4. The Committee noted general matters of interest arising from the 23rd Session (July 1999) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and the 47th Session (June 2000) of the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CCEXEC). These matters included: the CAC Medium-Term Plan; Amendments to the Procedural Manual of the Codex Alimentarius Commission; Recommendations of the International Conference on Food Trade Beyond 2000: Science-Based Decisions, Harmonization, Equivalence and Mutual Recognition (the “Melbourne Conference”); meetings of the Codex Alimentarius Commission; and, Coordination Between Committees: Handling of Work in a Sequential Manner.
Medium-Term Plan
5. The Committee was informed that the 23rd Session of the CAC discussed the Medium-Term Plan 1998-2002 and adopted a revised version of the document[3]. The Commission agreed that the preparation of the subsequent Medium-Term Plan (2003-2007) should be initiated rapidly and a Circular Letter[4] to this effect was sent to governments with a view to considering this matter in the next Session of the CCEXEC.
6. The 47th Session of the CCEXEC discussed the preparation of the Medium-Term Plan and invited a small group consisting of the Chairperson and Vice-Chairpersons together with the Secretariat to prepare a draft of the Medium-Term plan 2003-2007 and to develop a strategic statement of the Commission’s vision for the future for consideration by the next session of the Commission. It also decided to request the opinions of the Regional Committees[5].
7. In addition, the Committee noted that the 47th Session of the CCEXEC considered an Action Plan proposed by the Chairperson of the Commission which primarily responded to the challenges facing Codex. The CCEXEC recommended that elements of the Chairperson’s Action Plan be incorporated into the Medium-Term Plan 2003-2007 as appropriate. However, as the Action Plan contained other issues of a more immediate nature, the CCEXEC agreed that the Action Plan should be revised on the basis of its discussions and circulated to governments for comments as well as to the Coordinating Committees for their input[6].
8. The Codex Secretariat clarified that the revision of the Chairperson’s Action Plan had not been completed to date and therefore, in the interest of transparency and equitable treatment of the views of all interested parties, the Codex Secretariat was of the opinion that the CCNASWP should not discuss the Action Plan at the current meeting.
9. The delegation of the United States noted that it would be difficult for the Committee to respond to the CCEXEC request to comment on the Medium-Term Plan in the absence of the Action Plan. It was also clarified that the Action Plan being proposed for consideration by the CCNASWP was exactly the same as the document discussed at the 47th CCEXEC (i.e., CCEXEC/CRD 3). The Committee therefore agreed that the current draft of the Chairperson’s Action Plan should be considered in conjunction with the Medium-Term Plan under Other Business and Future Work (see Agenda Item 11).
Recommendations of the “Melbourne Conference”
10. The 47th Session of the CCEXEC noted[7] with satisfaction the Conference's appreciation of the work of the Commission and its fullest support to the current direction of its work. The CCEXEC further noted that the vast majority of the "General Recommendations" contained in Annex I were addressed to Member Governments and/or FAO and WHO. It noted that several of these recommendations would need to be considered in the development of the Medium-Term Plan. On recommendations 10 and 14, the CCEXEC recognised the importance of risk communication for Codex and the need to explore strategies to collect information from all regions of the world about consumer requirements, perceptions, beliefs, and motivations concerning food, nutrition and food safety. It agreed that the matter should be discussed at the Codex Regional Committees and that the Secretariat should explore ways of conducting a pilot study for generating such information. The CCEXEC noted that several countries and organizations have conducted studies in this field and suggested that a literature review be made on the subject by the Secretariat.
11. The CCNASWP agreed to discuss the request of the 47th CCEXEC related to risk communication under Agenda Item 5 (Report on Activities Related to Risk Analysis in Codex and Other Bodies).
Coordination Between Committees: Handling of Work in a Sequential Manner
12. At the 47th Session of the CCEXEC, the Representative of North America raised the problem of the progression of work in one committee when consultation with another committee was required and the frequency of meetings of these committees was different. The work being undertaken on certain high priority items by the Committee on Food Labelling and the Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses was cited as an example. In this case, the former Committee met on an annual basis and the latter met at 18 month or longer intervals.
13. The CCEXEC recommended[8] that in this particular case, consideration should be given to annual meetings of both Committees, with reasonable intervals between meetings so as to allow consideration of the information that was being exchanged between the two Committees. This could be followed at least until such time as the common work was concluded. The Committees might give consideration, if required, to a special joint session to discuss specific issues.
14. The CCNASWP expressed its appreciation for recent efforts by the Codex Secretariat and the Host Governments for the Codex Committees on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (Germany) and the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (Canada) in arriving at a more reasonable time interval between the meetings (November 2001 and April 2002, respectively). The Committee strongly supported future efforts in the timing of Codex meetings so that issues of common work might be progressed more efficiently.
