The World Food Code and Codex MRLs

The importance of Codex standards is that they offer a globally harmonized, unbiased and authoritative source of MRLs that take into account the various national GAP for a particular pesticide-commodity as well as available residue trial data. The authoritative nature of Codex MRLs has, in fact, been recognized and agreed in principle (if not always in practice) by the maj ority of important trading countries. The World Trade Organization (WTO), through a 1995 agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), identified Codex 

MRLs as the official reference for food safety issues which affect intemahonal food trade and the basis for resolution of trade disputes. Thus, it would appear that with respect to management of residues and MRL issues associated with global trade, the mechanism for preemphng potenhal nahonal differences in GAP is neatly in place. Indeed, Codex MRLs are quite useful as reference points for many countries which do not establish their own nahonal M RLs (e.g., Algeria, Chile, Colombia, Pakistan, Philippines) or may defer to Codex MRLs when they are available (e.g., Brazil, China, India, Israel, Korea). 

the promise of Codex MRLs offering a single, harmonized listing of globally applicable MRLs to facilitate world trade has not yet been fully realized due to internal problems with the Codex process and also the divergent interests 

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