International trade and plant protection issues: example of plant quarantine law of the Russian Federation

In the context of the Russian Federation’s significant trade relations in plants and plant products with other countries, the Russian Federation Law on Plant Quarantine was reviewed in comparison with the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and the EC Plant Health Directive (2000/29/EC). The Russian Law dates from 2001 when the current version of the IPPC (‘1997 revision’) was already in place but basically adopts the plant health principles of the previous version. Hence, some key provisions of the 1997 version that bring the IPPC in line with the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the SPS Agreement) of World Trade Organization (WTO) are lacking. Overall, the Law is not an obstacle to trade in plants and plant products in itself, but the lack of details in such important matters as pest risk analysis (PRA) suggest that barriers could arise in the interpretation of the Law or in its application through (secondary) normative acts