34. The Delegation of Mexico noted that this matter had first been raised at the Committee’s Fourth Session and that a preliminary paper had been discussed at the Committee’s Fifth Session. The 22nd Session of the Commission had requested Mexico, in collaboration with the Secretariat, to revise its preliminary discussion paper for consideration at the present meeting.[10] Based on a survey conducted by Mexico with the assistance of the Secretariat and several other delegations, the discussion paper outlined the principles which should be inherent in a food import control system and approaches to designing an effective system.
35. The Committee thanked the delegation of Mexico for the paper which received wide support from the delegations and observers present. It endorsed in principle the proposal to elaborate Guidelines in this area. Some Delegations expressed the opinion that the Guideline might be better developed as recommendations or a vademecum. Attention was drawn to the problem of references to sub-national authorities and the potential risk on interference in domestic or internal food inspection arrangements. A question was raised concerning the possible status of a guideline or recommendations on food import control systems under the WTO Agreements, but the Committee noted that advice on this matter had been requested by the Commission from the WTO SPS Committee. Some delegations proposed that because Codex work on risk assessment was still under development, work in this area should proceed gradually and that the paper should be developed only as an information paper.
36. The Committee agreed to propose to the Executive Committee that work on the elaboration of proposed draft Codex Guidelines/Recommendations for Food Import Control Systems be initiated and requested the Delegation of Mexico to prepare an appropriate draft for discussion at the Committee’s next session at which time the matter of the nature of the document would be addressed.
