Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay and Minister of International Trade Chrystia Freeland announced [on March 7, 2016] that the European Union (EU) has voted in favor of expanding the current scope of the Canada-EU Organic Equivalency Arrangement. Canadian certified organic processed products that include imported ingredients will now also be covered by the arrangement and will no longer require costly and time-consuming double certification. The expanded scope of the arrangement will also include mutual recognition of EU and Canadian organic wine standards as being equivalent.

Some administrative steps remain before the amended EU regulation comes into force. It is anticipated that the regulation will be published in the EU Official Journal by the end of March 2016. The EU regulation enters into force seven days after its official publication, at which time the revised Canada-EU Equivalency Arrangement will also come into force...

This has been excerpted from the 7 March 2016 news release by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.