XII. Proceedings of the Working Groups (Agenda Item 10)

54. The Conference agreed to discuss the following items in two concurrent Working Groups: 1) The impact of multilateral trade agreements and trade measures on food safety, animal and plant health and; 2) Current food safety issues in the region and the need to strengthen and link food-borne disease surveillance and food contaminant monitoring systems to better address them. The two Working Groups were requested to discuss their respective themes and to propose concrete recommendations and practical actions to improve food safety in the region in these specific areas. The Conference designated Mr Gonzalo Ríos of Chile as Chairperson and Ms Pamela Whitehall of Barbados as Rapporteur of the first Working Group and Ms Sofía Heredia of Mexico as Chairperson and Mr Osbil Watson of Jamaica as Rapporteur of the second Working Group. The Conference expressed their appreciation to these delegates for their agreement to serve in these roles.

55. The first Working Group referred to the paper prepared by Chile in this regard (CRD 39). The Working Group structured its discussion under the headings of transparency, harmonization, equivalence, risk analysis, technical assistance, relations with other international fora or agencies and institutional frameworks. The following points were discussed:

Transparency

56. The Working Group expressed concerns regarding the ill-established SPS/TBT notification processes and poor communication between the countries of the region with regard to notification. Recommendations put forward by the Working Group to deal with these concerns included:

• Strengthening of SPS/TBT notification authorities;
• Improvement in the follow-up process to keep abreast of restrictions and other trade matters;
• Establishment of national and regional committees to facilitate the implementation of the SPS Agreement, which would work in conjunction with Codex National Committees and Contact Points;
• Encouragement of horizontal cooperation where more experienced countries can transfer knowledge to neighbouring countries; and
• Encouragement of political and institutional cooperation to generate a national policy of transparency in developing food safety measures.

Harmonization

57. The Working Group recognized the difficulty encountered by the countries of the region with regard to variations in product and process descriptions. The issue of how to best address the requirements of countries having more stringent standards than Codex was also noted. Recommendations concerning harmonization included:

• Establishment of working groups within the region to harmonize definitions, using Codex as a reference;
• Clarification of the rules of harmonization and when and how to apply national legislation vs. internationally agreed standards;
• Development of a procedure (within CCLAC) for following up on the regional harmonization and adoption of Codex standards;
• Comparison of Codex standards with stricter ones from importing countries for the purpose of identifying differences and determining whether they are justified;
• Coordination of measures generated by Codex, IPPC and OIE; and
• Strengthening participation of countries in specific bodies such as WTO and Codex.

Equivalence

58. In spite of the development of several guidelines and criteria to deal with the issues of equivalence, countries of the region have not implemented this principle. Equivalence must be recognized as not only being applicable to products, but also to systems, procedures and measures.

59. The Working Group noted the lack of sufficient regional capacity to adopt measures dealing with equivalence and also noted that the procedure is time and resource consuming. The Working Group proposed the following recommendations to deal with these issues:

• Establishment of objective parameters for determining equivalence. Work towards a better definition of an objective basis of comparison;
• Highlighting clear justification between the cost of initiating equivalence and the benefits derived from its implementation;
• Clarification of the principles that govern equivalence between countries;
• Equivalence procedures should be simple and not used as barriers to trade;
• Good baseline standards should be used as equivalence references; and
• Processes must be developed within a reasonable time period.

Risk analysis

60. The Working Group recognized the challenges faced by the region with regard to risk analysis, noting that the majority of risk analyses are performed outside the region. The point was also made that the issue of precaution could possibly be used as a technical barrier to trade, and it should be regarded as an exception, rather than a principle. Wider use of risk analysis in the region would reduce the application of precautionary approaches in food trade. The Working Group recommended:

• Conducting regional pilot case studies on risk analysis, using own data. This is important for equivalence and for formulating standards;
• Exchanging local data for risk assessments and use of existing international information and risk assessments when applicable;
• The cooperation of countries well-established in risk analysis should be sought; and
• Training programmes in risk analysis should be strengthened.

Technical assistance

61. The Working Group noted that technical assistance is required in a number of areas including that of Biosecurity, but priorities need to be established. Regional programmes should be developed with multisectoral participation.

Relations with other international fora or agencies

62. Better coordination between Codex, OIE, ISO and other international organizations should be sought so as to avoid duplication and overlap and to achieve synergies in standardization processes.

Institutional framework

63. The Working Group recommended the following in this regard:

• Improving the coordination of parties responsible for food safety, public health and trade;
• Generating national actions on Biosecurity that included food safety and animal and plant health.

64. The second Working Group agreed that all aspects of national food safety systems must be strengthened in order to provide a foundation for effective integrated food-borne disease (FBD) surveillance and food contaminant monitoring. It was recognized that although the FBD surveillance and food contaminant monitoring systems in the countries of the region are at different levels of development, some common areas of deficiencies exist.

65. In particular, the Working Group emphasized the importance of the surveillance of chronic illnesses and their possible relation with veterinary drug, pesticide residues and other toxic substances in food, in addition to the surveillance of acute illnesses. The group underlined the need for accurate food consumption data and food contaminant levels from the countries of the region in order to establish accurate maximum residue limits (MRLs) for the region.

66. The group also noted the lack of integrated systems of reporting of diseases and food contaminant monitoring data between agencies within most countries of the region. The need for food regulators to address the issues of traceability of food products, as well as obesity and other nutritional issues, was also mentioned.

67. The following points related to the need to modernize and strengthen national food control systems were highlighted by the group:

• These systems should be based on science and a risk analysis approach;
• Political will, including at the ministerial and decision-making level, must be ensured to effect such modernization;
• Laboratory infrastructure and human resource capacity, including information collection and exchange mechanisms, must be strengthened;
• Consumers, healthcare providers and other actors must be made aware of the need to report FBDs and how to prevent future FBDs;
• Countries should improve the methods of reporting FBD outbreaks, the study of contributing factors and identification of causative agents to prevent future outbreaks;
• A systematic, multisectoral approach including all stakeholders is needed to assess needs and then prioritize and implement the necessary actions;
• National results-oriented action plans, including coordinated concrete actions, indicators, responsibilities, outcomes, etc. for improving national food control systems, including strengthening FBD surveillance and food contaminant monitoring systems must be implemented;
• Countries of the region should work together to assist each other in this regard;
• Technical assistance should be sought from FAO/WHO and other relevant providers; and
• All efforts must build on past efforts/ongoing work in the region.

68. The Chairs and Rapporteurs of the Working Groups presented the outcome of their discussions in the subsequent re-convening of the plenary session. Suggestions of specific actions to be undertaken by the countries of the region were made and are reflected in the reports of the Working Groups and in the following suggested actions.