Appendix II
MEDIUM-TERM PLAN FOR 1998 TO 2002

General Approaches and Issues

1. The general approach taken in the preparation of the Medium-Term Plan for the period realistically takes into account the financial situations facing the parent organizations and the UN system-wide desire for simplification and streamlining of existing structures. The emphasis on horizontal issues laid down by the Commission in recent years provides a satisfactory basis for this streamlining. Overall improvements in the procedures for decision-making and the acceptance of standards and related texts will be developed.

2. The world's food security needs stretching into the mid-21^st Century were the focus of the World Food Summit, Rome, November 1996. The International Conference on Nutrition, 1992, stressed the importance of improved food quality and safety as a means of improving nutrition. The efficient use of sustainable agricultural resources and improvements in agricultural production efficiencies and food processing and marketing practices by all available safe technologies must be assured. In the Medium-Term, therefore, high priority should be given to science-based standards, guidelines and other recommendations aimed at enhancing protection of consumers' health and removing unjustified impediments to trade in food produced and marketed by such means. Nevertheless, buyers who wish to have access to foods produced or processed by alternative methods should have adequate information and assurances that such alternative conditions have indeed been applied. Labelling and certification procedures for such alternative products may need to be considered in parallel with the development of guidelines for new production and processing technologies for mainstream food products, where these are deemed necessary.

3. Among other general issues which are included, the integration of risk analysis principles into the Codex decision-making process should be completed in the period by introducing necessary changes to the Procedures for the Elaboration of Codex Standards and Related Texts, the General Principles of the Codex Alimentarius, and the Criteria for the Establishment of Work Priorities. Specific guidance on the application of risk analysis principles should be provided to Codex Committees on one hand and to Member Governments on the other: the former guidance to be included in the Procedural Manual, the latter in the Codex Alimentarius itself. The challenges facing developing countries in applying risk analysis principles will need to be taken into consideration. Guidance will be developed for the identification, management, application and interpretation of legitimate factors other than science relevant to the health protection of consumers and for the promotion of fair practices in the food trade. Risk communication principles will be incorporated into the risk analysis framework and probably in food labelling requirements.

4. Continued priority should be given to the Commission's horizontal science-based work in the areas of food additives, contaminants, pesticide and veterinary drug residues, food hygiene, food labelling and nutrition. Consideration should be given to the development of standards in these areas for foods derived from biotechnology or traits introduced into foods by biotechnology, where this is scientifically justified. Trade-related issues between governments of food inspection and certification and determination of equivalence and appropriate methods of analysis and sampling will also remain priority areas.

5. In the period 1998 to 2002 it will be proposed that the Commission will continue to reduce its work on commodity-specific standards in favour of horizontal or general standards. The modernisation of existing commodity standards, begun in 1993, and the transfer of material from commodity standards to applicable general standards should be completed in this period. The medium-term period should also see clarification of the relationship between the Commission and the World Trade Organisation's Committees on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Committee) and on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Committee) especially insofar as notification of the use of standards or acceptance of standards is concerned.

6. The period should also see a significant increase in the use of electronic transmission of documents and storage of archival material. Cooperation with private-sector institutions and associations which is now an integral part of UN system-wide programming can also provide the Codex Alimentarius Commission with ways to facilitate the dissemination of Codex information and support the costs of archiving existing documentation.

7. Improvements in assuring transparency, the need to improved participation of non-governmental organizations as observers in the Codex decision-making process, and the need to take the views of these organizations into account when defining areas of work have been included in the Medium-Term Plan.

MEDIUM-TERM PLAN 1998 – 2002