A side event to the 47th session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, organized by the Codex Alimentarius Secretariat and held on Friday 29 November, explored the different ways in which Codex texts are understood to facilitate fair practices in the food trade.

The seven-person panel that, Codex Secretary Sarah Cahill observed in her opening remarks to the event, was entirely made up of Codex observers, considered whether and how Codex does in fact facilitate fair practices in the food trade.

The moderator, Giuseppe Di Chiera of the Codex Secretariat, kicked off the session by asking “does Codex facilitate fair practices in the food trade?” The question went to Camille Fléchet, Dispute Settlement Lawyer, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Section, Agriculture and Commodities Division, World Trade Organization (WTO). “Yes!” she answered. She explained that since the establishment of the WTO, and the Agreement of Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures (SPS Agreement), in 1995, Codex and WTO “have been on a journey together,” as Codex standards are the reference standards for food under the SPS Agreement. “Codex is a key tool for the WTO,” said Fléchet. She explained that under the WTO notification system, Members notify WTO about proposed SPS regulations and whether or not these align with international standards. In the case of regulations relating to food, this means countries should notify WTO whether they are using Codex standards or not. “We have seen over time that the notifications have gone up. There are now 2000 notifications per year. Half relate to food safety. Half of those reference Codex standards.”

Erik Wijkström, Counsellor, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee, Trade and Environment Division, WTO, was asked the same question. He said that while Codex is only indirectly referenced under the TBT Agreement, it is clear that it has made a big difference. “A lot in the trade community did not know about Codex in 1995,” he said. “The references under SPS and TBT have increased the importance of Codex.”

Marlynne Hopper, Acting Head, Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) was asked about the importance of Codex to the work of the STDF. She explained that STDF, which is a global partnership involving FAO, the World Bank, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), WHO and WTO, supports developing countries to implement Codex standards with the aim of facilitating the safe and fair trade in food. She described STDF projects in Africa, Asia and the Latin America and the Caribbean regions. These have supported the collection of data to support maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides used on specific crops in the Africa region, for example, and a pilot project aimed at supporting the implementation of Codex Principles and guidelines for the assessment and use of voluntary third-party assurance programmes (CXG 93-2021).

John Oppong-Otoo, Coordinator Economics, Trade and Marketing Unit/Food Safety Officer, African Union (AU-IBAR) explained that Codex standards are a vital underpinning to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), established in 2018. He also pointed out that the Coordinating Committee for Africa (CCAFRICA) Guidelines for Developing Harmonized Food Safety Legislation for the CCAFRICA Region (CXG 98-2022) are an important reference, and that more generally, food safety is an integral part of the vision of the African Union, and Codex standards are referenced in order to achieve that vision. Across the continent, African nations are referencing Codex standards as they develop and update their food safety legislation, and farmers use standards Codex has developed to ensure some of Africa’s most traded commodities, such as cocoa, coffee, tea and fresh fruits and vegetables, meet international standards.

Ana Marisa Cordero Peña, Technical Specialist, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) shared some lessons learned from experiences in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, where IICA works to promote agricultural development through technical cooperation linked to agricultural health and food safety. This includes promoting the harmonization of standards and updating and implementing SPS-related regulations. IICA supports its members in effective participation of “strategically important” international bodies such as Codex. IICA has worked with STDF on the above-mentioned pilot project to implement voluntary 3rd party assurance programmes in central America for Belize and Honduras. The first lesson highlights the importance of the existence of a transparent regulatory framework under the food control system internationally, in order to build trust and manage risk via the development of policies and guidelines within countries. Another lesson suggests that one single model is not appropriate for different contexts and demonstrates a need to adapt models to different local conditions. Experiences also highlight the importance of equivalence and incorporating this within the risk-based inspection model for food industries.

Fanny Yago-Wienne, Director of Nutrition Advocacy, Helen Keller International (HKI), outlined the interest her organization has in foods for special dietary uses, and explained that infants and young children are among the most vulnerable. Micronutrients, she said, are of the utmost importance for this age group and are fundamental to both physical and brain development. She reminded attendees that HKI contributed to Codex’s work on foods for infants and young children. She also reminded attendees that 140 million children in the world are nutrition insecure, and also pointed to the importance of Codex’s work on ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), which are targeted at severely malnourished children. She underlined that the market for RUTF is, rightly, well-regulated. She also cautioned that it is important to ensure infants and young children are not fed sugar. In reiterating her view that Codex work is important in safeguarding the health of infants, she commended the agreement by CAC47 to take on new work on a standard for foods for older infants and young children.

Finally, Jean-Christophe Kremer, Secretary-General, International Special Dietary Foods Federation (ISDI) picked up on some of the comments made by the previous speaker. As a representative of the special dietary foods industry, he recognized the importance of the Codex texts to which Yago-Wienne referred. He pointed out that it is preferable that such foods are produced locally, but that this is not always possible due to a lack of technical capacities or raw materials. This is where Codex standards become vitally important. For this reason, Codex standards are shared and discussed among ISDI members. He noted that in some cases, Codex standards have not been updated in many years and, while that fact does provide some consistency to industry, they would nonetheless benefit from updates in line with evolving technologies and materials used within industry.

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CAC47 webpage