Dr. RALPH W. PHILLIPS
FAO/WHO CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION
Thirteenth Session
3–14 December, Plenary Hall, FAO
09.30 a.m. Monday, 3 December 1979
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have great pleasure in welcoming you to Rome, and to this Thirteenth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, on behalf of the Directors-General of FAO and WHO.
Since your last session - Botswana - has become a member of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, bringing the current membership to 117 countries. This large membership indicates the sustained and, indeed, growing interest of the Member Nations of FAO and WHO in the work of the Commission. May I take this opportunity to welcome particularly those representatives of members of the Commission who are participating in a session of the Commission for the first time.
Since the last session of the Commission Member Governments have continued to accept a steadily increasing number of the recommended Codex International Food Standards and the recommended Codex International Maximum Limits for Pesticide Residues. From the documents before the Commission concerning acceptance and action taken or being taken by Governments in regard to these, you will see that some 60 countries have now communicated their acceptance of a number of the international standards, including international pesticide residue limits, with a view to giving effect to these through their food legislation and regulations.
Although acceptances continue to be received and are on the increase, more progress needs to be made in this area. I hope, therefore, that delegates will be able to provide, during this session, further information on developments in their countries regarding acceptances of the standards and the international maximum limits for pesticide residues.
Since your last session more international standards and additional maximum limits for pesticide residues have been elaborated and these are before your present session for adoption by the Commission. Most of these will, we hope, be approved for issue to Governments for acceptance and implementation in their national legislation and regulations.
The aims of the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, namely the protection of consumers against possible health hazards in food and against commercial fraud, the ensuring of fair practices in the food trade, the promotion of the food industry and international trade by removing certain obstacles to trade in foods and stimulating opportunities to increase earnings from exports, are all matters of great interest to our Member Countries and are matters calling for the continuing spport of FAO and WHO. Some aspects of these subjects were extensively discussed in the FAO Conference last week, resulting in an important Resolution being adopted on international trade. That Resolution contains recommendations requesting countries to refrain from introducing any new non-tariff barriers to the imports of agricultural products and stresses the importance of elimintating existing non-tariff barriers on tropical products and other commodities of export interest particularly to developing countries. Your Commission has, since its outset, endeavoured to solve some of these difficulties through the harmonization on an international level of requirements for foods in the health, compositional and safety areas.
The meetings of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and its subsidiary bodies provide worldwide and regional fora for discussions of these matters and for arriving at solutions that have a wide measure of general acceptability. The Commission's international standards and codes of practice, together with other recommendations in the health field, represent the endproduct of a considerable investment of scientific, technical and legal knowledge, intergovernmental negotiation, and consultation among the representatives of governments, consumers and industry. Due emphasis has been placed, in the GATT “Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade”, on the contribution which international standardization can make to the transfer of technology from developed to developing countries. In particular the standards of the Codex Alimentarius Commission have been commended to signatories of the “Agreement” as important means of international harmonization to reduce technical barriers to trade in foods. Similarly, economic groupings such as the European Economic Community, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the Latin American Free Trade Association, the Arab Standards and Metrology Organization, the African Regional Standards Organization, and various other bodies, are making use of Codex standards and recommendations at the regional or group-of-countries level for health and trade purposes.
The work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is, of course, for the benefit of all the Member Nations of FAO and WHO. Some Member Nations are, however, less well equipped than others to derive full benefit from the work of the Commission. These less well equipped countries need technical advise and assistance to enable them to strengthen their capabilities to ensure better food handling, control, quality and safety, and to implement, as far as feasible in their own circumstances, the Commission's recommendations. WHO, through its food safety activities, and FAO through its projects on food control and consumer protection, play a very important role in providing such assistance, which is complementary to and furthers the work of the Commission.
I do not propose, Mr. Chairman, to go into any detail regarding the important complementary activities of FAO and WHO, as during the course of the session you will be hearing about these and other activities of the two Organizations which have relevance for the work of the Commission. I would, however, like to refer to work accomplished since your last session in two main fields of activity which, I believe, are of particular interest to you, namely food safety and food quality control. The FAO/WHO International Food and Animal Feed Contaminants Monitoring Programme was expanded to cover more developing countries. First series of data were collected and reviewed at the first meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Programme. An FAO/ WHO/UNEP International Conference on Mycotoxins was held. A number of manuals and guidelines were prepared on food inspection, on control of quality of foods for export, and on chemical and microbiological analysis of foods. Work on the safety evaluation of food additives and contaminants was continued by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. In consultation with WHO, a Consultation on Food Control Strategy was held by FAO which made recommendations on strengthening national food control systems, and on strategies for areas at different levels of development. Technical assistance in food quality control continued to receive emphasis, projects were instituted or continued in 19 countries, and needs were surveyed and assessed in a number of other countries. The projects included assistance in strengthening food legislation, establishing or strengthening laboratories, and introducing monitoring programmes to assess and control contamination in food supplies. National institutions from developing countries were utilized in carrying out several global or regional training activities.
Turning now to matters of general policy, it is particularly gratifying to note that the Commission is turning its attention more and more to the needs of developing countries. This is in accord with a recommendation of the FAO Conference in 1977 and is, in fact, a continuation of a trend that has been in evidence for several years. Also, it is a trend that has been welcomed by the FAO Council and the Programme Committee, and by the World Health Assembly. These bodies have approved the policy and work orientation, and have agreed upon the need for assessment of the economic impact of international food standards. The FAO Council in particular stressed the value of the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission to all countries and, in view of the importance of this work within the overall context of nutritional improvement, food production and food trade, decided to follow general policy trends within the Commission. The 20th Session of the FAO Conference, which ended last week, also devoted time to consideration of food standards matters and the work of the Commission. You will be provided with extracts of the Report of the Conference and I anticipate that your Chairman, who attended the Session, will be reporting to you fully on the outcome of the Conterence's deliberations.
