Background
The Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) is a forum of US and EU consumer organisations which develops and agrees joint consumer policy recommendations to the US government and the European Commission to promote consumer interest in EU and US policy making and in global issues. So far, a total of 40 European and 24 US consumer organisations have joined the initiative that began in 1998. The Commission provides financial and co-ordination support for TACD.
The TACD conference takes place once a year, alternately in the US and the EU. The 10th Annual Meeting was held on 8-10 June 2009.
Plenary
Speakers stressed the importance of having a strong consumer participation in transatlantic trade relations.
Joost Martens from Consumers International pointed out that lately better regulation has been a synonym for the removal of barriers to trade and standards and that it is now time to have a genuine better regulation, setting up higher standards.
By 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight, partly because of the aggressive marketing of junk food. Therefore, Joost Martens called for urgent action and leadership by the EU and the USA to tackle the global obesity pandemic. He said that what is needed is a shift from a voluntary approach based on the industries’ initiatives to effective regulation including targets on salt and sugar, and an efficient labelling, following the WHO guidelines.
Some speakers referred to the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC), which was set up in April 2007 in a bid to reinvigorate EU-US economic relations. The aim of the TEC is to clear away technical regulations and standards that substantially raise costs for companies wishing to trade and invest across the Atlantic. It concerns the removal of restrictive regulations in areas such as financial-market regulation, pharmaceuticals, patents and intellectual property law in order to increase both EU and US GDP. In this respect, Consumers’ organisations pointed out the danger of allowing chlorinated US chicken in Europe [[The EU has had a ban on US poultry since 1997 because American producers use a low-concentration chlorine to wash chickens before selling them – a practice not permitted in the EU. ]] is a top priority of the TEC.
Food Working Group
The working group had a number of in-depth discussions on key food issues, such as food safety, product reformulation, nutrition labelling, and marketing to children.
The key concern for food safety in recent years has been the increasing trend towards third party inspections. Consumer organisations from both sides of the Atlantic see this as a result of the current deregulatory climate, which has led to a decrease in government regulation by food safety agencies. Third party inspections should not be a substitute for regulation as stipulated by law and should not result in ‘earned autonomy’ for economic operators along the food chain.
Regarding the reformulation of processed foods, there was significant support for a focus on the reduction of trans- and saturated fats. This is in line with calls for a broader approach to reformulation that focuses on fats, sugars and salt. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is to produce detailed plans for the reduction of saturated fats and energy (sugars). The FSA is trying to get the industry to act on this as a collective to remove the competition element.
Discussions on nutrition labelling focussed on updates from both sides of the Atlantic. BEUC gave an update on the progress of the Food Information to Consumers Regulation. It is interesting to note that developments in the UK (the FSA study on food labelling with results favouring traffic lights) are being closely monitored in the US, with the Food and Drug Administration research indicating that American consumers are misled by the %Daily Values approach, which is very similar to the %GDA approach. The US FDA and US Institute of Medicine are looking at the issue of front of pack labelling. As concerns food information when eating out, several US states and cities have now finalized laws requiring calorie labelling at point of sale. Philadelphia has gone the furthest requiring other nutrients to be listed too. The UK Food Standards Agency has called for voluntary calorie labelling and early adopters to trial a system this summer.
In relation to the marketing of food to children, the participants agreed on the need to continue raising the issue of statutory versus non-statutory controls on marketing with governments. The UK was taken as an example of a country that has introduced a measure of statutory control over marketing, subject to government-proposed nutrient profiles. Many representatives stressed the need to expand the scope of marketing to include both the internet and sponsorship.
Session on Financial Market Regulation
This session gathered, inter alia, representatives from the EU, the US Government and the civil society.
Consumers’ organisations responded to the Commission that disclosure of information on financial services is necessary (provided that it fulfils some criteria of transparency…), but is certainly not enough: for too long, disclosure has been an excuse for no real regulation. With no consumer-protective regulation, the only realistic option for consumers who have been abused is to go to Court.
In addition, the present organisations called on government to put consumer protection at the heart of regulating financial services.
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For further information
– TACD
– US Food and Drug Administration
– EFSA
– UK Food Standards Agency
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