The UN committee that deals with trade – the Codex Committee on Nutrition – will be meeting  in Berlin from 24th -30th November 2018.   CLICK HERE for background

This is a critically important meeting for child health and IBFAN and partner NGOs will do our best to support WHO and its call for strong marketing and food safety controls.

Under the new US administration, many of the safeguards that have been adopted at the World Health Assembly and integrated into the various trading standards over decades are now under threat. The US seems to be stepping up its  call for standards to be lowered to meet the needs of food and agriculture corporations.

As the world’s most powerful nation,  when the US used its power in May to put pressure on Ecuador to drop its support for a World Health Assembly Resolution, it mattered.  It was indeed tantamount to blackmail. The action had a resounding impact, especially on other less powerful countries.  Small wonder that there were 600 editorials after the NYT expose and President Trump’s Fake News’ Tweet.

The US is certainly not the only state to support corporate positions. All formula producer countries have a keen interest in growing this market. New Zealand kick-started the revision of the follow-up formula standard in 2011, with the expectation of expansion of trade to asian countries – an unsaturated market at the time but fast growing.

Our Press Release after the Codex meeting  last December, gives details of the industry presence at Codex meetings – not just as observer front groups, but also sitting on government delegations.

Please urge your government to call for more – not less – protection for child health in Codex trading standards  – and to support  IBFAN’s position papers  Agenda and Codex background papers.

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