US-EU organic trade agreement goes live
The partnership began in February when Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan signed an agreement with Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for Agriculure and Rural Development, and Ambassador Isi Siddiqui, US Trade Representative Chief Agricultural Negotiator signed the relevant paperwork.
"This partnership will open new markets for American farmers and ranchers, create more opportunities for small businesses, and result in good jobs for Americans who grow, package, ship, and market organic products," said Merrigan. "Equivalency arrangements such as this are critical to growing the US organics industry—they require careful negotiation to ensure that we maintain existing US trade policies while ensuring that US agricultural products will compete on a level playing field in world markets."
The US had already signed similar partnership agreements with Canada in 2009 and has already begun discussions for more with South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
The partnerships eliminate lots of certification processes and paperowrk, thus lowering the costs of business operations.
The arrangement covers products exported from and certified in the United States or the European Union only.
"Estimates show the market for US organics sales to the EU could grow substantially within the first few years of this arrangement," according to the USDA announcement. "Today, more than two-thirds of US consumers buy organic products at least occasionally, and 28 percent buy organic products weekly."
All products traded under the partnership must be shipped with an organic import certificate, which shows the location where production occurred, identifies the organization that certified the organic product, and verifies that growers and handlers did not use prohibited substances and methods. In addition to certifying that the terms of the partnership were met, the certificates also allow traded products to be tracked. The European Commission's Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development and the USDA National Organic Program—which oversees all U.S. organic products—will take on key oversight roles.
Source: agri-pulse.com