CODEX
July 16, 2007
A Meeting of One
By Scott C. Tips -- National Health Federation
July 16, 2007
Let's cut to the chase. The 30th Session of the Codex Alimentarius
Commission (CAC) in Rome, Italy just ended (July 2-7, 2007) and heaping
platefuls of Codex standards and guidelines were advanced to their final
stages as if starving people were gathered around a banquet table. It
did not matter what was heaped on the plate, it got passed to the table
regardless. It also did not matter that there were some 451 country
delegation members and another 61 INGO delegate-observers from around
the World in attendance or pretend attendance, the CAC Chairman, Dr.
Claude Mosha, plowed forward on a one-man mission from God pushing aside
any and all objections - excuse me, he called them "reservations" - that
were made. It would not have mattered if a plate of rotten tomatoes had
been presented to him for approval, he would have approved them too. In
this one meeting, the Commission was rendered irrelevant as a meaningful
"approving" body, for it merely rubberstamped without thought what had
been done by others. Mimi the Gorilla could have done just as good a
job.
There, you have read the essence of what happened at the Codex meeting
as Sepp Hasslberger and I - who comprised the National Health Federation
delegation attending this meeting - saw it. And unless you are a
glutton for punishment, you need not read further. For those of you
with more time than sense, please read on.
Blinders and Earplugs Unnecessary
Chairman Claude Mosha was most definitely a man on a mission. And that
mission was to take that hill . . . with the hill being a pile of
standards and related texts submitted by the various Codex Committees
for approval by the Commission itself. Attacking the pile like a man
possessed, the Chairman considered each standard passed up from the
committee level for adoption here only long enough to pronounce the
words "adopted," so that he could then move on to the next standard for
its approval. This approach was exactly the same one taken by Mosha's
predecessor chairman, except that in this case, the adoption process for
the standards seemed more frantic and even hastier, if that could be
possible.
As mentioned, formal objections by member states are ? under Codex
procedural rules ? sufficient to stop progress towards adoption.
However, Chairman Mosha waved off objections by simply recharacterizing
them as "reservations" and promising that they would be included in the
Final Report of the meeting. This promise really amounted to nothing
more than a semi-polite way of telling the delegate to get lost and quit
bothering him.
In this staccato fashion, standard after standard was "approved." From
the standard for Maximum Levels for Tin in Canned Foods and Canned
Beverages to the standard for Maximum Residue Limits for
Pesticides, they were approved as if full or even partial
consideration of them beforehand would be heretical.
Curiously enough, though, there were also standards on the list waiting
to be revoked ? among them one establishing maximum permitted
limits of cadmium. It struck me as ironic that toxic
cadmium will be given free rein while beneficial zinc is
waiting in the wings for its maximum permitted limits to be established.
But then, what can you say about a meeting that mostly consisted of
uttering the words, "And the next item on our agenda is . . . "?
Death by Consensus
After having seen how the Chairman had mistreated the few member
delegations raising objections, especially the Paraguayan delegate who
had raised a legitimate objection the very first day of the meeting
("The document [Proposed draft Working Principles for Risk Analysis for
Food Safety] should be returned to Steps 6 and 7 since there wasn't a
broad consensus," he had said), I could not resist approaching the
Paraguayan delegate at the reception held that evening after the first
day's meeting. I wanted to discuss with him what had happened.
He was, I told him and his fellow Paraguayans, absolutely correct to
have raised the lack of consensus issue. Under Codex Rules of
Procedure, he should have prevailed and the proposed draft document
should have been refused approval and returned to Step 6 or 7 (out of 8
steps, with the 8th step being the final one). Moreover, I continued,
he should stand his ground as the Codex definition of consensus is "the
absence of sustained opposition." And the World Trade Organization
itself states that consensus is reached "if no Member, present at the
meeting when the decision is taken, formally objects to the proposed
decision." He therefore had the absolute right to insist that the
document not be approved.
Interestingly enough, at the next day's meeting, the Paraguayan delegate
was even firmer and more strident in his objection to a standard that
was up for adoption, commenting that "the definition of consensus
changes every day." Nevertheless, despite this member state's clear
objection, which should have stopped the standard in its tracks, the
standard was approved.
Alms for the Rich
A significant amount of time was spent by the CAC leadership on the CAC
budget and the need to rein in expenses. To that end, one of the
vice-chairmen chairing this portion of the meeting called for more
contributions and mentioned the CAC's idea to place a maximum upper
limit on the number of committees as well as the number of meetings.
So, too, the CAC vice chairman gave a presentation on the Codex Trust
Fund, which is administered by the World Health Organization and donates
money to supposedly impoverished and deserving countries so that they
may attend and participate in Codex meetings. The word "supposedly"
has been added in here because I noticed in the fine print of the report
that the hard-working taxpayers of Europe, North America, and
Australia/New Zealand have been graciously financing the participation
of such struggling countries as China (with its US $1.33 trillion
monetary reserves) and that insult to the African continent called
Zimbabwe (whose dictatorship has murdered thousands and taken a
once-prosperous country into abject beggary and misery). One could
start cutting some fat right there.
But, for an organization that, rumor has it, even bounced some of those
checks given to the actually-deserving member delegations, there are
simple, commonsense approaches to money management that could result in
meaningful economies and the creation of a sinking fund to support CAC's
efforts. While sitting through this part of the meeting, I could not
help but think of at least three things the Committee could do to
improve its financial situation. Yet no one was asking me what I
thought could be done.
Time to Run a Tight Ship
Make no mistake, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) staff at
this meeting could not have been nicer or more helpful to the NHF. But,
then, the NHF is a recognized International NonGovernmental Organization
with recognized status to attend and speak out at Codex meetings.
Some others, such as the Natural Solutions Foundation, had been
attending some Codex meetings, not as INGOs, but as members of the
public. Past Codex meetings had been incredibly lax with their
security, permitting such members of the public to sit in the main arena
of the meetings and to attend the Codex receptions. Not so this year.
They and other members of the public were consigned to a public viewing
section in the uppermost gallery of the Codex meeting hall and not
allowed to intermingle with the delegates in the meeting rooms or at the
reception. This was strictly enforced and followed closely on the heels
of the official decision of the Executive Committee of the Codex
Commission to reject the Natural Solution Foundation's application for
INGO status.
Codex Finitus
"The ancient Romans," Voltaire once wrote, "built their greatest
masterpieces of architecture for wild beasts to fight in." Voltaire's
irony might be lost on the attendees at the Codex meeting that took
place in the FAO building since it is neither Rome's greatest
masterpiece nor were there wild beasts inside. But it was a show
nevertheless. With hundreds of observers watching, it was a one-man
show. And even more than that, it was a Meeting of One.
*****
About the National Health Federation
Established in 1955, the National Health Federation is a
consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to protect
individuals' rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements
and use alternative therapies without government restrictions. With
consumer members all over the world, and a Board of Governors and
Advisory Board containing representatives from 6 different countries,
the Federation is unique is being the only consumer health freedom
organization in the world to enjoy official observer status with the
Codex Alimentarius Commission.
National Health Federation
P.O. Box 688, Monrovia, CA 91017 USA
1 (626) 357-2181 ~ Fax 1 (626) 303-0642
Website:
http://www.thenhf.com
E-mail:
contact-us@thenhf.com
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