The Commission Regulation (EC) No 1235/2008 details rules for import of organic products from Third Countries. Annex III and IV of the above mentioned regulation have been recently updated by the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 508/2012 (BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV).

Today there are three different systems to import organic products in the EU:
1) Equivalent Third Countries: Countries whose system of production complies with principles and production rules equivalent to those laid down in Titles II,III and IV of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 and whose control measures are of equivalent effectiveness to those laid down in Title V of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007.
Today, as specified in the amended annex III of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1235/2008, 11 countries are included: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Costa-Rica, India, Israel, Japan, Switzerland, Tunisia, United States and New Zealand. For each country, product categories and origin of products are specified, as well as the reference production standards, the competent authority, the recognised control bodies, the responsibility of certificate issuing and the duration of the inclusion.
2) Equivalent Control Bodies: for countries where there is not an organic regulation or it exists but not considered equivalent to the European ones, a list of Control Bodies and Control Authorities competent to carry out controls and issue certificates in third countries for the purpose of equivalence has been established in annex IV of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1235/2008. This system came into force last 1 July 2012.
3) For Countries and categories of products not covered by the above mentioned two systems, an Import Authorisation needs to be issued by the Competent Authority. Authorisations granted before 1 July 2012 will expire on 1 July 2014 at the latest.

IFOAM EU Group has established a Task Force composed of international experts working in improving the controls on imported products. Import is part of the European Commission review of the Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 that is taking place on the basis of the report presented by the Commission to the Council.

Position Paper on Actions recommended for improving the credibility of organic imports from third countries. (October 2012)

IFOAM EU Group expressed his first approaches towards the evaluation of the organic regulation in its dossier "European Organic Regulations (EC) No 834/2007, 889/2008 and 1235/2008. An Evaluation of the First Three Years.Looking for Further Development".