FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for North America and the South West Pacific (6th Session)

• Congratulated WHO for identifying food safety as a high priority public health issue and in this regard, recommended that the Commission should request its Members, and specifically Codex Contact Points, to bring the WHO Food Safety Resolution to the attention of their governments and to their food, agricultural, health and consumer sectors;
• Expressed its appreciation to FAO, WHO, Australia and New Zealand for their efforts in conducting and providing resources for various projects, workshops and seminars related to food safety and food control activities in the region;
• Recommended, through specific proposals, that the Commission should foster the capability of developing countries to enhance food safety and quality and to better enable the implementation of Codex standards, guidelines and related texts;
• Recommended that the Commission should encourage FAO and WHO in their efforts to develop a stronger and closer working relationship with respect to the provision of technical assistance and the optimization of the Commission's work in facilitating food safety capacity building programmes within the region;
• Strongly supported recommendations of the Commission that programmes that contribute to risk analysis should have high priority and that risk communication is an important tool in facilitating transparency and consumer information;
• Recommended that the Commission should request the WTO to consider holding workshops, in collaboration with the Codex Secretariat, to address the differences between the provisions and application of SPS and TBT measures and thereby enhance their understanding;
• Forwarded its discussions concerning consumer participation in the work of Codex, including the consideration of recommendations arising from the FAO Conference on International Food Trade Beyond 2000, to the Commission for information;
• Reaffirmed the primary role of Codex in relation to developing standards for the labelling and safety aspects of foods produced through biotechnology and in this regard, strongly supported the G8 statement "to encourage the FAO and WHO to organize periodic international meetings of food safety regulators to advance the process of science-based public consultations", and;
• Nominated Canada for appointment as Regional Coordinator, with the understanding that Canada might consider the possibility of hosting the meeting in one of the South West Pacific island countries.