35. The Delegation of Costa Rica informed the Committee that standards on meat and milk products existed and a technical regulation taking into account Codex MRLs was being published and that the Ministry of Agriculture had developed a monitoring programme for residues, as well as training programmes for the use of pesticides. The Delegation of Jamaica stressed the difficulties related to the lack of laboratory capacity for pesticides analysis and noted that Codex MRLs were used as a reference for export control. The Delegation of Uruguay indicated that Codex MRLs were used as a basis for national legislation, although they were not formally accepted.
36. The Delegation of Argentina indicated their monitoring system for pesticide residues integrated the interactions plant-pest-pesticide and in this context some MRLs corresponded to those of Codex while others were lower, national limits being applicable in any case, in view of the application of Good Agricultural Practice. Pesticide residues found in a number of commodities were lower than the Codex MRLs, due to the application of good agricultural practices and therefore Argentina did not apply the Codex MRLs.
37. The Committee expressed the view that the questionnaire circulated by the Committee on Pesticide Residues was not adequate to identify problems related to pesticide residues in the region; similarly, the document considered by the last CCPR session (CX/PR 96/11) was not comprehensive enough and did not include important commodities. The Committee therefore invited countries in the region to provide relevant information and comments to the CCPR in order to facilitate discussion of the issues identified during the present session.
