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【ICDPASO】The Standards and Trade Development Facility Launched Its Annual Report, Highlighting Continued Efforts to Boost Safe and Inclusive Trade

Time:2021/08/16 BJT

1. Key Concerns

The latest annual report from the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF), highlighted the continued efforts by developing and least developed countries to strengthen their food safety, animal and plant health quarantine capacity despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a massive impact on health systems and caused enormous disruption to the global economy, the report noted. Governments took measures to contain the spread of the virus, including travel restrictions, lockdowns, social distancing, and other safety protocols. Production and trade in agri-food products was scaled back, resulting in huge economic losses around the world that continue to be felt today.

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the STDF adapted quickly across all its workflows and kept delivering strong results in 2020, making efforts to understand the new realities on the ground and continuing to provide vital assistance to strengthen food safety, animal and plant health quarantine systems in developing countries.

Digital opportunities and solutions to support economic recovery and longer-term resilience against future shocks featured strongly in STDF's project work. Strengthening SPS capacity, as a global public good, is critical for developing countries to recover from shocks, such as COVID-19, and to become more resilient against future outbreaks of pests and diseases.

Established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the WTO, the STDF is financed by voluntary contribution from donors. The WTO houses the STDF Secretariat and manages the STDF Trust Fund.

2. Briefing on COVID-19 Pandemic

According to WHO statistics, calculated numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths reached 203,944,144 and 4,312,902 by August 11, 2021. The U.S., Iran, India, Brazil and Indonesia were the five countries (regions) with the highest number of new confirmed cases in the past seven days. Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, the U.S. and India were the five countries (regions) with the highest number of new deaths in the past seven days. The highly contagious DELTA variant has been detected in at least 132 countries and regions.

Many countries (regions) moved forward with new normalization stage of prevention and control of COVID-19, and eased their social restrictions for people fully vaccinated. Statistics from Our World In Data, an online research site of University of Oxford, presented that 4,541,764,694 doses had been administered by August 10, 2021. Many countries (regions) recently eased their social restrictions for people fully vaccinated. Singapore announced that the size limit for social gatherings would be increased from 2 to 5 persons who were fully vaccinated from August 10, 2021, and many people were permitted to participate in mask-off activities in dinning rooms and gyms;from August 9, 2021Canada declared that the U.S. citizens and green card holders who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 would be permitted to enter into Canada from the U.S. without quarantine; the UK stated that passengers who had been vaccinated in Europe and the U.S. would be able to travel to England and their quarantines would be waived.

The restrictive measures taken by countries (regions) are further differentiated. As the spread of the DELTA variant has intensified the pressure on the response to the pandemic, the Government of Japan declared a state of emergency in Osaka, Chiba-ken, Saitama and Kanagawa until August 31, and announced an extension of existing state of emergency till the same day in Tokyo and Okinawa; Muriel Bowser, Mayor of Washington D.C., announced that all citizens over 2 years old must wear masks indoors, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated; the Government of Thailand declared an extension of restrictive measures until the end of August in its capital city and high risk areas, and decided to expand a series of restrictive measures, such as travel restrictions, mall closures and curfew, from 13 to 29 provinces; the Indonesian Government announced that restrictive measures would continue to be extended in all regions except Java Island, including that non-essential employees would continue to work from home and shopping malls would be remain closed; China announced strict restrictions on the cross-border movement of non-emergency and non-essential personnel, strict approval of entry and exit permits for citizens, and the temporary non-issuance of ordinary passports and other documents for non-essential and non-emergency exit reasons.


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