'Suspicious' certificates: 'Bad-for-health non-food agriculture items being imported into Pakistan'

Director General, Department of Plant Protection (DPP) has revealed that health hazard non-food agriculture items are being imported in Pakistan on the basis of suspicious certificates and mis-declaration.
This was pointed out at a recent meeting presided over by Secretary Commerce Division, Younus Dagha which was convened to discuss issues faced by importers regarding import of goods under SRO 1067(I)/ 2017.
The Secretary Commerce said that safety and procedural requirements on import of agricultural products have been imposed to safeguard agriculture of Pakistan from exotic/noxious pests.
The meeting was informed that traders are facing problems since processed food and non-food items like broomstick etc have also been subjected to safety and procedural requirements. They were of the view that since canned and processed food products have already gone through processing, therefore they may be exempted from the requirements laid down under the SRO.
The importers requested that broomsticks that have no relation with food and safety standards may be excluded from the requirements. DG, Department of Plant Protection disagreed and revealed that during tests, aflatoxin was detected in broomsticks which violates health and food safety standards and were found to contain hazardous substance.
The traders further mentioned that Department of Plant Protection is not processing the cases on first come first served basis rather the cases are processed on the basis of pick and choose. The DG, PPD assured that he would look into the matter and take corrective measures to address such shortcomings which are occurring due to shortage of manpower.
It was also revealed by the businessmen that shipments take several days to arrive in Pakistan from the exporting country and therefore, some portion of the consignment gets affected due to moisture and when the samples are drawn from the affected area, the results are unfavourable.
He stated that no such practice is being followed deliberately. However, if the importer desires, he can send his representative at the time of sample drawing so that such kind of grievances do not occur.
Several consignments of food and non-food agriculture items have already arrived in Pakistan mainly from Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The consignments are not cleared either because the Import Permit was not issued at the time of imports and that the importers were not aware of the revised conditions of the IPO or hazardous substances were found and the shipments were not cleared.
The businessmen maintained that these consignments carry four different kinds of health and phyto-sanitary certificates by the exporting country to ensure that these are free from exotic/noxious pests and therefore, this should serve the requirement of PPD. He noted that when the samples were taken from the shipments and tested the aflatoxin levels were found to be quite high (142 percent) while DPP's requirement is that it should not be more than 20 per cent. This makes the certifications of the exporting country suspicious and a mis-declaration.
The importers requested to raise the level of aflatoxin to 50 per cent and allow the held shipments to be cleared subject to heat treatment. They committed that in future they would observe the requirements of PPD. They also requested that the shipments received till 24 November 2017 without Import permit may be cleared through one time exemption.
The importers also argued that samples are drawn after grounding the container which requires original delivery order/release of documents. At that stage, 100 per cent payments have already been made to the exporters. In case the consignment is rejected, it is not possible for the importer to get the payment back from the exporter and the consignment cannot be returned. Therefore, the samples may be drawn before grounding of the container.
Habib Ahmed, Secretary (Tariff-I), FBR stated that this could be done and therefore the stakeholders may hold a meeting with Collector Customs along with representative from PPD to formulate a procedure of sampling before grounding the container. The DG, PPD agreed to the proposal.
After detailed deliberation, it was decided that the Department of Plant Protection would explore the possibility of releasing the consignments which have arrived till 24 November 2017 without import permit and have originated from those countries where the risk of pest is nominal. These consignments may be released subject to health requirement or heat treatment etc. if acceptable to PPD. Besides, in case the aflatoxin level is above 50 PPB (part per billion) in these consignments, these would undergo heat treatment prior to issuance of release order. PPD will prepare a mechanism for this. Further, in future, if aflatoxin level is above the benchmark fixed by PPD, ie 50 PPB, the consignment would be rejected.
Selection of samples and laboratory for inspection would be identified mutually by PPD and the importer. Necessary mechanism will be devised by DPP in consultation with the importers in this regard.
It was also decided that DPP, in consultation with the FBR, will work out examination criteria prior to grounding the consignments/containers so that the rejected consignments could be returned and foreign exchange saved since at this stage the payment is yet to be released to the foreign exporter.
The DPP would analyze the request of importers for excluding processed food from the conditions of IPO besides other non-food items including broomstick, it was decided.