Hepburn – cannot having a lab be justification for not bringing in?

Dr. Isaacs – No ignorance does not excuse, developed countries had resources - able to develop capacity, but not developing countries (Bahamas as an observer).
Part of the regional 2002: initiative of the Americas
Participate at SPS meetings: The Bahamas participated and got SPS committee started and is still formalizing to be recognized. We are being left out of the loop (e.g. EPA negotiations – all countries that sign are able to trade with each other under the WTO rules)
· E.g. Pink Mealy Bug (used the predatory wasp and lady bug to combat)
· Citrus canker
· Heart worm in dogs
Try to keep out disease but we have open borders

Dr. Hepburn – incubation period – send samples away to be tested since there is no lab?

Dr. Isaacs – no, cannot say incubation period / have been talks with the Ministry of Finance
Canada in discussions with the Caribbean in November. We are not an island but a globe – Global position – how do we protect ourselves? Can’t just depend on the U.S. – they are also overhauling their system after the E. coli and peanut butter outbreaks. SPS deals with a wide spectrum of activities to mainly protect your human health.

Rionda Godet – is there a protocol for algae eating snails?

Dr. Isaacs – Yes, for pet stores but not to be released in the environment (e.g. Dolphins – CITES, Bahamas has been a member since 1979). You have to look at if you are a member of these agreements and abide by all their laws. Private standards – companies will look at other issues besides health e.g. fair treatment of workers.

AAC – do you look at domestic and wild populations of animals?

Dr. Isaacs – Yes, but do you have the capacity? E.g. Avian Influenza was in the wild populations vs. the domestic, here in the Bahamas.

AAC – If there is a concern about items passing through the country for shipping, what about our port in Freeport?

Dr. Isaacs – taking a risk. Agriculture is viewed as a whole and not just what is on the ground – this affects us all. We have no quarantine facilities (our limited capacity). We are at serious risk and could be getting into further risks – more problems may pop-up.

Anthony Plakaris – Are we putting in place the SPS committee?

Dr. Isaacs – The 2008 project is finished and the sponsorship is finished. We are trying to get the SPS committee formally recognized and formalized with a budget. We are organizing representation for the meetings and sharing information to put into regulations and permits for our standards. E.g. who is the focal point for CODEX? Who is going to meetings and what is the information to share? There is a need to go to meetings with our national position and come back to share information.

Dr. Hepburn – What is the way forward – the attack plan?

Dr. Isaacs - the committee has drafted a cabinet paper

Dr. Hepburn – having a lab for our testing – is this possible within 3-5 years?

Dr. Isaacs – We need to inform the public and have more people involved to let them know how much we need labs and what it means for us.

Dr. Hepburn – Enjoyed the presentation, and this presentation should be on a grander scale.

Dr. Isaacs – historically we do things and don’t worry about the public – was on a need-to-know basis. BIS is responsible for all government news but each department should have its own BIS.

Dr. Hepburn – how can we get this information out? What are we going to do?
General question: Can we use BNT to get the message out?

Dr. Isaacs – We need to push these things that will affect our children and grand-children. You can’t just unsign from an agreement. Trying now to get the SPS formalized under the MAMR using IICA as the secretariat along with participation from BCOC and Department of Public Health. SPS meeting participants from the Department of Agriculture held in Geneva, Switzerland: Mrs. Gwen Hammerton (9 meetings), Dr. Maurice Isaacs (3 meetings), Dr. Butler (1 meeting) and Dr. Springer (1 meeting).

Anthony Plakaris – BAPA was formed to get information like this out to the public. There has been no recent AGM. IICA or MAMR can’t be the voice, let BAPA be out there in the public – show tenacity/be out there to push!

Dr. Isaacs – Mr. Mark Stubbs has been on the committee and we need all stakeholders to be involved.

Dr. Hepburn – need to send this information out to the farmers via Mr. Paulette Ingraham.

Dr. Isaacs – some markets international are not accessible to our farmers now – we must learn from this.

Paulette Ingraham – was BAPA invited to be a part of the committee?

Dr. Isaacs – yes.

Dr. Hepburn – what happened to all this information from the Agriculture Think Tank meetings?

AAC – the information is sent out to the group, the general data base and the media.