Notes from the EU-US Organic Equivalence agreement signing
Kathleen Merrigan was honored to be present to sign the partnership outlining ?EU-US organic equivalence.
The agreement provides a "Rich opportunity to collaborate and cooperate...and is the culmination of decades of collaboration to garner Easier access to the two largest organic markets in the
world"
200,000 organic farmers in the eu
Improves transparency-- good news for consumers in the us and eu.
Access to larger markets is benefit to equivalence. The challenge will be in maintaining integrity between the improvements made to organic production on both sides of the Atlantic. Programs will
be reviewed periodically to ensure the parameters of the program are being met.
The US maintains the commitment to organic and to international trade-- the two combined complement this agreement.
The EU and US maintain a Shared conviction on the benefits of the agreement which will be Effective June 1st 2012.
For our business this means that our partners and agents will be able to overcome the objection of some organic European manufacturers/suppliers to exhibit or advertise with us without USDA
certification. Labels will now be interchangeable.
The press release is available at www.biofach.de/en
