Decreto n.º 4/91 — Aprova, para ratificação, o texto revisto da Convenção Fitossanitária Internacional, aprovado pela Resolução n.º 14/79…

de 17 de Janeiro

Nos termos da alínea c) do n.º 1 do artigo 200.º da Constituição, o Governo decreta o seguinte:

Artigo único. É aprovado, para ratificação, o texto revisto da Convenção Fitossanitária Internacional, aprovado pela Resolução n.º 14/79, da 20.ª sessão da Conferência da Organização das Nações Unidas para a Alimentação e Agricultura (FAO) em Novembro de 1979, cujo texto original em inglês e respectiva tradução para português seguem em anexo ao presente decreto.

Visto e aprovado em Conselho de Ministros de 22 de Novembro de 1990. - Aníbal António Cavaco Silva - João de Deus Rogado Salvador Pinheiro - Arlindo Marques da Cunha.

Ratificado em 11 de Dezembro de 1990.

Publique-se.

O Presidente da República, MÁRIO SOARES.

Referendado em 16 de Dezembro de 1990.

O Primeiro-Ministro, Aníbal António Cavaco Silva.

REVISED TEXT OF THE INTERNATIONAL PLANT PROTECTION CONVENTION

Preamble

The Contracting Parties, recognizing the usefulness of international cooperation in controlling pests of plants and plant products and in preventing their spread, and especially their introduction across national boundaries, and desiring to ensure close coordination of measures directed to these ends, have agreed as follows:

ARTICLE I

Purpose and responsibility

1 - With the purpose of securing common and effective action to prevent the spread and introduction of pests of plants and plant products and to promote measures for their control, the Contracting Parties undertake to adopt the legislative, technical and administrative measures specified in this Convention and in supllementary agreements pursuant to article III.

2 - Each Contracting Party shall assume responsability for the fulfillment within its territories of all requirements under this Convention.

ARTICLE II

Scope

1 - For the purpose of this Convention the term «plants» shall comprise living plants and parts thereof, including seeds in so far as the supervision of their importation under article VI of the Convention or the issue of phytosanitary certificates in respect of them under articles IV, 1, a), iv), and V of this Convention may be deemed necessary by Contracting Parties; and the term «plant products» shall comprise unmanufactured material of plant origin (including seeds in so far as they are not included in the term «plants») and those manufactured products which, by their nature or that of their processing, may create a risk for the spread of pests.

2 - For the purposes of this Convention, the term «pest» means any form of plant or animal life, or any pathogenic agent, injurious or potentially injurious to plants or plant products; and the term «quarantine pest» means a pest of potential national economic importance to the country endangered thereby and not yet present there, or present but not widely distributed and being actively controlled.

3 - Where appropriate, the provisions of this Convention may be deemed by Contracting Parties to extend to storage places, conveyances, containers and any other object or material capable of harbouring or spreading plant pests, particularly where international transportation is involved.

4 - This Convention applies mainly to quarantine pests involved with international trade.

5 - The definitions set forth in this article, being limited to the application of this Convention, shall not be deemed to affect definitions established under domestic laws or regulations of Contracting Parties.

ARTICLE III

Supplementary agreements

1 - Supplementary agreements applicable to specific regions, to specific pests, to specific plants and plant products, to specific methods of international transportation of plants and plant products, or otherwise supplementing the provisions of this Convention, may be proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (hereinafter referred to as FAO) on the recommendation of a Contracting Party or on its own initiative, to meet special problems of plant protection which need particular attention or action.

2 - Any such supplementary agreements shall come into force for each Contracting Party after acceptance in accordance with the provisions of the FAO Constitution and general rules of the Organization.

ARTICLE IV

National organization for plant protection

1 - Each Contracting Party shall make provision, as soon as possible and to the best of its ability, for:

ii) The inspection of consignments of plants and plant products moving in international traffic, and where appropriate, the inspection of consignments of other articles or commodities moving in international traffic under conditions where they may act incidentally as carriers of pests of plants and plant products, and the inspection and supervision of storage and transportation facilities of all kinds involved in international traffic whether of plants and plant products or of other commodities, particularly with the object of preventing the dissemination across national boundaries of pests of plants and plant products;

iii) The disinfestation or disinfection of consignments of plants and plant products moving in international traffic, and their containers (including packing material or matter of any kind accompanying plants or plant products), storage places, or transportation facilities of all kinds employed;

iv) The issuance of certificates relating to phytosanitary condition and origin of consignments of plants and plant products (hereinafter referred to as phytosanitary certificates);

2 - Each Contracting Party shall submit a description of the scope of its national organization for plant protection and of changes in such organization to the director-general of FAO, who shall circulate such information to all Contracting Parties.

