18. The Codex Committee on General Principles, at its Third Session, had considered that there were difficulties in interpreting Steps 9 and 10 of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Codex Standards and that these difficulties would need to be dealt with before standards were sent out to Governments for acceptance. The main difficulties appeared to be:
how could a standard which had received the final approval of the Commission be properly described as “provisional”;
what is the implication of printing a standard in the Codex Alimentarius; and
what would constitute “a sufficient number of countries”.
19. The Commission considered a document which had been prepared by the Secretariat, and which contained proposed amendments to the Procedure for the Elaboration of Codex Standards together with the reasons therefor. The Commission also considered the recommendations of the Executive Committee with regard to the proposed amendment to Step 9 of the Procedure. The proposals for the amendment of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Codex Standards also took account of codes of practice and other texts of a non-mandatory nature.
20. The Procedure for the Elaboration of Codex Standards and Codes of Practice, as amended and adopted by the Commission, is set out in Appendix V to this Report.
21. The delegation of Perú was not in agreement with the amended versions of Step 10 of the Procedure for the Elaboration of World-wide Codex Standards and Steps 10 and 11 of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Regional Codex Standards, stating that there ought to be a statement of what was a specific number of countries whose acceptance was required before the recommended Codex standards were published in the Codex Alimentarius.
22. The Commission agreed that the Procedure for the Elaboration of Codex Standards applied to Codes of Practice developed by the Commission, but that in the case of Codes of Practice developed outside the Commission which the Commission would consider useful for incorporation in the Codex Alimentarius, the question of which steps would apply before incorporating such codes in the Codex Alimentarius would be determined by the Commission in each case.
23. The Commission at its Fifth Session requested the Executive Committee to draw up a procedure to facilitate the consideration of amendments proposed to standards at Step 8 by the Commission and in particular to afford Members of the Commission a reasonable opportunity to consider such amendments in writing in advance of the Commission's sessions. The Commission examined the recommendations of the Executive Committee and agreed to incorporate them into the Procedural Manual (see Appendix VIII to this Report), to apply to the business at the seventh and subsequent sessions of the Commission.
24. Several delegations emphasized the desirability of receiving as much notice as possible of amendments proposed to Step 8 standards. It was noted that the effect of these recommendations would be that proposed amendments would have to be in the hands of Members of the Commission one month before the session, and that amendments received too late could not be considered as written amendments under the Procedure. The Secretariat undertook to arrange that the appropriate time limits for this procedure should be mentioned prominently in the reports or covering letters to reports of subsidiary bodies submitting standards at Step 8 to the Commission.
25. The Commission considered the question whether Codex Committees which wished to propose amendments to standards which had been adopted by the Commission at Step 8 should be authorized, with a view to accelerating the adoption of amendments, to proceed with obtaining government comments on their proposed amendments without the prior approval of the Commission. The Commission decided not to so authorize Codex Committees, but agreed that, when a proposed amendment from a Codex Committee came before the Commission at Step 1, the Commission could proceed to send the proposed amendment out to governments for comments at Step 3, thus omitting Step 2. The Commission noted that this would involve a consequential amendment to paragraph 5 of the Introduction to the Procedure for the Elaboration of Codex Standards.
26. The Commission also agreed that, with a view to expediting the process of amending standards, proposed amendments either from Governments or Codex Committees could be placed by the Secretariat before the Executive Committee, depending on the time factor and the nature of the proposed amendment. It was agreed that all amendments proposed by Members of the Commission should be submitted to the Commission's Secretariat. The Guide to the Procedure for the Revision and Amendment of Recommended Codex Standards is set out in Appendix VII and it was agreed that this Guide should be published in the second edition of the Procedural Manual.
27. The Commission agreed to amend the Procedure for the Elaboration of Milk and Milk Products Standards to bring it into line, as appropriate, with the amended version of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Codex Standards. The Procedure for the Elaboration of Milk and Milk Products Standards as amended and adopted by the Commission is contained in Appendix VI to this Report. The Commission, in accordance with its decision to postpone the question of the governing paragraph 10, decided, pending a decision on paragraph 10, to leave responsibility for the carrying out of Step 8 with the Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products (see also paragraphs 121–123 of this Report).
