Explanatory documents for International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) are produced as a result of a decision of the Interim Commission on Phytosanitary Measures in 2004.
They are written to provide supporting information for the standard to which they refer and are not an official legal interpretation of the IPPC or its related documents, and are produced for public information purposes only.
Each document is written by an expert, reviewed by at least two peers (usually from the Expert Working Group concerned), then reviewed by the Standards Committee and the IPPC Secretariat. However, the material presented in explanatory documents remains the opinion of the writer and cannot be interpreted as a decision of the CPM.