Mr. President, Excellencies,
Italy aligns itself with the explanation of vote delivered by Poland on behalf of the European Union and wishes to add the following remarks in its national capacity.
We thank the co-facilitators for their commitment and efforts in advancing this important resolution. Italy attaches great importance to the global health agenda, along with food security, food safety and food system transformation. In this spirit, we supported the adoption of the resolution “Global Health and Foreign Policy.”
We firmly believe that health and food security are essential to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. We remain committed to this approach, including in the upcoming negotiations on the modalities for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response, which we are honored to co-facilitate with Vietnam.
Nonetheless, we express serious concern and dissociate from the language used in preambular paragraph 35 (PP35). We appreciate the collective efforts to revise the text, however the paragraph remains inconsistent with previously agreed language on fiscal and regulatory measures, particularly the 2018 Political Declaration on NCDs.
The effectiveness of such measures in addressing unhealthy diets remains, indeed, highly debated, while alternative strategies, including product reformulation through public-private partnerships, as well as approaches grounded in food education and consumer information have proven effective in improving public health outcomes.
While supporting the adoption of the resolution, Italy reaffirms that such measures, including taxation and marketing restrictions, fall within national jurisdiction and that General Assembly’s language should reflect the importance of policy autonomy at the national level and context-specific approaches.
We kindly request that this statement be included in the meeting record.
