The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a cog in the giant machine that controls the global trade of food. This is made up of multiple supra-national bodies, including Codex's parents, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Under their facilitation, Codex has been developing standards, guidelines and recommendations for the trade of food since 1963. These cover a range of issues, such as maximum pesticide residues, food additives and food labelling.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) governs global trade and ensures that nation states do not commit the terrible crime of going against the current neo-liberal trade system. Described on the Codex website as “fair trade” but elsewhere called “free trade”, this system prevents countries from utilising mechanisms that are interpreted as barriers to trade.
Some of these policies, such as taxing imports or subsidising exports, could be used to protect domestic industries or agricultural production. This is not usually permitted by the current system unless you are an extremely wealthy and powerful nation or block of nations such as the United States and Europe.
Other policies are more contentious, and include the labelling of genetically modified food and refusing to allow imports of products not considered safe by the importing country. This is where the Codex recommendations come into play. Trade disputes of the kind played out by Europe and North America would leave most countries bankrupt, and so are simply not an option. If a country wanted to implement legislation different to the standards, guidelines and recommendations produced by Codex, it would risk initiating such as dispute....read more>>>...
