The Organic EU Regulation equivalency arrangements

The Organic EU Regulation equivalency arrangements

Whereas European Union on its inner borders defines Organic Agriculture in compliance with EU Reg 834/2007, towards third countries EU made equivalency arrangements so that trades of certified organic products in and out of the EU from and towards non EU countries.

Countries with equivalency arrangements

So far the European Union made equivalency arrangements with:

  • Argentina Australia Canada Chile South Korea Costa Rica Japan India Israel USA Switzerland Tunisia New Zeland

From all these countries it is possible to import Organic Products as soon as they are certified by recognized certification bodies (see attachment III of EU Reg. 1235/2008). The equivalency arrangements ensure to operators and consumers that, besides their origin, the rules adopted for certifying organic products are the applied and verified in every step of the production, processing and trade supply chain and therefore are equivalents to the EU Reg 834/2007.

Non equivalent countries

For all other countries it is possible to import organic products in EU only if the importer operator (and its exporters) is certified by a recognized equivalent certification body by the EU for the specific product category (see. attachment IV of EU reg 1235/2008).Even in this case, the aknowledgment from the EU ensures to operators and consumers that, besides their origin, the rules adopted for certifying organic products are applied and verified in every step of the production, processing and trade supply chain and therefore are equivalents to the EU Reg 834/2007.

Principles of the equivalency arrangements

The equivalency arrangements are made because of the continuous growth of the organic sector all over the world: they are born in order to permit a dialogue between systems that otherwise would not be able to do it. For this reason the rise of equivalency arrangements is one of the EU priorities.

Reciprocity

All the arrangements can have exceptions: sometimes they don't cover all products, some other times they set some specific requirement, but the key point in order to make them effective is reciprocity.

For any doubt or information requirement it is possible to contact CCPB staff at the address ccpb@ccpb.it