maximum residue levels for ethephon in pineapple in april 2008 ecuador noted its concern about possible modification of the ec maximum residue levels mrls for ethephon particularly in pineapple. the european communities was currently using the codex standards but a re-evaluation of these mrls by the european food safety authority efsa had resulted in a lowering of the acceptable daily intake adi levels. efsa was now reviewing mrls in pineapple and proposing that these be reduced from 2 mg to 0.05 which was the limit of detection. ecuador considered that the risk assessment was not based on adequate scientific evidence nor on the codex standard. this change could have serious socio-economic consequences. costa rica noted that it was also analyzing the effect of this new limit on costa ricas exports and asked to be informed of further discussions on this matter. the european communities noted that producers and the plant protection industry in the european communities shared the concerns of ecuador and costa rica. they had expressed concerns that the reduction in mrls was excessive and not sufficiently science-based which showed that there was no protectionist intent. however in the interest of food safety it was sometimes necessary to set limits that created problems for producers and ethephon was an example of this. efsa had carried out an extremely thorough evaluation of the substance in particular in light of its importance which had led to the recommendation to set more rigorous limits. the ec authorities were in correspondence with both ecuador and costa rica and invited them to present their scientific evidence that the direction taken by the european communities was wrong. such evidence would be taken into account in other cases as well in the past the european communities had accepted such requests to review its risk assessments. the european communities would explore every opportunity to be flexible in how this new mrl was applied to imports. in november 2017 the secretariat informed that in september 2017 it had contacted all members who had raised specific trade concerns stcs that had not been discussed in the previous year to request an update on their status. in furtherance of this request information was received from ecuador on the partial resolution of this stc. the secretariat indicated that the information received had been circulated in document rd sps 28 of 31 october 2017 and that the sps ims would be updated on this basis using the date of the november 2017 sps committee meeting as the date of resolution of the relevant stcs