136) The Committee recalled that the last session had discussed the essential elements to be included in the certificate and agreed that the Delegations of Norway and Canada should proceed with their work in this area. The Committee noted that the Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems had forwarded to Step 5 Proposed Draft General Guidelines for Generic official Certificate Formats and the Production and Issuance of Certificates, which would provide useful guidance in the current work on fishery products. However, the CCFICS would not be working on the establishment of model certificates covering the requirements for specific commodities.
137) The Delegation of Norway, supported by other delegations, stressed the difficulties faced by exporting countries due to the multiplicity of certificates from one importing country to another. In order to solve this problem, it would be desirable to develop a standard certificate that could refer to Codex standards and Codes of Practice.
138) Some delegations and the Observer from the EC expressed the view that the certificate should not be too generic in practice, but needed to refer to the requirements of the importing country since the exporter had to comply with the legislation of the country of destination. In addition, the importing country had to take into account the specific situation in the exporting country.
139) Some delegations pointed out that the Attestation section should be further developed, that the reference to laboratories could be taken into account, and that the need for certificates covering specific requirements should further discussed. Several countries informed the Committee of their experience in the harmonization of requirements and certificates and proposed to contribute to the work in this area.
Status of the Proposed Draft Model Certificate for Fish and Fishery Products
140) The Committee noted that the document had not been circulated for comments due to time constraints and agreed that it should be circulated at Step 3 for comments[13]. Governments were invited to provide comments especially on the Attestation section and the certification requirements, to allow the Delegations of Norway and Canada, with the assistance of interested countries, to revise the text for consideration by the next session if necessary.
