Principles for conduct of pest risk analyses: Report of an expert workshop

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement o n Tariffs and Trade (GATT) have focused attention on risk assessment of pot ential insect, weed, and animal pests and diseases of livestock. These risk s have traditionally been addressed through quarantine protocols ranging fr om limits on the geographical areas from which a product may originate, pos tharvest disinfestation procedures like fumigation, and inspections at poin ts of export and import, to outright bans. To ensure that plant and animal protection measures are not used as nontariff trade barriers, GATT and NAFT A require pest risk analysis (PRA) to support quarantine decisions. The inc reased emphasis on PRA has spurred multiple efforts at the national and int ernational level to design frameworks for the conduct of these analyses. As approaches to pest risk analysis proliferate, and the importance of the an alyses grows, concerns have arisen about the scientific and technical condu ct of pest risk analysis. In January of 1997, the Harvard Center for Risk A nalysis (HCRA) held an invitation-only workshop in Washington, D.C. to brin g experts in risk analysis and pest characterization together to develop ge neral principles for pest risk analysis. Workshop participants examined cur rent frameworks for PRA, discussed strengths and weaknesses of the approach es, and formulated principles, based on years of experience with risk analy sis in other setting and knowledge of the issues specific to analysis of pe sts. The principles developed highlight the both the similarities of pest r isk analysis to other forms of risk analysis, and its unique attributes.