Market access for organic products

In June 2003 the Swedish National Board of Trade released a discussion paper 'Market Access for organic agricultural products from developing countries: analysis of EC regulation (2092/91)'. It concluded that while organic agriculture is beneficial to the sustainable development of developing countries, the special rules for imports established under the regulation have led to costly certification procedures and obstacles to market access for products from developing countries. It concludes that the implementation of the regulation is 'more trade restrictive than necessary to achieve consumer information' and could well be incompatible with WTO principles. In this context the Swedish National Board of Trade suggests: the acceptance of international certification systems under the regulation; an extension of the application of article 11(7) so as to enable certifiers to be listed for export throughout the EU; that group certification should be allowed, thereby reducing the cost to individual enterprises of obtaining certification; that approved products from third countries should be allowed to use the same logos (e.g. 'organic') as used for EU-produced goods; a review of import procedures to facilitate imports; the establishment of an international framework for the harmonisation of equivalency arrangements. Comment: These kinds of issues related to administrative barriers to market access should form a key component of the forthcoming ACP-EU EPA negotiation and should form part of an 'early harvest' from such talks (pre-2008). These issues could also usefully be taken up in the framework of EU-least developed country dialogue around the 'everything but arms' initiative.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
Format:	News Item biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation 2003
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10568/52626 http://agritrade.cta.int/Back-issues/Agriculture-monthly-news-update/2003/September-2003
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