The Surveillance Unit

In fulfilment of Trinidad and Tobago’s obligation as a Member of the WTO and adherence to the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, under the article on Transparency a Surveillance Unit was established. The Surveillance Unit facilitates transparency in international trade whilst protecting Trinidad and Tobago biodiversity to fulfill obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures.

It protects Trinidad and Tobago biodiversity by monitoring the presence, distribution and population changes of pest of quarantine/economic importance, alien invasive species and natural enemies of pests. It provides information to the Pest Risk Analysis Unit, Plant Quarantine Service, Entomology Unit and Plant Pathology Unit to inform on pest presence and prevalence, pest outbreaks, spread of pests, pest free areas, areas of low pest prevalence, pest management strategies, national pest list, and records data to support phytosanitary certification and the technical justification of their phytosanitary measures in fulfillment of Trinidad and Tobago’s obligations as a signatory to the WTO SPS Agreement. It utilizes staff from all units and is coordinated by the Deputy Director and an AO I.