120. The Commission noted the progress which had been made by the Joint FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products, at its Eleventh Session.
121. The Commission had before it
the text of paragraph 10 of the Report of the First Session of the Commission on the relationship between the Committee and the Commission, which reads as follows:
“The Commission decided to treat the present Joint FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products as a Committee of the whole of the Commission, under Rule IX.1 (a) of its Rules of Procedure, having exclusive competence for all questions concerning milk and milk products. Decisions of this Committee, which is already open to all Member Countries of FAO and WHO, would therefore be decisions of the Commission in this specified field, subject to review in plenary if requested. In this way the recommendations of the Joint FAO/WHO Conference on Food Standards (see its Report, para. 39) were given full effect. The costs of the Committee were already met from the regular budget of FAO. At its Second Session, the Commission would take up the possible republication in the Codex of the Code of Principles and its associated standards.”
the redraft of paragraph 10, proposed by the Executive Committee at its Eleventh Session, which reads as follows:
“The Commission decided to treat the FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products as a Committee under Rule IX.1(a) of the Rules of Procedure. The Committee would have the right to consider all standards relating to milk and milk products, to pass them through all the steps of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Standards and to submit them to governments for acceptance, except that all decisions of the Committee, whether on standards or not, would be subject to review by the Commission at the request of any Member of the Commission. Standards formulated by the Committee of Government Experts are subject to the procedure for endorsement of certain provisions by Codex General Committees as laid down in paragraph 13 of the Guidelines for Codex Committees, pp. 47 and 48 of the Report of the Fourth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, with the exception of those for Sampling and Methods of Analysis.”
the redraft of paragraph 10, proposed by the Milk and Milk Products Committee at its Eleventh Session, which reads as follows:
“The Commission decided that the FAO/WHO Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products would be considered as a Committee under Rule IX.1(a) of the Rules of Procedure. The Committee would have full competence for all questions concerning milk and milk products. It would consider and elaborate all codes and standards concerning milk and milk products and pass them, as appropriate, through all the steps of the Procedure for the Elaboration of International Standards for Milk Products, and submit them to governments for acceptance under the general rule that all final decisions of the Committee, whether on standards or not, might be reviewed by the Commission at the request of a Member of the Commission. Those provisions of standards formulated by the Committee of Government Experts which relate to additives, labelling and hygiene would be subject to the procedure for endorsement by the appropriate Codex General Subject Committees as laid down in paragraph 13 of the Guidelines for Codex Committees (pp. 47 and 48 of the Report of the Fourth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission). Methods of analysis and sampling formulated by the Committee of Government Experts would not, however, be subject to endorsement by the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling.”
The Commission also had before it the further comments of the United Kingdom and the U.S.A. on the two redrafts.
122. The Commission agreed that the Secretariat should again seek government comments which would be submitted to the next session of the Executive Committee, and should, in particular, ask governments the following specific questions:
Should the Committee have full competence for all questions concerning milk and milk products, in view of the fact that the Milk and Milk Products Committee, although enjoying a special status vis-à-vis other subsidiary bodies of the Commission, was still a subsidiary body of the Commission. If it should, ought full competence to be taken to refer only to the technical content of the standards?
As all decisions of the Committee, whether on standards or not, are subject to review by the Commission at the request of a Member of the Commission, is it appropriate or desirable to refer to such decisions as “final decisions”?
Should the Milk Committee or the Commission deal with acceptances?
It was agreed that the attention of governments should be drawn to the question of clarifying the obligations which they considered followed from acceptance of milk and milk products standards which had already been adopted, and particularly on the application of the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products.
123. The delegation of Switzerland proposed that a decision on the above matter be postponed until the replies from governments had been received and reviewed. This proposal was carried by a vote of 16 to 12 with 4 abstentions.
124. The Commission agreed that the FAO Conference should be informed that it had not been able to resolve the problem of paragraph 10 at this session.
125. The Commission had before it ALINORM 69/34 and 69/34-Add.1. The Commission was asked to decide:
whether work should be started now, or at some future stage, on standards for edible ices based on non-milk fat, as a desirable complement to the work under way on standards for edible ices based on milk fat;
in the event of a decision in the affirmative regarding (i) above, which body should be given responsibility for elaborating standards for both types of edible ices. In this connection, the Commission noted that:
the Committee of Government Experts on the Code of Principles concerning Milk and Milk Products, could by a modification of its Terms of Reference deal with both types of ices;
a Codex Committee on Edible Ices could be set up to deal with ices based on milk fat and non-milk fat. The delegation of Sweden indicated that Sweden was still prepared to assume responsibility for chairing a world-wide Codex Committee for all types of edible ices;
the Coordinating Committee for Europe, at its Sixth Session, had expressed its readiness to draw up standards for edible ices and sherbet, irrespective of the raw material involved.
126. The majority view of the Commission was that as yet a case had not been fully established for elaborating standards for edible ices. For this reason, it was agreed that a report covering the international trade in edible ices should be prepared by the Secretariat for the Seventh Session of the Commission, along the lines of the report which had been prepared by the Secretariat on soups and broths for the Sixth Session of the Commission. The Commission also agreed to suggest to the Milk and Milk Products Committee that it should not advance the standards further along the steps of the Procedure for the Elaboration of Standards, pending further consideration of this subject by the Commission at its next session. The delegation of Spain was opposed to this decision, because it considered it inappropriate and untimely so long as there was no other Committee or Group of Experts studying these subjects.
