Under Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE), importers of organic products into the United States must be certified under the USDA organic regulations by a USDA-accredited certifier. This includes operations physically located outside of the United States that are acting as the importer of record for such shipments, regardless of any other certifications they hold for other organic activities.
The USDA organic regulations are a U.S. regulation, so USDA certification is the requirement (see 7 CFR § 205.100). The only exception to this is the provision for USDA to make equivalence determinations, which allow foreign products produced under another country’s certification program to be sold, labeled, or represented in the United States as organic provided that they comply with the scope and terms of the USDA’s equivalence determination (see 7 CFR § 205.511).
This is separate from businesses acting in the United States as importers of organic products.
The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) team recognized that after the rule was published, there was confusion about the importer certification requirements due to the complexity of certain businesses’ organic activities and supply chains.
We understand that some Canadian businesses previously thought that their Canadian Organic Regime (COR) handling/processing certification could also cover their U.S. importing activities and are now struggling to achieve USDA-NOP certification within a short timeframe.
The intent is not to have more Canadian companies become U.S. non-resident importers of record simply to move product. Non-resident importers are responsible for all the other federal agencies, liabilities and tax implications. The approach recommended by the USDA-NOP is to use already certified importers located in the U.S. Certified importers are listed in the Organic Integrity Database.
However, those Canadian businesses that feel that they need USDA-NOP certification for their importing services can continue with the process to ensure prompt compliance with the U.S. requirements. In the meantime, COR-certified operations acting as the U.S. importer of record will be able to use their COR listing in the USDA’s Organic Integrity Database (OID) in the “Recipient” section of the NOP Import Certificate. The NOP has not yet changed the OID system to block this option. At this time, it is not clear how long this option will continue to be accepted by the USDA-NOP.
It is important that Canadian businesses acting as U.S. importers complete USDA-NOP organic certification as soon as possible.
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