The EU Commission identified significant weaknesses in the third-country control procedures through years of monitoring. Therefore, regulations regarding imports will be tightened further and an equal playing field for EU Commission monitoring of third-country control agencies. The recognition of equivalent standards will be discontinued because of the difficulty of monitoring third-country standards. The new import procedure allows only compliant products to be imported. The products covered by the EU Organic Regulation (Compliance), Art. 46 2018 848) and equivalent products under a trade deal. In this instance, equivalent products mean the products are from a third-country with a trade deal (Equivalence in a trade accord, Art. 47, Art. 47, Art. The ‘Recognized Third Country’ and the ‘Recognized Third Country Inspection Body’) will be phased out.
Import and export regulations for organic products will change
Import regulations starting on January 1st, 2022
The EU Commission modified the COI form to allow third-country imports of organic products to conform to the new procedure. It now covers 31 fields. There have been several years of additional controls for organic imports from certain third countries. These are so-called imports following guidelines from China, (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Moldova), Russia, India, and Turkey. These consignments have been sampled in Germany downstream, by us at the first consignee. This procedure will continue until further notice, as per agreement at the federal level. Pay attention to the following:
- The specialist organic import control of the country will fall under the jurisdiction of the state authority in which the customs clearance is performed.
- Customs will only clear customs upon import of consignments
Changes to the inspection of products
The relevant regulations require that organic imports from third-country countries must be notified at least one day before arrival by the country authorities. If imports are not subject to border inspection at the destination place, it is necessary that the appropriate state authorities be informed about the import. This is done by TRACES.NT through the mandatory entry of arrival data in the appropriate fields. The current status does not indicate that the system will automatically inform the relevant state authority about the pending import. Therefore, we urge you to immediately pre-announce your import via e-mail.
These points should also be considered:
- For goods subject to border control, inspection is generally done at the border control point. For goods that are not subject to border controls, inspection is done at the border control point or the place of release for free circulatory by the national authority.
- Organic import controls must be completed before the goods can be released as an organic consignment (or part consignment) in the Certificate of Inspection.
- The specialized organic import control was transferred to the local state authority at the beginning of the year.
Export of organic products from EU to UK starting July 1st, 2022
Exports of organic products to the UK Organic products certified by EG-OKO–VO will continue being recognized as equivalent.
Upon export of organic products to the UK, a certificate of inspection (GB-Col) will be required.
Prerequisite is that you send an application for the issuance of the GB-Col with a completed draft of the GB-Col (incl. accompanying documents) to your certifier, who will issue the document.