In December 2017, seventeen senior government officials signed a joint statement acknowledging the productive work of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) in building knowledge and capacity for developing countries in the area of pesticide maximum residue levels (MRLs).
STDF provided the funding for the USDA’s IR-4 Project to provide the direct training for each country involved. IR-4 trained the countries in how to conduct both field and laboratory trials under Good Laboratory Practices. The data from these trials was submitted to the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) with the ultimate goal of establishing new MRLs based on this data.