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International Harmonization |
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The Landscape for Organic Trade
The organic market is confronted with hundreds of private sector
standards and governmental regulations, two international standards for
organic agriculture (Codex Alimentarius and IFOAM) and a host of
conformity assessment and accreditation systems. Mutual recognition and
equivalency among these systems is extremely limited. The
multitude of certification requirements and regulations are considered
to be a major obstacle for a continuous and rapid development of the
organic sector, especially for producers in developing countries. The
result for some producers are either no access to key export markets at
all, or a high cost of access. The high cost results from the
need to obtain multiple certifications, often from various
certification bodies based in foreign countries, and according to
standards that may not be appropriate to the producers' regional
situation. Producers may also find it necessary to obtain costly
consultation in order to learn how to comply with the certification
standards and other certification requirements. Certification bodies
often must hold multiple accreditations to meet the needs of all their
clients, and these costs are also passed on to the producers.
The International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture
In 2001, IFOAM, FAO and UNCTAD decided to join forces to search for
solutions to this problem. Together they organized the Conference
on International Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture,
in Nuremberg, Germany 18-19 February 2002. One of the key recommendations of the
Conference was that a multi-stakeholder Task Force should be
established in order to elaborate practical proposals and
solutions.
Following up on this decision FAO, UNCTAD and IFOAM in 2003 formed the
International Task Force on Harmonization (ITF). The objective is to facilitate international
organic trade and access of developing countries to international
organic markets. For further information please refer to the ITF-Section of this website.
Other Harmonization Efforts
Government Cooperation
IFOAM and the IOAS actively invite government involvement in the IFOAM
Accreditation Program, and encourage governments to use our expertise
and services. IFOAM and IOAS welcome qualified government
representatives into its Organic Guarantee System committees and IOAS
committees. Many government regulatory systems use compliance reports
prepared by IOAS for the IFOAM accredited certification bodies, for
instance, on compliance with EU Regulation 2092/91. IOAS has also
provided third party evaluation of government certification programs
and offers various other cooperative sub-contracting services to
national organic regulatory agencies.
IFOAM Family of Standards
So as
to achieve the delicate balance between the need for acceptance of regional
differences in standards on the one and harmonization of standards on the other
hand IFOAM has developed a system for approving regional or national
certification standards even if they vary from the IFOAM Basic Standards. All
approved regional or national standards together constitute the IFOAM Family of
Standards.
The acceptance of national or regional certification standards
facilitates the IFOAM accreditation of certifiers considerably. That is,
certification bodies applying an approved regional or national
standards only have to demonstrate compliance with the IFOAM
Accreditation Criteria. For further information about the IFOAM Family
of Standards and the procedures for the approval of regional standards,
please refer to the IFOAM Family of Standards Section of this website. |
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