CFIA and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) are in process of finalising the organic equivalence arrangement between Canada and UK. The proposed arrangement will take effect on January 1, 2021 and will cover organic agricultural products of UK or Canadian origin.
The key points under consideration include:
- UK will maintain current EU organic regulations with the same labelling/ seal use allowed and EU will recognize the UK control bodies.
- Great Britain (England/Scotland/Wales) will require a new import certificate beginning Jan 1, 2021 (products shipped by Dec 31, 2020 are not subject to the new certificate)
- Canadian organic products exported to Great Britain (GB) under the UKCOEA must be accompanied by a Certificate of Inspection (CoI). This will be a GB CoI and will be a manual process.
- Exports from Canada to Northern Ireland will continue to adhere to the EU procedures and will continue to require an EU “Certificate of Inspection for Import of products from Organic production into the European Community ” as per Article 13 and Annex V of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1235/2008.
- Organic products must be certified to the Canadian organic standards by a CFIA accredited CB and accompanied by the certificate of inspection issued by a CFIA accredited CB.
Once the final recognition letters are signed they will be posted on the CFIA Organic products web page and will be supported by an overview document that will provide additional information on the United Kingdom – Canada Organic Equivalence Arrangement (UKCOEA)
