G/TBT/N/EU/96  
 
21 February 2013  
(13-0923)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 NOTIFICATION 
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  EUROPEAN UNION  
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephon e and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [   ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [ X ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Products 
originating from agriculture, including aquaculture and intended to be placed on the 
market in the EU as organic products. 
5. Title, number of pages and langua ge(s) of the notified document:  Draft 
Commission Implementing Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1235/2008 laying 
down detailed rules for implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 as regards the arrangements for imports of organic products from third countries (11 pages, in English). 
6. Description of content:  The draft Commission Implementing Regulation contains 
amendments to the certificate of inspection, to the extract of the certificate of inspection 
(Annex V and VI of Regulation (EC) No 1235/2008) and to Articles 13 and 14 of that 
Regulation aimed to strengthen the traceability of imported organic products.  
Organic products imported into the European Union have to be accompanied by a 
certificate of inspection delivered either by a control body or a control authority supervised 
by a third country recognised as equivalent under Article 33(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products and 
repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 (O.J. L 189 , 20/07/2007, p. 1.), by a control body 
or a control authority recognised for the purpose of equivalence under Article 33(3) of that Regulation or by a control body or control authority on the basis of an import authorisation granted by a Member State in accordance with Article 19 of Regulation (EC) No 
1235/2008. G/TBT/N/EU/96 
 
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7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable:  Specific traceability systems have been developed by governments or private 
associations in certain third countries. In the light of experience gained, control bodies or 
control authorities certifying organic products imported from those countries should be allowed to indicate on the certificate of inspection specific references to those systems in 
order to improve the traceability of products. To facilitate this, a box "other" has been 
included in the certificate of inspection and the extract of the certificate of inspection.  
In order to trace back the co ntrol body or control authority and the regime under which a 
product was imported, the code number of the control body or control authority should be 
indicated in box 1, 6, 10 and 11 of the certificate of inspection and in box 1, 6 and 10 of the extract of that certificate. 
8. Relevant documents:   Council Regulation (EC) No 8 34/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic 
production and labelling of organic products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 (O.J. L 189, 20/07/2007, p. 1)  
"http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ. do?uri=OJ:L:2007:189:0001:0023:EN:PDF " 
Commission Regulation (EC) No 1235/2008 of  8 December 2008 laying down detailed 
rules for implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 as regards the 
arrangements for imports of organic products from third countries (O.J. L 334, 12/12/2008, p. 25) 
"http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ. do?uri=OJ:L:2008:334:0025:0052:EN:PDF "   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    End June 2013 1 January 2014 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [  ], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresse s, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  mailto:eu-tbt@e c.europa.eu  
The text is available on the EU-TBT Website :  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/ 
and http://members.w to.org/crnattachments/201 3/tbt/EEC/13_0775_00_e.pdf