Importing Countries Phytosanitary Requirements (ICPR)

General Information

An importing countries phytosanitary requirements (ICPR) standard is a MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) document that specifies an importing country's phytosanitary requirements based on the legislation and regulations of that country, and any correspondence and negotiations that have contributed to the clarification of requirements.

An email notification system is utilised to advise subscribers of amendments made to the ICPR standards. The email system is also used to convey pending changes to a country's phytosanitary requirements when known.

Charges

Please note the determination and provision of phytosanitary requirements for a commodity not identified within an ICPR, is undertaken on a cost recovery basis.

How to use Importing Countries Phytosanitary Requirements and an explanation of the format

Title Page

The information on the title page is intended to let the user determine how up to date the standard is and whether any information has changed since it was last used. Status indicates the status of the standard, i.e., draft, approved, under review (the one you usually see will be approved, although occasionally a draft may be circulated).

Review date is the intended date on which a full review of the standard will be undertaken. MAFBNZ is also implementing procedures to ensure that importing countries advise of any changes to their requirements. These changes will be updated on an ongoing basis.

The amendment record is in a slightly different format to that of most procedures manuals, but is designed to provide a useful and ready source of information for the user on when the standard was last updated and what section of the standard was modified.

For example,

Amendment 1 21/9/98 Section 3.3 Nursery stock, Citrus requirements;

This entry will let a citrus nursery stock exporter know that they need to check that section, but will tell other exporters that they do not need to read further. Amendments will be made as phytosanitary requirements change and will be entered on the amendment record. The entire ICPR will be re-published to the website with each amendment.

MAFBNZ has added a disclaimer to the title page. Please note this disclaimer and the one on the footer of the MAF website

General Information

This contains general information about the documents on which the ICPR is based (such as definitions used). This section also provides a MAFBNZ contact for comments or queries regarding any of the ICPR standards.

General Requirements

This section includes information that applies in general to all commodities, regardless of commodity class. This section should be read in conjunction with the requirements listed under the Commodity Class Requirements and the Commodity Specific Requirements for the commodity to be exported.

For example, the General Requirements section of the Hong Kong ICPR states that phytosanitary certificates are required for all commodities unless stated otherwise in later sections. Although most of the commodities are in fact exempted from requiring a phytosanitary certificate, the Hong Kong legislation is based on exemptions from this general requirement, rather than nominating commodities for which phytosanitary certificates are required.

This section will also include any information that we hold on the level of inspection carried out in the importing country and any generally prohibited pests (if relevant) or quarantine pests.

Commodity Class Requirements

This section includes information that applies to all commodities within the given Commodity Class. For example, in the Hong Kong ICPR the Commodity Class "Fresh fruit/vegetables" is exempted from the requirement for a phytosanitary certificate. This exemption applies to all fresh fruit and vegetables exported from New Zealand. The Commodity Class Requirements should always be read in conjunction with the General Requirements and Commodity Specific Requirements.

Commodity Specific Requirements

This section lists any requirements specific to the stated commodity. This section should be read in conjunction with the Commodity Class Requirements and General Requirements. If there is no entry for a given commodity then the Commodity Class Requirements and General Requirements are the only applicable requirements. This section will also include any commodity specific categorised pest lists or quarantine pests, additional declarations and treatments.

Commodities are listed alphabetically by scientific name to remove any ambiguity caused by common names. For example, in New Zealand, oca (Oxalis tuberosa) is commonly called yam however, to most countries yams are Dioscorea spp. (There are often several common names for a particular species).

Page last updated: 8 September 2009