The EU member states in the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health supported, on 3 April, the European Commission’s proposal to lift the restrictions on import of fresh poultry meat from Thailand from 1 July 2012. The Commission had adopted protection measures in early 2004 to suspend imports  following outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza of the H5N1 subtype (HPAI H5N1). In response to the original protection measures, Thailand implemented a rigorous policy to stamp out the pathogen. Commission experts carried out several inspection missions in Thailand to evaluate the measures, which had been put in place and the outcome of the last mission, in March 2011, showed that Thailand can provide sufficient guarantees to comply with the EU import requirements for poultry meat.