[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 12 (Monday, March 27, 2000)]
[Page 615]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Senate Transmitting the International Plant Protection 
Convention With Documentation

March 23, 2000

To the Senate of the United States:

    With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to 
acceptance, I transmit herewith the revised International Plant 
Protection Convention (IPPC), adopted at the Conference of the Food and 
Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations at Rome on November 
17, 1997. In accordance with Article XIII of the existing IPPC, the 
revised text will enter into force for all contracting parties 30 days 
after acceptance by two-thirds of the contracting parties.
    The revisions are designed to bring the IPPC into line with modern 
practices and concepts, and to establish new mechanisms to promote the 
development and adoption of international phytosanitary standards.
    It is my hope that the Senate will give prompt and favorable 
consideration to this Convention, and give its advice and consent to 
acceptance by the United States, subject to the two proposed 
understandings set forth in the accompanying report, at the earliest 
possible date.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
March 23, 2000.