wood packing material canada drew the committees attention to the european communities proposed measures on solid wood packaging material notified as g sps n eec 93. canada recognized that wood packing material was widely considered to be at risk of containing plant pests. however it was used for a very large volume of products moving in international trade and the proposed ec measure would cover 69 of canadas exports to the ec. furthermore the ippc was working on a comprehensive standard for all countries and all pests to be completed by july 2002 it would be best for all countries to focus their efforts on developing an international standard and refrain from taking unilateral actions in this regard. the united states considered that it would be impossible to implement the certification and marking requirements within the time-period set out in the ec notification. korea stressed the need for the european communities to implement the least trade restrictive measure which would be effective and in this respect to take into consideration the historic experience of trade without pest introduction the processing of the packing materials and the actual pest risks involved. the european communities replied that pine wood nematode had been detected in packing materials in 1998 and 1999 despite the existing ec requirements on wood packing materials. the ec regulatory committee for plant health was examining the comments which had been submitted on the ec notification. the european communities was actively contributing to the ippc efforts to develo an international standard however this did not replace the need for an emergency measure to protect ec forests. it was now obvious that the ec measure would not be finalized and implemented on the 1 january 2000 date as initially proposed and that bilateral and multilateral consultations would continue. in march 2010 canada announced the resolution of its concerns regarding eu phytosanitary requirements for non-manufactured solid wood packaging first raised in november 2000. at the time canada and others had been working on an international standard for wood packaging material. in 2002 the ippc had adopted ispm 15 for the regulation of wood packaging material in international trade. canada supported the ippc standard and now agreed that there was no substantial difference between ispm 15 and the eu phytosanitary requirement for wood packaging. canada had no objection to the eu legislation for solid wood packaging and wished to close this trade concern. the european union recalled that this issue had been raised by several members who had requested a delay in the entry into force of the measure. the european union considered that the resolution of this issue was also been a success in terms of the provision of special and differential treatment.