EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Commission:

a) Adopted amendments to the Rules of Procedure concerning the membership of Regional Economic Integration Organizations, and on consensus;

b) Adopted 59 new or revised Codex standards or related texts, including Principles and Guidelines for the food safety assessment of foods derived from biotechnology;

c) Adopted Principles for Food Safety Risk Analysis to be used in the Codex framework;

d) Approved most of the proposals submitted by the Secretariat for the implementation of the recommendations of the Joint FAO/WHO Evaluation of Codex Alimentarius, enacting some immediately and requesting the Codex Committee on General Principles to act in special session to draft the Rules required to implement others. In this regard the Commission agreed to:-

• Meet annually for the next two years, but that in future each session of the Commission would decide the interval between meetings;

• Request the Executive Committee to meet on a six-monthly basis;

• Review the structures and mandates of all Codex committees by 2004;

• Enlarge the Executive Committee by appointing the Regional Coordinators (currently observers) as Members;

• Establish the Executive Committee as the body responsible for standards management;

• Develop improved processes for standards management and monitoring;

• Consider the admission of observers in Executive Committee meetings;

• Review the principles governing observer participation in Codex; and

• Strengthen cooperation with OIE.

e) Welcomed progress made on the FAO/WHO Trust Fund for Participation of Developing Countries in Codex Standard Setting Procedures and expressed the hope that it would soon become operational;

f) Note the need for timely scientific advice from FAO and WHO on a wide range of issues, but also noted that the Commission (through its Executive Committee) needed to prioritize the requests for such advice;

g) Expressed appreciation to FAO and WHO for their positive responses in budgetary terms to the outcome of the FAO/WHO Evaluation of Codex, but stated that more was required to strengthen and improve the seniority of the Codex Secretariat;

h) Elected the following officers and Members of the Executive Committee:

• Chairperson: Stuart Slorach (Sweden)

• Vicechairpersons: Paul Mayers (Canada), Claude Mosha (Tanzania), Hiroshi Yoshikura (Japan)

• Executive Committee: Cameroon, Philippines, Mexico, Belgium, Egypt, USA, Australia

• Regional Coordinators: Morocco, Republic of Korea, Slovak Republic, Argentina, Jordan, Samoa^[1]