Encouraging Food Safety Standard Negotiations in the One-Belt-One-Road Initiative

Abstract

Participation and attendance in food safety negotiations such as Codex meetings are of critical importance. Common problems have existed throughout history in the area of food safety standards and their formulation regulations. One, there is a lack of interest by the public. Two, the public becomes interested only after a food safety crisis. Consequences are two-fold: with lack of public interest, governments often do not allocate enough budget and resources. Then, the government turns to face the problem with a sudden spike in public interest, it is often too late. The situation becomes more of a crisis management, rather than a risk prevention mechanism. For this reason, participation and attendance in forums such as Codex meetings are of critical importance. Yet, despite their importance, countries have shown drastically different attendance and participation rates in history. This paper aims to take a distinctive view by leaping from Codex meetings into food safety negotiations within the Belt and Road Initiative. Doing so brings much value in reflecting upon lessons for comparative regionalism in the area of food safety law. While the paper proposes some technical considerations to encourage participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, it also does not accuse developing countries of the lack of interest in building a safe food environment for their own people. In fact, it aims to do just the opposite: raise questions on how much room we have left for the developing countries to contribute in negotiating possible food safety standards. In the long run, it is my hope that this will also contribute to the development of the comparative regionalism studies and institutions in law.