There are no fallback positions or special arrangements that will keep Canadian organic goods flowing to the European Union if negotiations on regulation standards fail, says Agriculture Canada’s EU liaison.
“If anyone thinks they’re going to get out of this unscathed, let’s not be deceived. We all go down if we can’t make that third country list,” said Roxan Hooshangi.
Rumours have surfaced in the organic community that the federal government is working out a side deal to keep goods moving if an agreement to have the EU accept Canadian organic standards as equivalent to their own can’t be reached by Dec. 31, 2005.
Read Also
Research looks to control flea beetles with RNAi
A Vancouver agri-tech company wants to give canola growers another weapon in the never-ending battle against flea beetles.
“What we’re hearing filtering down is there is a Plan B,” said Debbie Miller, who sits on committees trying to revise Canada’s national standard and implement a regulation to govern it.
Hooshangi said nobody should count on an interim arrangement, which would salvage access to the world’s largest organic market.
She thinks people might be referring to a government strategy to speed negotiations with the EU, but that still involves going through equivalency discussions.
The plan is to follow what New Zealand did to get on the EU’s third country list, which was to negotiate a one-way, export-only agreement. But there is no guarantee the EU won’t insist on a two-way deal, like it did with the United States.
Speaking to a small gathering of organic exporters attending a Saskatoon seminar, Hooshangi took the opportunity to quell another mistaken belief.
Exporters counting on moving product certified to EU standards, or those who think they can piggyback on a deal between the EU and the U.S. by certifying product to the U.S. National Organic Program, will face a rude awakening come Jan. 1, 2006.
“If we lose access, it’s everyone,” she stated emphatically.
Hooshangi is frustrated by the prospect of having to once again shake the organic industry into action.
A year ago at the same seminar series, she blasted the sector for failing to deliver the new national organic standard that negotiators need to launch equivalency discussions.
Last week, she was again standing empty-handed in front of the small crowd. While the industry has taken a big step in reaching consensus on the first part of a three-part standard, there are still revisions to be made.
“Please, can everyone just try and work together and do whatever it takes to get this national standard approved as soon as possible? This is absolutely fundamental,” she pleaded.
Hooshangi wants the document approved and ready to go by October, no matter what it takes.
Miller said that deadline won’t be met. The Canadian General Standards Board has yet to translate a 25-page critique of the standard submitted by Quebec certifiers. Once that happens, revisions will be made and the standard will be submitted to the standards board for approval.
She doesn’t expect Part 1 will be ready to go until the end of December, leaving exactly one year for negotiations.
If negotiations fail, farmers will be locked out of a market that consumes an estimated $300 million of Canadian organic products annually.
