WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/GEN/18 
24 May 2005 
 
 (05-2095) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English 
  
REPORT PROVIDED BY THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION AT THE  
TBT COMMITTEE MEETING OF 22-23 MARCH 2005 
 
Agenda Item 6(b):  Updating by Observers
 
  
 The following report, dated 23 March 2005, is being circulated at the request of the 
Codex
.  
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I. CODEX SESSIONS SINCE THE LAST MEETING OF THE TBT COMMITTEE (4 
NOVEMBER 2004) 
• The 26th Session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special 
Dietary Uses (Bonn, Germany, 1-5 November 2004) 
• The 21st Session of the Codex Committee on General Principles (8-12 
November, Paris, France)  
• The 14th Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Latin America 
and the Caribbean (29 November- 3 December 2004, Buenos Aires, Argentina) 
• The 13th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export 
Inspection and Certification Systems (6-10 December 2004, Melbourne, Australia) • The 16th Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Africa (25-28 
January 2005, Rome, Italy) 
• The 55th Session of the Executive Committee (9-11 February 2005, Rome) 
• The 11th Session of the Codex Committee on Meat Hygiene (14-17 February 
2005, Christchurch, New Zealand) 
• The 19th Session of the Codex Committee on Fats and Oils (21-25 February 
2005, London, United Kingdom) 
• The 27th Session of the Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products (28 
February- 4 March 2005, Cape Town, South Africa) 
• The 3rd Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Near East  (7-10 
March 2005, Amman, Jordan) 
• The 37th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene  (14-19 March 2005, 
Buenos Aires, Argentina) 
1. The attention of the TBT Committee is drawn to the fact the following points: 
2. The 13th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and 
Certification Systems recommended the 28th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission to adopt the Principles for Electronic Certification and to attach them as an Appendix to the Codex Guidelines for Generic Official Certification Formats and the Production and Issuance 
of Certificates. G/TBT/GEN/18 
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3. In addition, the Committee continued work on the proposed draft Guidelines for Risk-
Based Inspection of Imported Foods and agreed on the need to develop principles for the application of traceability/product tracing in the context of food import and export inspection and certification systems.  The Committee requested the 28th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission to initiate new work on this subject. 
4. The Committee also agreed to recommend to the 28th Session of the Codex Alimentarius 
Commission to add a footnote to paragraph 35 of the Codex Guidelines for Food Import Control Systems to refer to the WTO Decision WT/MIN (01)/17, which, inter alia , specified that 
"a reasonable interval . . . shall be understood to mean normally a period of not less than six months" subject to a number of provisions. 
5. The 19th Session of the Codex Committee on Fats and Oils agreed on the Draft 
Standard for Fat Spreads and Blended Spreads except for the section on food additives and the Committee decided to discuss this section intensively at the next session.  The Committee also agreed to make some amendments to the Standard for Named Vegetable Oils.  The Committee further considered an appropriate level of linolenic acid in the Standard for Olive Oils and 
Olive Pomace Oils and agreed to ask International Olive Oil Council to continue data survey on 
a global basis.  
6. The 3rd Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for the Near East agreed to 
finalize the standards for Canned Humus with Tehena (Processed Chick Peas with Tehena), for Canned Foul Medames (Processed Fava Beans) and for Tehena as regional standards and to consider preparing proposals for new work on their conversion to international standards at a 
later date. 
II. FORTHCOMING CODEX MEETINGS 
• The 26th Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling 
(4 - 8 April2005, Budapest, Hungary) 
• The 22nd Session of the Codex Committee on General Principles (11 - 15 April 
2005, Paris, France) 
• The 37th Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (18 - 23 April 
2005, The Hague, Netherlands) 
• The 37th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants 
(25 - 29 April 2005, The Hague, Netherlands) 
• The 33rd Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling (9 - 13 May 2005, 
Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia) 
• The 12th Session of the Codex Committee on Fresh Fruits and Vegetables (16 - 
20 May 2005, Mexico City, Mexico) 
