Toespraak bij de opening van het International Seminar on Setting Food Safety Standards (Engelstalig)

Toespraak | 24-06-2008

Mr Chairperson, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me start by welcoming you on behalf of my government. I am proud to be hosting such an international event here in the Netherlands. We have delegates from all around the world!

I have just returned from the FAO High Level Conference on the food crisis, held last week in Rome. I’d like to open this seminar on food safety by sharing some of my impressions of this important Conference.

There were many speeches in which ministers outlined the serious impact of high food prices in their country, in some nations even leading to social unrest. Once more, I realised that the availability of food at reasonable prices is a crucial issue, for which any minister of agriculture has prime responsibility.

In my speech for the conference in Rome, I indicated that there are no easy answers for the food crisis.
But first and foremost, we have to respond by investing substantially more in sustainable agriculture, especially in Africa. This should be done by developing and sharing knowledge, developing sustainable production chains, supporting local and regional markets, and last but not least by providing more market access for products from developing countries. My colleague for development co-operation and I will invest an additional 50 million Euros per year in the revitalisation of the agricultural sector in developing countries.

In the final declaration of the conference in Rome, the 183 countries that had attended agreed on the urgency of a global strategy and practical solutions for the food crisis. There was consensus on the important role of agriculture and the need for more investments in this sector in order to raise its productivity.

It is clear that setting food safety standards, which is the topic of our seminar here in The Hague, has everything to do with the food crisis. It relates strongly to trade and market access for products from developing countries. Our seminar may therefore also contribute to finding solutions for the food crisis.

So let us now turn our attention to this seminar. Why is this important? This seminar is important because there is an urgent need to increase market access. But here we face several dilemmas.

The first dilemma faced by all parties in international agricultural trade is that while the current process for setting food safety standards protects public health, it also hinders international trade, particularly with developing countries.

At the same time we have to secure food safety. We cannot allow unsafe food entering the markets.

How do we deal with this dilemma?
Let me give you an example. One key factor is the development of more sophisticated detection methods over recent years. These have increased the sensitivity with which the levels of contamination of food can be detected. The latest technology enables us to detect very low concentrations of harmful substances in food. In some case the concentrations are so low that they no longer pose a risk to public health.

How far should we go with our process of setting food safety standards? How do we find a balance between food safety and market access? This is not only a technical issue. Of course our policy should be based on sound science but at the same time we should weigh several involved interests. And this should be done in the end at the political level.

The challenge of this seminar is to find a new policy-oriented approach for setting food safety standards, while protecting the health of consumers. Let me make my position clear: the health of consumers must never be compromised! However, this does not mean that changes cannot be made. I believe an approach is possible which improves market access while protecting the health of consumers.
I invite you to explore possible approaches and to advise me accordingly.

Why is this so important?
A new policy approach is important because it will lower trade barriers for all countries and increase market access for developing countries.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Food safety standards have become more important since the creation of the World Trade Organisation in 1994.

The WTO put non traditional trade barriers under the discipline of the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Systems, the SPS. Countries which base their trade measures on the standards of the three international standard bodies are supposed to act in accordance with the SPS Agreement. The body responsible for setting food standards is the Codex Alimentarius. With the advent of the SPS Agreement, food safety standards have become semi-binding and consequently more political.

The WTO also set up an institutional infrastructure which allowed countries to put forward their concerns about trade in agricultural products. Within the framework of the SPS Agreement, a committee was created which allowed countries to air trade concerns related to food safety, plant and animal health. Many issues have been presented and considered over the past fourteen years.

Today, the WTO representative will give a presentation on some of these problems, which should provide a solid basis for your discussions.
Tomorrow, the working groups will be presented with specific cases that have been dealt with by the SPS committee. These include residues of veterinary drugs in fish, contaminants in nuts and figs, micro-biological agents in fish and pesticide residues in pineapples.

Now, what have been the relevant policy responses to developments since 1994 as regards international trade in agricultural products, particularly with developing countries?

Firstly, the support of developed countries to developing countries to help them adapt their economies to the new trade system. Developed countries have helped developing counties to build capacity to comply with the new trade rules. Capacity building was high on the agenda during the First Global Forum of Food Regulators that was organised by the FAO and the WHO in Marrakesh, Morocco in 2002, and again during the second Forum held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2005.

A further policy response has been the recognition that capacity building is not enough. Developed countries should consider their own legislation and consequently their position in the international standards setting process. The aim should be to consider whether the current legislation introduced by governments and the process of setting standards unnecessarily impede international trade, particularly with developing countries. This area was discussed during the Informal meeting of Ministers of Agriculture of the European Union during the Dutch Presidency in 2004.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I think now is the time to take the next step. It is time to formulate a new, policy-oriented approach on setting food safety standards. Allow me to give some examples of such an approach.

Firstly, developed countries sometimes demand data from developing countries about their agricultural or aquaculture practices. However, developing countries often lack this data. The mere fact that this information does not exist may be used as an argument by the developed countries to refuse exports from the developing countries in question. I challenge you to find a policy response to this issue and promise you that I will put this recommendation to the OECD countries.

Secondly, the standards of individual countries or of Codex usually have important implications for the costs of compliance. However, these costs are often unknown. This is a matter of concern for all countries, but it is obviously more serious for developing countries. Moreover, the costs of enforcing those standards are even higher. Again I challenge you to define a recommendation.
Recommendations may be drawn up for many other problems, too.

Finally I would like to refer to the Doha round. I hope that the outcome of this seminar will facilitate the negotiations in this round. We all have to make the Doha round a success, especially in making it a real developing round!.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I will be back next Thursday to learn about the results of your meeting.
For my part, I promise you that these recommendations will be put on the agenda of the relevant multilateral forums. Many representatives of these multilateral organisations are present at this seminar and I am sure they will make an active contribution.

I wish you every success and I look forward to hearing your conclusions!