The Codex Alimentarius
was created in 1961 and consists of a collection of
international food standards that have been adopted by the Codex Alimentarius
Commission, its governing body. As far as EcoLomics International's scope is
concerned, the Codex represents one of its issue areas in view of the
standard's
involvement in the international regulation of trade in GM food because this
is an environment-related food safety issue.
It can be said that in spite of its
fundamental importance to the international community as the world's most
important reference point in matters concerning food quality and its over 160
member states it is generally not
well known. It is sometimes called, for good reason, the least known of all
really important multilateral organizations. That is due to some extent to its
very complex and highly procedural functioning. Administered jointly by the FAO and the WHO (but financed to approximately
80% by the FAO!) the Codex has achieved a much increased importance since 1995 thanks
to the fact that the WTO's SPS Agreement refers to it directly and the TBT
Agreement indirectly as their reference point. It has the
double and easily conflicting mandate of "protecting the health of
consumers and facilitating fair practices in the food
trade" (there is no definition provided for the notion of fair trade!).
Given the very substantial
responsibilities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the political stakes,
and their economic ramifications, its somewhat forbidding mode of
functioning is to a considerable extent unavoidable. It reflects the also
highly procedural nature of its counterparts at the national level. The well
developed Web site of the Codex
Alimentarius is of great assistance in understanding this complex
organization.
"Understanding the Codex" provides a condensed overview of the mandate
and the functioning of the Codex whereas the
Procedural Manual contains the Organization's statutes and all the key
procedures, principles, guidelines and definitions that allow it to function
and to elaborate new standards and related texts. The 2002 internal and
external in-depth
Evaluation represents the first such exercise in the Codex' more than
forty years long history.
The Codex Alimentarius has over
twenty sectoral (vertical) and cross-sectoral (horizontal) Committees which
usually meet every year and represent each a major international conference
with approx. 100 participating delegations and a certain number of industry
representatives, NGOs and academic observers (observers without speaking
privilege are provided a relatively liberal access). The Codex Committee on
General Principles (CCGP) which usually meets in Paris in the spring is the
central body which negotiates and prepares strategic issues that tend to be
of a procedural as well as political nature. Its conclusions have to
be approved subsequently by the legislative body, i.e. the Codex
Alimentarius Commission (meeting usually in July, alternatively in Rome and
in Geneva).
Links
Codex Alimentarius FAO/WHO
Food Standards
http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp
Consumers International,
London
http://www.consumersinternational.org/documents_asp/ViewACategory_levelBelowOnly.asp?regid=135&CategoryID=954&langID=1
Consumers Union, New York
(Communications Office)
http://www.consumersunion.org/i/Food_Safety/Genetically_Engineered_Food/index.html
For the
most up to date list of negotiations with links to related reports see
IISD/ENB
Reporting Services NEWS
http://www.iisd.ca/news/news.html
especially the "Chemicals Meetings" Section:
http://www.iisd.ca/process/chemical_management.htm
FAO, Interdisciplinary Activities domain 'Biotechnology in Food and
Agriculture'
http://www.fao.org/biotech/index.asp?lang=en
Greenpeace (various locations)
http://www.google.ch/search?q=greenpeace+codex+alimentarius&hl=de&lr=&start=20&sa=N
International Center for Trade
and Sustainable Development, Geneva
http://www.ictsd.org/
Free electronic suscriptions:
Bridges Weekly
Bridges Trade BioRes
Bridges Monthly: on the Web and in Print
Authoritative information on trade and sustainable development
L'édition française avec Enda-Tiers monde: Passerelles
http://www.ictsd.org/africodev/edition/passerelle/passarc.htm
Urs Klemm
Former
Chair FAO/WHO Codex Coordination Committee for Europe
http://www.ursklemm.ch/
Waste Environment Cooperation Centre WE 2C
http://www.we2c.org/
WHO, Information on Genetically Modified Food
http://www.who.int/topics/food_genetically_modified/en/
WTO
http://www.wto.org