Very encouraging developments have taken place regarding some of the Commission's regional activities since the last session of the Commission. The Coordinating Committee for Asia held its second session in March 1979 in Manila. That session was kindly hosted by the Government of the Philippines. The work of the Committee continued to make very good progress. As will be seen from its Report, the Committee had extensive discussions on how to promote the exports of the region and gave very careful attention to how best to serve the interests of the region in the development of food control, training and technical assistance and cooperation among the countries of the region. It drew up a comprehensive programme of future work and outlined its priorities.
The Fourth Session of the Coordinating Committee for Africa was held in Dakar in September 1979 and was kindly hosted by the Government of Senegal. This Committee continues to make good progress in its work, particularly in advancing the use of the model food law in the region, in its review of food control facilities, and in elaborating standards for products of interest to the region, such as maize and other staple items.
A Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Regional Conference for Latin America was held in September 1978, hosted by the Government of Mexico. This was the Third Regional Conference of its type. The previous two were Regional Conferences for Africa and Asia. This Conference was a great success. It was the first major intergovernmental conference in the region on matters relating to food legislation, control systems, the identification of food standards needs to facilitate intra-regional trade which at present encounters widely differing national legislative requirements. Emphasis was placed on products of traditional interest to the Latin American countries and on items of special interest to countries of the region for the future work of the Coordinating Committee for Latin America, which will hold its Second Session in the next biennium.
All these activities are intended to provide intergovernmental fora for greater and more active participation by developing countries in the work of the Commission, and are directed principally to food legislation, food quality control and food safety needs of Africa, Asia and Latin America. I believe, Mr. Chairman, that I ought to mention, while on the topic of the Commission turning its attention increasingly to the needs of developing countries, that, in fact, several of the long established Codex Committees have, for some years, been developing standards and codes of practice of particular interest to a considerable number of developing countries. The Codex Committees on Food Hygiene, Fats and Oils, Fish and Fishery Products, and Processed Fruits and Vegetables are examples of this. The two new Codex Committees on Cereals and Cereal Products, and on Vegetable Proteins should also make valuable contributions in the regard. During the recent FAO Conference a number of developing countries interested in furthering their food export interests asked for more assistance to be provided to them on questions of food processing, handling, packaging, etc., to meet the requirements of international standards and markets. It is hoped to introduce more of this type of advice and assistance to countries in our food quality control projects and programmes for increased technical cooperation among developing countries.
Mr. Chairman, the Commission has a heavy agenda before it and I do not wish to take an undue amount of your time. However, I would like to refer very briefly to some of the items on your agenda.
First, it is a very healthy sign indeed that the Commission should continue to review the direction of its work to see whether all of it responds adequately to the present needs of Member Governments and to consider whether further shifts in emphasis or changes in priorities are desirable. In this context, perhaps some of the Commission's procedures might be re-examined to see whether more expeditious means might not be developed for the elaboration of standards. Both FAO and WHO would be interested in seeing such a re-examination.
Secondly, FAO and WHO are also interested in having the Commission's views on how increased emphasis could be placed on nutritional considerations in the work of the Commission and its subsidiary bodies. Dr. Sabry, the new Director of the FAO Food Policy and Nutrition Division will be introducing this item of your agenda.
Thirdly, WHO is in the process of setting up, at the request of the World Health Assembly, an international programme on chemical safety. As you know, FAO and WHO have worked together on food additives, pesticides, contaminants and standards for many years. WHO has approached FAO, and two other organizations in the United Nations system, to participate in this new programme. It is a programme which will be of major importance to the work of the Commission. Therefore, Dr. Vouk, of the Environmental Health Division of WHO, has been invited to make a presentation to you of the main features of the programme. We shall be interested in the views of the Commission, so that they may be taken into account in FAO's response to WHO.
Two other matters of great interest arise from the work of the Codex Committee on General Principles. The first is the proposed mechanism for the examination of statements as to possible economic impact of standards. The FAO Conference, Council and Programme Committee are very concerned that the Commission should adopt satisfactory procedures. Secondly, the “Code of Ethics for the International Trade in Foods”, which is before you, is of immense importance to all countries, especially those countries importing foods without the proper means to check their quality or safety. It is hoped that the Commission will be able to adopt the Code at this session.
Finally, with regard to your agends, I can give you positive news concerning the budget for the Commission's work during 1980/81. This was approved by both the World Health Assembly and the FAO Conference.
Before closing I should like to make three additional points.
First, let me take this opportunity to express the appreciation of FAO and WHO to those Governments which have so generously hosted sessions of the Commission's subsidiary bodies since the last session of the Commission.
Secondly, I should like to inject a brief personal note. I am particularly pleased to be able to meet with you once again at the opening of this session of the Commission, because I have been associated in various capacities with the Commission's work from its early beginnings in 1961, when the FAO Conference took the formal action, on the FAO side to establish the Commission. So, I can claim a rather long-standing association with Codex Alimentarius activities, and I am pleased to see that they are growing and prospering.
Thirdly, I should like to express to you, Mr. Chairman, the appreciation of FAO and WHO for all the devoted efforts you have given to the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. All the members of the Commission realize you will be retiring from the chair at the end of this session, but perhaps few know that at the end of the year you retire from your post as Head of the Swiss Federal Food Control Service. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank you and I am sure I express, on behalf of all the members of the Commission and its Secretariat, sincere and best wishes to you and Madame Matthey for a long and happy retirement.
Finally, it only remains for me to wish you all a pleasant stay in Rome, and a most successful session of the Commission.