ARTICLE V

Phytosanitary certificates

1 - Each Contracting Party shall make arrangements for the issuance of phytosanitary certificates to accord with the plant protection regulations of other Contracting Parties, and in conformity with the following provisions:

2 - Each Contracting Party undertakes not to require consignments of plants or plant products imported into its territories to be accompanied by phytosanitary certificates inconsistent with the models set out in the annex to this Convention. Any requirement for additional declarations shall be kept to a minimum.

ARTICLE VI

Requirements in relation to imports

1 - With the aim of preventing the introduction of pests of plants and plant products into their territories, Contracting Parties shall have full authority to regulate the entry of plants and plant products and to this end may:

2 - In order to minimize interference with international trade, each Contracting Party undertakes to carry out the provisions referred to in paragraph 1 of this article in conformity with the following:

3 - The measures specified in this article shall not be applied to goods in transit throughout the territories of Contracting Parties unless such measures are necessary for the protection of their own plants.

4 - FAO shall disseminate information received on importation restrictions, requirements, prohibitions and regulations [as specified in paragraph 2, b), c) and d), of this article] at frequent intervals to all Contracting Parties and regional plant protection organizations.

ARTICLE VII

International cooperation

The Contracting Parties shall cooperate with one another to the fullest practicable extent in achieving the aims of this Convention, in particular as follows:

ii) Information on means found to be effective in controlling the pests of plants and plant products;

ARTICLE VIII

Regional plant protection organizations

1 - The Contracting Parties undertake to cooperate with one another in establishing regional plant protection organizations in appropriate areas.

2 - The regional plant protection organizations shall function as the coordinating bodies in the areas covered, shall participate in various activities to achieve the objectives of this Convention and, where appropriate, shall gather and disseminate information.

ARTICLE IX

Settlement of disputes

1 - If there is any dispute regarding the interpretation or application of this Convention, or if a Contracting Party considers that any action by another Contracting Party is in conflict with the obligations of the latter under articles V and VI of this Convention, especially regarding the basis of prohibiting or restricting the imports of plants or plant products coming from its territories, the government or governments concerned may request the director-general of FAO to appoint a committee to consider the question in dispute.

2 - The director-general of FAO shall thereupon, after consultation with the governments concerned, appoint a committee of experts which shall include representatives of those governments. This committee shall consider the question in dispute, taking into account all documents and other forms of evidence submitted by the governments concerned. This committee shall submit a report to the director-general of FAO, who shall transmit it to the governments concerned and to the governments of other Contracting Parties.

3 - The Contracting Parties agree that the recommendations of such a committee, while not binding in character, will become the basis for renewed consideration by the governments concerned of the matter out of which the disagreement arose.

4 - The governments concerned shall share equally the expenses of the experts.

ARTICLE X

Substitution of prior agreements

This Convention shall terminate and replace, between Contracting Parties, the International Convention respecting measures to be taken against the Phylloxera vastatrix of 3 November 1881, the additional Convention signed at Berne on 15 April 1889 and the International Convention for the Protection of Plants signed at Rome on 16 April 1929.

ARTICLE XI

Territorial application

1 - Any State may at the time of ratification or adherence or at any time thereafter communicate to the director-general of FAO a declaration that this Convention shall extend to all or any of the territories for the international relations of which it is responsible, and this Convention shall be applicable to all territories specified in the declaration as from the thirtieth day after the receipt of the declaration by the director-general.

2 - Any State which has communicated to the director-general of FAO a declaration in accordance with paragraph 1 of this article may at any time communicate a further declaration modifying the scope of any former declaration or terminating the application of the provisions of the present Convention in respect of any territory. Such modification or termination shall take effect as from the thirtieth day after the receipt of the declaration by the director-general.

3 - The director-general of FAO shall inform ail signatory and adhering States of any declaration received under this article.

ARTICLE XII

Ratification and adherence