8. The 7th Session of the CCFICS agreed that Mexico, with the assistance of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa and the United States, would redraft and restructure the proposed draft Guidelines/Recommendations for circulation and comment at Step 3 and consideration at its current meeting.[7]
9. Mexico indicated that the proposed draft Guidelines were intended to specify the elements, administration and management of food import control systems and to provide guidance on their implementation. Noting the importance of effective food import control systems to help ensure the quality and safety of food and facilitation of international trade, the Committee thanked Mexico and other countries participating in the drafting of the document and reviewed the revised text in detail. Among the changes to the text to which the Committee agreed were the following:
TITLE
10. The Committee decided to amend the title of the paper to read as Codex Guidelines for Food Import Control Systems in accordance with its terms of reference.
SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION
11. The Committee revised the text to indicate that the Guidelines applied to both food safety and other standards while ensuring fair practices in food trade.
SECTION 2 - SCOPE
12. It was agreed to include the phrase "without introducing unjustified technical barriers to trade" at the end of paragraph 2 to better address both concepts of consumer protection and trade facilitation.
13. The Committee agreed to delete paragraph 3 as the concept of "appropriate level of protection" was already covered by other sections of the Guidelines.
SECTION 3 - DEFINITIONS
14. The Committee agreed to delete the terms Appropriate level of protection, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA). The Committee deleted the second sentence of the definition for Certification as it constituted a description rather than a definition of the process.
15. The Committee aligned the definitions for Risk management and Risk communication as per recent revisions to these terms adopted by the 23rd Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
16. The Committee agreed that the need for definitions for Licensing, Laboratory Accreditation and Quality systems would be referred to the drafting group (see para. 31).
SECTION 4 - ELEMENTS OF AN IMPORT FOOD CONTROL SYSTEM
4.3 - Regulations and standards
17. The Committee agreed to retain the first sentence of this section so as to emphasize that imported food standards should not be more rigorous than domestic standards that provide the appropriate level of protection. The second and third sentences of this section were deleted to eliminate redundancies.
4.5 - Administrative requirements
18. The Committee agreed that "other resources" should be added to those requirements (facilities and equipment) necessary to operate the programme. The Committee also agreed to add storage capacity and access to updated documentation of regulatory requirements to the list of facilities, equipment and other resources.
SECTION 5 - MANAGEMENT OF THE FOOD CONTROL SYSTEM ELEMENTS
5.1 - Risk analysis
19. The Committee agreed to delete this section in its entirety as the concept of risk analysis was adequately covered in other Codex texts and because the issue of minimizing undue delay at the port of entry would be addressed in other relevant sections.
5.2 - Application of performance history in inspection
20. The Committee agreed to change the title of this sub-section to "Frequency and type of inspection" to better reflect its contents. It agreed to merge paragraphs 21 and 22 into one paragraph and to amend the following bullet points:
and to introduce the following text in new points:
21. The Committee agreed to delete paragraph 23 with the understanding that the content of the paragraph would be duly covered by paragraph 33.
5.3 - Point of control
22. The Committee agreed to clarify this section to indicate that control of imported food could be conducted at one or more points in the food chain. The Committee noted the need to clarify the question of the application of controls prior to export.
5.4 - Recognition of foreign food export controls
23. The Committee revised the title of this section to read as "Recognition of exporting country food controls" and made consequential minor amendments to the text.
5.5 - Data exchange
24. The Committee noted that the Codex Guidelines for the Exchange of Information between Countries on Rejections of Imported Foods provided adequate information on the nature of data to be exchanged. However, the Committee refined and added to the list of data that may be exchanged between the competent authorities of trading countries.
SECTION 6 - OPERATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF FOOD IMPORT CONTROL SYSTEMS
6.1 - Details of the food import programme operation
25. The Committee agreed to delete the two bullet points of paragraph 33 as their content was already covered by the Codex Guidelines for the Design, Operation, Assessment and Accreditation of Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems. It further agreed to add the phrase "so as to avoid undue delay in clearance of products at the point of importation" at the end of paragraph 34.
26. The Committee modified the bullet points presented and agreed to add an additional point concerning "destination" to paragraph 36.
27. The Committee modified paragraph 38 to clarify that the inspection of products from sources with no compliance history or with a poor compliance history should be set at a higher intensity than products from other sources. It was also clarified that inspection procedures could be developed to automatically detain products from suppliers with a known poor compliance history.
28. The Committee agreed to:
OTHER ISSUES
4.1 - Aims and priorities
4.2 - Legal framework
29. Following extensive discussions, the Committee referred Sections 4.1 and 4.2 to an informal drafting group for consideration. The Committee continued its discussions on the revised draft of these sections on the basis of a paper prepared by the informal working group. As the Committee could not reach agreement on the revised Sections 4.1 and 4.2, it was decided to consider these sections in greater detail at its next Session.
Status of the proposed draft Codex Guidelines for Food Import Control Systems
30. Although the Committee had extensive discussions on the proposed draft Guidelines, it could not reach the necessary level of agreement to forward the text to the Executive Committee for adoption at Step 5.
31. The Committee therefore decided that a revised first draft of the proposed draft Guidelines would initially be prepared by the Secretariat with a view towards its consideration by a drafting group consisting of Australia, Canada, France, India, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Committee decided that the drafting group would take into account the discussions at the present meeting, written comments submitted and the proposed revisions to Sections 4.1 and 4.2 presented by the informal drafting group.
32. The Committee further agreed that the revised proposed draft Guidelines for Food Import Control Systems would be circulated for comment at Step 3 and further consideration at its 9th meeting.
