Canada and EU Achieve Full Bilateral Equivalence (but unlevel playing field?)

The Canadian Government and European Commission have exchanged letters acknowledging that their organic regulations are considered equivalent.  Unlike the Canada-US agreements, there are no additional requirements on either side. Organic products certified according to the regulations of one country and traded to the other country, will have market access without additional verification of additional requirements.

However, there appears to be one big caveat.  Canada is added to the third country list as of 21 June 2011, but the language of the revised regulation restricts the scope to raw and processed products fully originating from Canadian agriculture.  It would appear that processed products with ingredients from outside Canada, even small amounts of herbs or spices externally sourced, may not be included in the agreement. European and Canadian authorities are expected to provide guidance on this and other issues in the coming weeks.

Article 1 of Commission Regulation 590/2011 states that:

” (1) after the text relating to Australia, the following text is inserted:

‘CANADA

1. Product categories:

• (a) live or unprocessed agricultural products and vegetative propagating material and seeds for cultivation;
• (b) processed agricultural products for use as food;
• (c) feed.

2. Origin: products of category 1(a) and organically grown ingredients in products of category 1(b) that have been grown in Canada. ”

There appears to be no corresponding restriction on the country of origin for products traded from the EU to Canada.  The letter to the EU from CFIA states that, “Subject to the conditions as set forth in Appendix 1, agricultural products produced and processed in conformity with the European Organic System will be deemed equivalent to those products produced and processed in accordance with the Canadian Organic Products Regulations, 2009 and Canada’s Organic Program and may be sold, labelled or represented in Canada as organic, including by display of the Canadian organic logo as well as the organic logo as set out in Commission Regulation (EC) No 889/2008.” Appendix 1 does not contain reference to the origin of products.

“This agreement puts Canada at the forefront of global organic trade: the only country in the world that has an organic standard recognized by the two largest organic markets,” said Canada Organic Trade Association Executive Director, Matthew Holmes.  “We believe there is room and precedent for this agreement to include our manufactured products, some of which include ingredients that support organic farmers all over the world. Canadians trust the European system is verifying the ingredients in its manufactured products, whatever their source, and we hope this trust is reciprocated to Canada’s organic oversight and enforcement as well.”

The 21 June amendment to add Canada to the third country list also extended the listing of Costa Rica and New Zealand indefinitely.  Those listings would otherwise have expired in June 2011.