47. The Committee noted that since its establishment the CCNASWP had made significant progress in extending membership in the Region. It also noted that there was support for efforts to encourage membership from the four eligible remaining countries of the Region (Marshall Islands, Niue, Palau, and Tuvulu). In this regard, the Committee noted that Australia and New Zealand had invested heavily in developing Codex capacity in countries of the Region.
48. In addition to the written comments received, Australia drew the attention of the Committee to a risk-based framework it had developed for determining priorities in the work of Codex. New Zealand noted that its revised Strategic Policy Framework on Codex should be available early in 2001. In this regard, Canada also noted one of the important objectives for its Codex programme was to strengthen Canada’s relationship with other Codex member countries and to promote consensual decision-making and problem solving within Codex.
49. The delegation of Tonga informed the Committee that their main activity had been to create a national Codex committee, chaired by its Prime Minister with Ministerial representation from other relevant government agencies, industry and other NGOs. This had been a key outcome of a Workshop on the Administration of the national Codex committee that was facilitated by the FAO in November 1998. Further technical assistance would enable Tonga to review its national food standards, to identify areas of training in the use of Codex standards, and to adapt Codex Guidelines for organic foods to the national situation.
50. The delegate from Vanuatu noted that the Codex Contact Point had identified as priorities the establishment of a high level national Codex committee, inspection of imported foods, development of an Memorandum of Understanding with all Ministers responsible for food safety, designing an education programme for schools on food safety, development of technical capacity for food safety and quality assurance, and identifying testing facilities and future testing needs.
51. The Committee strongly supported efforts of the FAO and the WHO to facilitate food safety capacity building programmes within the Region and emphasized the need for these organizations to strengthen their collaborative efforts in the provision of technical assistance to countries in the Region.
