22 - 26 February 1999: COMMITTEE - Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (7th Session)

Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (7th Session)
Melbourne (Australia), 22 – 26 February 1999

Matters for consideration by the Codex Alimentarius Commission

The Committee:

• advanced the Draft Guidelines for the Development of Equivalence Agreements regarding Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems to Step 8 (paragraph 30 and Appendix II).
• requested the Commission to approve the following new work:
  • Proposed Draft Guidelines for the Judgement of Equivalence of Sanitary Measures associated with Food Inspection and Certification Systems (paragraph 81)
  • Proposed Draft Guidelines for the Utilization of and Promotion of Quality Assurance Systems (paragraph 93).

Other Matters Referred To The Commission

The Committee:

• requested the advice of the Executive Committee and the Commission on how to proceed on the matter of judgement of equivalence of technical regulations other than sanitary measures (paragraph 84).

Other Matters

The Committee:

• agreed that the Proposed Draft Guidelines/Recommendations for Food Import Control Systems should be redrafted and restructured prior to being circulated for comment at Step 3 (paragraph 53);
• agreed that the Proposed Draft Guidelines and Criteria for Official Certificate Formats and Rules relating to the Production and Issuance of Certificates be revised with a view towards circulating the text formally for comments at Step 3 of the Codex Procedure (paragraph 68);
• agreed that all relevant Codex Committees would be informed of the current status of the Proposed Draft Guidelines for the Judgement of Equivalence of Sanitary Measures associated with Food Inspection and Certification Systems, bearing in mind that the Guidelines could have implications for their current and future work programmes (paragraph 83);
• requested the advice of Legal Counsel as to whether the activities proposed in the Discussion Paper on Guidelines for the Establishment of a Database on Importing Country Legislation fell within the mandate of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Terms of Reference of the Committee (paragraph 99); and
• requested the opinion of the Codex Committee on General Principles on the status of the activities proposed in the Discussion Paper on Guidelines for the Establishment of a Database on Importing Country Legislation in relation to the ongoing work of revising the Codex Acceptance/Notification Procedure (paragraph 99).