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CANADA
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has embarked on a change agenda designed to strengthen how food commodities are regulated in Canada. Initiatives include the new Safe Food for Canadians Act (SFCA), regulations to be made under the Act, and the Integrated Agency Inspection Model. The SFCA, when fully in force, "will establish a modern legislative framework" for food safety. Recognizing the challenging import environment, the SFCA significantly strengthens import oversight authorities, and proposed SFCA regulations will require importers to be licensed, develop and maintain a preventive control plan, and have a fixed place of business in Canada, except where the Minister has recognized a foreign system.
Canada currently uses a range of tools and approaches for import control, based on its legislative and regulatory framework, to target inspection resources and to verify compliance with requirements, in line with international rights and obligations. These include:
* Pre-border activities (e.g. arrangements with an exporting country; certification; equivalence determination)
* At border activities (e.g. admissibility of shipments)
* Post-border activities (e.g. inspection, sampling and testing)
* A combination thereof.
As the CFIA modernizes its food safety regulatory system, it says it has an opportunity to make greater use of tools that could optimize its risk management activities for imports. Many of Canada's trading partners have "mature" domestic food safety systems with public health outcomes that are broadly comparable to Canada's system. Others have commodity specific control programs and oversight which can provide confidence that Canadian requirements will be met. The CFIA says it can leverage these systems, programs and oversight in its risk management approaches for imports using tools such as recognition of foreign food safety systems and programs.
Objective and Scope
This framework elaborates on the use of recognition of foreign food safety systems and commodity specific food safety control programs and systems of inspection as a Canadian import control tool and identifies benefits, guiding principles and a process to guide implementation. It applies to the following situations:
* Where trade between Canada and an exporting country is ongoing and existing knowledge, confidence and experience suggest that the national food control systems of the two countries achieve comparable outcomes
* Where trade in a specific commodity is ongoing and where knowledge, confidence and...