• The 56th Session of the Executive Committee of the Codex Alimentarius 
Commission (30 June – 2 July 2005, Rome, Italy) 
• The 28th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (4 - 9 July 2005, Rome, 
Italy) 
7. The attention of the TBT Committee was drawn to the following meetings: 
8. The 26th Session of the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling will 
continue work on:  the Criteria for Evaluating Acceptable Methods of Analysis, including the Draft Guidelines for Evaluating Acceptable Methods of Analysis and Proposed Draft Guidelines 
for Settling Disputes over Analytical (Test) Results;  Review of the Analytical Terminology for  G/TBT/GEN/18 
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Codex Use in the Procedural Manual;  The Use of Analytical Results;  Sampling Plans, Relationship between the Analytical Results, the Measurement of Uncertainty, Recovery Factors and Provisions in Codex Standards (for inclusion in the Codex Procedural Manual);  the Criteria for the Methods for the Detection and Identification of Foods Derived from Biotechnology;  and Methods of Analysis for the Determination of Dioxins and PCBs. 
9. The 22nd Session of the Codex Committee on General Principles in addition to 
procedural matters, will discuss the following the Proposed Draft Working Principles for Risk Analysis for Food Safety and the Proposed Draft Revised Code of Ethics for International Trade in Foods. 
10. The 33rd Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling will consider revisions to 
the Guidelines for Production, Processing, Labelling and Marketing of Organically produced 
Foods and proposed labelling provisions for the foods derived from GMOs (Proposed Draft Guidelines for the Labelling of Foods and Food Ingredients Obtained through Certain Techniques of Genetic Modification/Genetic Engineering ).  The Committee will also consider the proposal for additional labelling requirements on Quantitative Declaration of Ingredients 
and the issue as to whether the present Codex labelling provisions on country of origin 
adequately address the need of member countries with respect to country origin labelling.  
11. The forthcoming session of the Codex Committee on Fresh Fruits and Vegetables will 
discussed quality provisions (including labelling requirements) in the standards for apples, rambutans, table grapes and tomatoes as well as matters surrounding the quality control of fresh fruits and vegetables.   
12. The 27th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (July 2004) agreed to proceed 
with the revision of the Recommended International Code of Practice for the Handling and Processing of Quick Frozen Foods working by correspondence on the quality provisions of the Code before transferring the work on finalization of hygienic/safety provisions to the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene so that a single revised document can be sent to the Commission 
for final adoption.  As a follow-up to this decision, the Code is currently being circulated for a 
second round of comments on the quality provisions with a view to including greater range of views in the revision thus enabling the finalization of all quality provisions of the Code by the next Session of the Commission (July 2005).   
III. REVIEW OF CODEX COMMITTEE STRUCTURE AND MANDATES OF CODEX 
COMMITTEES AND  TASK FORCES 
13. As a follow up to the Joint FAO/WHO Evaluation of the Codex Alimentarius and Other 
FAO and WHO Work on Food Standards, conducted in 2002, and the ongoing implementation of its recommendations by Codex, a team of consultants was recruited to conduct a review of the Codex Committee structure and the mandates of Codex Committees and Task Forces, with a view to formulate recommendations for consideration by the Commission.  To assist the work of 
the consultants, a questionnaire had been sent to the chairpersons of Codex Committees and 
Task Forces and the host governments.  The consultants prepared a Preliminary Report based on the responses to the questionnaire and the information provided by the officers of the Codex Secretariat and it was presented to the 55th Session of the Executive Committee (February 2005) along with a number of proposals and recommendations.  The Executive Committee provided their recommendations on ways to progress with the review.  A Final Report by the 
consultants is being circulated for government comments and will be discussed at the 56th 
Session of the Executive Committee, followed by the 28th Codex Alimentarius Commission (July 2005). G/TBT/GEN/18 
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IV. MEMBERSHIP OF THE CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION 
14. The membership currently comprises 171 Member Nations and one Member 
Organization.   
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