It has issued a report saying it is time “in our collective history to jointly move to protect our shared food supply.”
The report says both countries have relatively sound food safety systems, but “there is still too much fragmentation in our approach to food safety risk assessment.
“Taking advantage of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) renegotiation, there is an opportunity to re-examine cross-border structures to ensure the science of food safety risk assessment is done jointly, not just collaboratively, such that independent regulatory decisions achieve the best possible outcome for consumers and for business.”
The report notes that there is an International Joint Commission that has operated that way since 1912.
A joint program “could strengthen food safety and business competitiveness while being an example to the world,” the report said.
