Risk Assessment On Typical Wood Boring Insects Associated With Solid Wood Packing Materials From China To The United States

The potential risk imposed by insects has been gradually recognized along with the development of international trade. In recent years, the United States of American and European Union have taken special measures for pathway of Solid Wood Packing Materials (SWPM) from China because China is the major distribution area of Anoplophora glabripennis (Motsoh.), resulting in tremendous economic losses. After the Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packing Material in International Trade (International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures No.15 ) was released, pest risk assessment related to SWPM has brought extensive attention in public. Only second to European Union, U.S. has been the primary trade partner with China. Therefore, it is imperative to break up non-tariff technical barriers, and to protect domestic export trade. It is of significant importance, both theoretically and practically, to carry out pest risk assessment associated with SWPM for dealing with unilateral trade issues.Five woodborers, i.e., Anoplophora chinensis (F?rster), Apriona germari (Hope), Monochamus alternatus Hope, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, and Ips subelongatus Motschulsky, were selected as representative species for the risk assessment. These species were selected based on information related to the pathway of SWPM, tree species used for making SWPM as well as characteristics of woodborers associated with SWPM pathway. Factors related to these woodborers such as the biology, distribution, degree of consensus, and ports interception data were also taken into consideration. The main conclusions of the risk assessment are as follows:(1) For the first timein risk assessment of SWPM from China, environmental and...