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The US and European Union have entered into a historic trade arrangement that will pave way for organic products certified in the US or Europe to be sold in either region from June 1.
The US-EU Organic Equivalence Cooperation, as the pact is called, brings the two largest organic producers and markets together to promote organic farming.
The organic products market is valued at around $60 billion.
The EU and the US make up $50 billion of this. Germany, in particular, stands to gain as its contribution to the organics market is $6 billion.
The agreement follows a lot of negotiations and thorough onsite audits on both sides to ensure that regulations, quality control, certification requirements and labelling practices were compatible.
The agreement eliminates the need for certification in Europe and the US for an organic product manufacturer.
Plans for India tie-up?
“This partnership eliminates significant barriers, especially for small and medium producers,” said Ms Kathleen Merrigan, US Agriculture Deputy Secretary.
“Organic farmers will benefit on either side from easier access, with less bureaucracy and lower costs to both US and EU markets,” said Mr Dacian Ciolos, the EU Commissioner responsible for agriculture and rural development.
Queried if either the EU or the US was planning such an agreement with India, Mr Isi Siddiqui, the US Trade Representative's chief agricultural negotiator, said: “India will have to make a request among other things.”
However, given the differences in mercantile trade with the US and the EU, it could take longer.
“We have begun some process with India,” said Mr Ciolos. However, the cooperation arrangement is not an agreement as there were “small” differences between the EU and the US.
Differences of antibiotics use
According to Ms Beta Huber of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland, the arrangement excludes apple and pear exports from the US and livestock products shipments from the EU.
This was due to differing views on the use of antibiotics. The US regulations prohibit use of antibiotics except to control bacterial infections such as fire blight in organic apple and pear orchards.
The European Union allows antibiotics only to treat infected animals.
“For such products, additional documentary evidence will be required,” said Ms Huber.
The arrangement has now led to a call for such “equivalence agreements” with other countries too as India, China and Brazil, for example, have a considerable number of farmers practising organic farming.
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