65. The Executive Committee at its tenth session had recommended that the officers of the Executive Committee representing geographic locations should remain in office until the end of the second session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission which followed the session at which they were elected. Similar arrangements already existed regarding the offices for the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen in order to ensure that at no time official posts of the Commission would be vacant.
66. The text of the new Rule III.1 of the Rules of Procedure is as follows (new parts are underlined and deleted parts are in square brackets):
“The Executive Committee shall consist of the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the Commission, together with six further members, elected by the Commission at regular sessions from among the Members of the Commission, one each coming from the following geographic locations: Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, South-West Pacific; it being understood that not more than one delegate from any one country shall be a member of the Executive Committee.
[Elected members] Members elected on a geographic basis shall hold office [for two years] from the end of the session of session of the Commission at which they were elected until the end of the second succeeding regular session and shall be eligible for re-election, but after having served two [successive] consecutive terms shall be ineligible to hold such office for the next succeeding term.”
67. A consequential amendment would also have to be made in Rule II.1, line 7, where the word “regular” would have to be inserted between the words “following” and “session”. The Commission agreed to the amendments set out above.
68. At its eleventh session, the Executive Committee had examined a request by the Canadian delegation concerning the way in which a formal amendment to the Rules of Procedure regarding regional standards could be made during the Commission session (see paragraph 11 of Appendix III to this Report).
69. In support of the proposal the Canadian delegation drew attention to the purposes of the Codex Alimentarius as set out in the General Principles which aimed at ensuring fair practices in the food trade and facilitating international trade. The Canadian delegation pointed to the possibility that standards developed on a regional basis for commodities which in fact moved in world trade might operate in restriction of international trade.
70. During the course of the discussions, the Canadian delegation pointed out that certain clarifications were needed with regard to the use of the expressions “countries constituting a given region”, “group of countries specifically enumerated by the Commission”, “geographic locations”. The Commission recommended:
that the Canadian proposal for the amendment of Rule VI.3 should be sent to governments for comments and should be considered at the next session of the Commission in the light of these comments;
that the Executive Committee should, at its next session, examine the Canadian proposal and also the matters referred to above concerning the expressions “regions”, “group of countries” etc. and submit its views and any proposals for amendment of the Rules of Procedure to the Commission at its next session.
71. The text of the new proposed Rule VI.3 submitted by the delegation of Canada reads as follows:
“At the request of a majority of countries from a geographic location described under Rule III.1, a regional standard for a food or foods produced exclusively and consumed mainly within that geographic location shall be elaborated. When a vote is taken on the elaboration, amendment or adoption of a regional standard, only Members belonging to the geographic location for which the standard is intended shall be eligible to vote. The adoption of the standard may, however, take place only after submission of the draft text to all Members of the Commission for comments. The provisions of this paragraph shall not prejudice the elaboration or adoption of a corresponding standard with a different territorial scope.”
72. The Cuban delegation reserved its position concerning the need for regional standards for the following reasons:
Regional standards could be justified only in the case of foods produced in a region and consumed there exclusively.
The number of products which would be covered by a regional standard would be so small that it would not warrant work by a regional group of countries, within the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
Any draft regional standard regarding foods also produced and consumed outside the region concerned could only lead to disturbances in the international trade in such products.
Cuba would be willing to collaborate on any draft standard, even where it concerned products which it did not itself produce, in order to promote world-wide standardization.
