Adoption of bark tolerance for imports defined in the wood packaging standard ISPM 15

Notice to Industry 18/2010

Background

Following the adoption of the revised version of the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures Publication No. 15: Regulation of Wood Packaging Material in International Trade (ISPM 15) in April 2009, Biosecurity Services Group (BSG) undertook to review Australia’s requirement for bark freedom on solid wood packaging material. From 1 July 2010 Australia will accept solid wood packaging material that is treated and marked as ISPM 15 compliant and meets the bark tolerance requirements defined in the revised ISPM 15 standard. This requires that solid wood packaging material be debarked, but allows a tolerance for small pieces of bark that have not been completely removed during milling.

This tolerance for bark will also apply to solid wood packaging treated with other AQIS approved treatments. The ‘bark free’ declaration is still required but the ISPM 15 tolerance limits apply. Any wood packaging and dunnage exceeding the ISPM 15 bark tolerance limit will be subject to treatment, export or destruction at the importer’s expense.

What will change?

The ISPM 15 standard requires that solid wood packaging material be debarked, but allows a tolerance for small pieces of bark that have not been completely removed during milling. The standard allows for any number of visually separate and clearly distinct small pieces of bark to remain if they are less than 3 cm in width (regardless of the length) or greater than 3 cm in width, with the total surface area (length × width) of an individual piece of bark less than 50 square cm.

As of 1 July 2010 BSG will adopt the ISPM 15 bark tolerance for all solid wood packaging. Any wood packaging and dunnage exceeding the bark tolerance in the ISPM 15 standard will be subject to treatment, export or destruction.

There will be no change to the ‘bark free’ statement on AQIS’s current packaging declaration.

Please note that AQIS still has a bark freedom requirement for timber imported as commodity (any timber other than solid wood packaging material). This means that only ingrown bark around knots and bark pockets between rings of annual growth are acceptable for commodity timber.

Packing Declarations must comply with requirements set out in the Minimum Documentary Requirements Policy.

The AQIS requirements for wood packaging and dunnage will be updated in the Import Conditions Database (ICON) case for Timber Packaging and Dunnage. The web page Bark on Timber packaging and dunnage will also be updated from the implementation date of 1 July 2010.

Enquiries

For further information in relation to the ISPM 15 bark tolerance or AQIS import requirements for solid wood packaging and dunnage please contact the Timber National Co-ordination Centre, AQIS Melbourne by phone: 03 8318 6929, or fax: 03 8318 6777.