Policy and Regulatory Issues 301Agreements call on the WTO member countries to
seek harmonization of regulations based on the work
of the CAC, and foods which meet CAC Codex stan-
dards, recommendations and guidelines should be
traded freely in international trade.
Adherence to Codex standards has become critical
as they are used as guidelines for the resolution of
disputes under the enhanced WTO dispute settlement
procedure. Annex 2 of the WTO covers all disputes
arising from the GATT and WTO agreements. A
dispute is triggered when a WTO member complains
that another member(s) has failed to live up to the
obligations of the GATT or WTO agreements, i.e., a
benefi t guaranteed under one or other of these agree-
ments has been “nullifi ed or impaired” by another
member(s). The dispute settlement procedure encour-
ages the governments involved to discuss their prob-
lems and settle the dispute by themselves. The fi rst
stage is therefore consultations between the govern-
ments concerned. If the governments cannot resolve
their dispute they can ask the WTO director-general
to mediate or try to help. If consultations fail, the
complaining country can ask for a panel to be
appointed. If the panel decides that the disputed trade
measure does break a WTO agreement or an obliga-
tion, it recommends that the measure be made to
conform with WTO rules. The panel may suggest how
this could be done. Either side can appeal a panel’s
ruling. Appeals are limited to points of law and legal
interpretation — they cannot re-examine existing
evidence or examine new issues. The appeal can
uphold, modify, or reverse the panel’s legal fi ndings
and conclusions. If a member does not comply with
WTO recommendations on bringing its practice in
line with WTO rules, then trade compensation or
sanctions, for example in the form of duty increases
or suspension of WTO obligations, may follow. An
interesting case that illustrates the working of the
Dispute Settlement Understanding is the long-
running dispute between the EU and the USA
and Canada concerning the EU ban on the use of
growth-promoting hormones in beef and the import
of meat treated with hormones (http://www.wto.
org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds320_e.htm).
Setting international food standards requires the
participation of all countries. In recent years there has
been a signifi cant increase in the membership of the
Codex. Developing countries now constitute a signifi -
cant proportion of total membership. However, many
countries are still faced with resource constraints to
effective participation in Codex activities. The FAO
and WHO technical assistance programs support the
efforts of developing countries to strengthen their
national food safety systems to protect local consum-
ers and to take advantage of international food trade
opportunities. In addition, the FAO/WHO Codex
Trust Fund supports the participation of countries in
Codex technical committee meetings, and countries
have been funded to attend sessions of the CAC.Europe
Having considered the global agencies and institu-
tions that impact on food and nutrition regulation,
the EU will be considered as an example of evolution
toward a modern system of food and nutrition
regulation.
The EU is an association of 27 Member States that
have agreed to integrate and coordinate much of their
economic policy and some other policy areas. The
original European Economic Community (EEC) was
formed following the signing of the Treaty of Rome
in 1957 and consisted of six Member States, increas-
ing over time to 9, 12, 15, 25, and 27 Member States
in 2007 following the accession of Romania and Bul-
garia. The emphasis in the early years was to concen-
trate on the free movement of foodstuffs through the
common market. EU food regulation developed in an
uncoordinated fashion over a period of more than 40
years and resulted in a fragmented framework char-
acterized by different national traditions of member
states as well as different policy areas such as trade
and agriculture to which they were linked.
From a consumer health point of view, the domi-
nant areas were related to food safety, in particular
toxicology and microbiology. Nutrition issues in EU
policy were dominated by compositional standards
for infant foods and clinical foods. The Community
may not act in a policy area unless given the power to
do so by Treaty and the Treaty of Rome did not explic-
itly mention consumer protection or public health.
These goals were added to the Single European Act
and the Maastricht Treaty.
Three institutions, the European Commission, the
Council of the European Union, and the European
Parliament – the interinstitutional triangle – take
decisions in the legislative fi eld. The main differences
in the decision-making process are related to
whether the Council decides by qualifi ed majority or