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CTI23 2016A: FACILITATING TRADE THROUGH THE STRENGHTENING OF FOOD SAFETY EMERGENCY SYSTEM OF APEC ECONOMIES
During October 11- 13, 2017 a workshop was conducted to enhance understanding of the regulatory structure, protocols and experiences of APEC economies in food safety emergency preparedness and response. This workshop was held in Santiago of Chile with the objective of using this information to create a set of recommendations for cooperation among APEC economies for the strengthening of food safety emergency preparedness and response plans.Ten APEC economies were represented in the workshop, between speakers and participants that engaged in lectures and active discussion spread out in workgroups. Two representatives of INFOSAN were also actively involved in the workshop, sharing their expertise and guiding the workgroups to produce fruitful discussion.Day 1: “Regulatory Updates Session”
The workshop was opened by the Chilean Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Claudio Ternicier. During this day, a number of economies shared their current regulatory framework for addressing food safety emergencies. INFOSAN presented how the WHO is articulating cooperation worldwide to increase information sharing in this topic.
Elaborated by Juan Ortuzar ([email protected]) and Constanza Vergara ([email protected]), ACHIPIA – CHILE.
Dr. Claudio Ternicier, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, opening the workshop on the first day.Day 2: “Dealing with food safety emergency session”
The objective of the second day was to share experiences of APEC economies in the development and implementation of response mechanisms to food safety emergencies. Since APEC is a diverse economic community, these opportunities where different representatives can meet and share their realities are key to generate cooperation and synergies.After some interesting presentations of how different economies manage food safety emergencies, the participants were split in groups to have a work session where they discussed their current needs to address food safety emergencies properly.
Elaborated by Juan Ortuzar ([email protected]) and Constanza Vergara ([email protected]), ACHIPIA – CHILE.
Ms. Kazuho Nagata, explaining how Japan manages food safety emergencies.Five main difficulties were identified and in order of relevance are;1. No appropriate funding for a platform/software to share information.2. Need support from successful experiences from other economies.3. Unwillingness of public agencies to share information.4. Lack of a work plan.5. Poor inter institutional coordination.
Day 3: “Proposing a way forward: APEC economies collaboration”
During this day the economies worked together to generate a collaborate strategy with specific objectives and products to improve food safety emergency management for APEC economies, based on the inputs from day 1 and day 2.
Elaborated by Juan Ortuzar ([email protected]) and Constanza Vergara ([email protected]), ACHIPIA – CHILE.
Official picture of delegatesIn relation to the identified gap and weaknesses, the main outcomes of day 3 were:No appropriate funding for a platform/software to share informationRecommendations made for address this difficulty are accomplish high level authority commitment and full support, have a regulatory basis and maintain constant and intense lobby showing food safety importance in both, public health and food trade to the high authorities. The proposed activities to solve it are explore with ASEAN members the use of their platform and explore for open source resources. Need support from successful experiences from other economiesThe main aspect to consider is the prior identification of successful experience and the harmonization of the food safety regulation between economies. To accomplish this, the recommendations made by the participants are to generate MoU or letter of understanding between APEC economies for strengthening the food safety emergency preparedness and management through on site expert training internships or experiences sharing webinars and laboratory capacities improvement.Unwillingness of public agencies to share information
Elaborated by Juan Ortuzar ([email protected]) and Constanza Vergara ([email protected]), ACHIPIA – CHILE.
A clear framework on coordination for sharing information in case of a food safety emergency is needed between the public agencies at national level among the APEC economies. A key aspect to consider is the confidentiality of the data and the use of this information by the different agencies involved.The recommendations made by the participants are to focus on creating an oversight National Coordination Committee who will manage a data Base for sharing information and it works through documented procedures of mechanism for sharing information at national and international level.Lack of a work planAll the participant APEC economies declare to have a work plan for food safety emergency response, but the difficulty is the implementation of this work plan. The recommendations given by the delegates are to have a legislation to support the implementation of this work plan with governance at the central level and local administrations and have a documented procedure to allow the synchronization of the implementation of the work plan at central and local level. Poor inter institutional coordinationIn all participants APEC economies, the National Food Safety System is managed by more than two agencies and even more than one Ministry, so the interinstitutional coordination is one of the fundamental difficulties during the implementation of the Food safety emergency response plan.The participants’ proposal is use the experience from other APEC economies and share it through an international platform such as INFOSAN where an APEC group forum could be created for this purpose and have written procedures in place. Also, a follow up project focus on simulation scenarios for the strengthening and validation of the coordination procedures in each APEC economies should be considered.More information can be found in the Workshop ´s Report at http://www.achipia.cl/documentos_2018/
Elaborated by Juan Ortuzar ([email protected]) and Constanza Vergara ([email protected]), ACHIPIA – CHILE.