Mexico is scheduled to fully implement national regulations on organic production and marketing. “To maintain market access for U.S. organic products,” USDA says the two countries are working toward equivalency in organic standards, which would allow products certified organic in one country to be sold in the other without having to go through a second round of certification and inspection.
The USDA has organic equivalency agreements with Canada, the EU, Japan, Korea and Switzerland. Mexican and U.S. officials will set up a joint organic compliance committee, says USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, which oversees organic agriculture. “Both countries agree that strong compliance and enforcement programs are essential to maintaining organic integrity across borders,” said AMS administrator Elanor Starmer.
Once it convenes, the joint committee has a target of agreeing within six months on use of import certificates to verify a shipment of organic products crossing the border. The committee also will implement sampling of organic goods for chemical residues, with results to be shared with regulators in both countries.