Food Focus November 2008

Codex urged towards closer cooperation

The fifth annual Codex Australia Industry Stakeholder Forum was held in August in Melbourne. Melissa Quarrie, NZFSA Policy Analyst (Codex), gave a presentation on trans-Tasman cooperation and the many benefits it can bring

Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) is an international food standards-setting body that is mandated to protect the health and safety of consumers and ensure fair practices in the food trade. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) recognises Codex as the pre-eminent reference point for food standards, and the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) obliges countries to ensure that national regulations do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade.

Melissa Quarrie spoke at the fifth annual Codex Australia Industry Stakeholder Forum about trans-Tasman cooperation – particularly the relationship between our respective governments, industry partnership and participation and the benefits for all of working together.

“The idea was to alert Australian industry and increase awareness on how the two governments can work together, particularly in the face of international changing dynamics and global marketing issues”, says Melissa.

“Australia is New Zealand’s closest partner in many ways, including being our closest trading partner for both imports and exports. We share long-standing cultural and historical ties. We also have a shared approach to labelling and composition through the work of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) which includes a science-based, risk assessment response to food safety.”

In her presentation, Melissa highlighted the many areas of cooperation and benefit that New Zealand and Australia enjoy. These include formal Treaty interactions and the ad hoc, informal consultation between the two governments, and the sharing of positions on issues, often in conjunction with the US and Canada who make up the Food Safety Quadrilateral Group (along with Australia and New Zealand).

Industry is important

Industry too is important in the Codex arena, she told delegates. “In contributing to policy development through alerting Government to potential issues for trade, providing a formal industry perspective to the Codex policy process before and while positions are being finalised, industry plays a vital role.”

Industry can also attend Codex meetings as a non-government advisor to the delegation.

New Zealand industry is often visible at the regular Codex commodity meetings held here and overseas. Fonterra attends the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products hosted by New Zealand, there is seafood industry representation at the Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products hosted by Norway, olive oil industry representation at the Codex Committee on Fats and Oils, hosting of which recently transferred from the United Kingdom to Malaysia, and Pipfruit NZ often attends the Codex Committee on Fresh Fruits and Vegetables hosted by Mexico.

“Industry is in a unique position to alert government through the consultation process to potential issues on the horizon”, Melissa says. “Government in turn can benefit industry by picking up these concerns and negotiating the best outcome possible. Cooperation between the two governments means neither of us is a ‘lone voice in the wilderness’ in the multilateral environment, and we can often garner more support for our causes from other like-minded countries.”

At Codex Melissa gave two recent examples where industry and New Zealand and Australian governments successfully worked together.

Smoothing the path for olive oil

“Olive oil is perhaps our best example of trans-Tasman cooperation and a long-running issue that has involved multiple organisations both in Australia and here in New Zealand”, she says.

“I explained that both countries identified similar compositional concerns for our oils which meant we would have trouble meeting the Codex standard if it was revised in line with the European positions on minor components and fatty acids. We would then have difficulty trading our oils internationally and of course this would impact greatly on our industries in terms of current and future trading opportunities.”

Over the past couple of years a collaborative strategy was developed to take consistent and mutually supportive arguments to Codex. At the last meeting of the Codex Committee on Fats and Oils, delegates worked in unison to counter arguments put forward for change and gain the support of several other countries who considered the Australasian arguments for an inclusive global standard to be fair and appropriate.

“We are inching our way towards a satisfactory outcome”, Melissa says.

Strong campaign for cheese

The other example of cooperation is in milk and milk products, even though it failed to change the direction on the development of a new standard for Parmesan cheese at Codex.

“We were able to share information and build strategies for engagement with the help of Dairy Australia and run strong arguments about the appropriateness of proposals”, Melissa says. “The outcome was that the development of a new standard on Parmesan for international trade has been put into abeyance. Those wanting change also did not secure a revised standard for ‘extra hard grating cheese’ which was the main strategy for keeping the name ‘Parmesan’ out of international trade because of the then unresolved issues around ‘protected designation of origin’ status.”

Turnabout for support

There are also examples of close cooperation at the multilateral policy level. In the Codex Executive Committee, New Zealand as the current member for the South West Pacific region, works closely with Australia in addressing our strategic policy interests. At the regional policy level both countries take an active role in supporting the food safety and trade aspirations and interests of the Pacific region.

“Australia and New Zealand cooperate closely on capacity building within the Pacific”, explains Melissa. “We have both hosted workshops on Codex and our food regulatory environments for the members of Codex in the region.”

Both New Zealand and Australia also participate at the Codex regional committee meeting and help strengthen the development of food standards within the Pacific. A case in point has been the development of a standard for bitter cassava, which is expected to be adopted as an international standard in 2010.

Levelling the playing field

So, there’s plenty of evidence to support a united stance, which was the summary message Melissa gave to delegates, particularly in light of international trade developments.

“An increasing number of bilateral and preferential trade agreements are being ratified by countries which can put both New Zealand and Australia in a less-favourable trading environment. Such changing dynamics can pose considerable challenges to how we perceive and respond to global marketing issues. The response, therefore, has to include one of increased cooperation.

“Rules-based trading has become much more prevalent with the advent of the World Trade Organization in 1995, even though trade rules have been in place under GATT since 1948.

“However, we still face vulnerabilities in a tough trading environment and we need to continue engaging in a rules-based multilateral environment where we can influence a fair playing field as much as possible and in our exporters’ and consumers’ best interests.”

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