restrictions on ec exports of plant and animal products in june 2005 the european communities raised concerns with regard to japanese phytosanitary administrative procedures governing the approval of agricultural imports. the issue had been previously raised on a bilateral basis but the procedures continued to be consuming and not fully transparent. to list a new variety of plant products ec exporters were facing delays of two to three years. the approval procedure for one plant was usually not valid for similar varieties although in terms of plant health risk there were almost no differences between them. the european communities requested that any future application for similar plant species with similar plant production systems and pest status be considered as an extension of the original application. other issues of concerns to the european communities included inter alia japans inspection procedures in the exporting country phytosanitary import regulations and a system of zero-tolerance for all pests not included in japans list of non-quarantine organisms. with regard to the animal sector disease-free status recognition and health import certification were difficult. the european communities invited japan to review its internal administrative sps procedures to make them more efficient and transparent. brazil also expressed concerns regarding japanese approval procedures for plant varieties. japan explained that it had already taken the necessary steps to fully comply with the sps agreement and a number of ec exports of fruits and vegetables were currently entering the japanese market. however japan remained open to discuss with the european communities any specific issue justified by facts and figures in order to identify the source of the problem. in february 2006 the european communities reported that some progress had been made in consultations between japan and some ec member states. japan noted that risk assessments based on scientific evidence had been carried out. where the assessments showed that the proposed measure met japans appropriate level of protection import bans had been lifted or sps measures eased. the content and amount of data necessary for the risk assessment differed among species and according to regional conditions so the duration of the assessment varied accordingly. if the european communities could be more specific about their concerns japan would try to address these through bilateral consultations.