APEC Members Seek Harmonization of Food Export Paperwork
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members are focusing on aligning technical terms for food safety export paperwork, and paring down requirements exceeding baseline needs for food safety, as the group’s Committee on Trade and Investment meets in Ho Chi Minh City…
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through Aug. 25, APEC said. “Certificate requirements need to have a clear purpose and need to be practical to be effective,” said Robert Macke, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Foreign Agricultural Service, which is overseeing food export certificate cooperation in APEC. “Our goal is to facilitate regulations in the Asia-Pacific that are grounded in science and applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal, or plant life or health," he said. 'Where trade in a particular food product has low risk, certification may not play a necessary or legitimate role.” Industry representatives and agriculture and regulatory officials from APEC countries are concurrently meeting in Can Tho, Vietnam, Aug. 18-25 to take “policy steps towards safer and more robust food trade in the region,” APEC said.