| Legislative： |
1.Promulgated under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 0961062188 dated
November 27, 2007
2.Revised under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 0991051447 dated March 3,
2010
3.Revised under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 1011052588 dated March 5,
2012
4.Abolished under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 109107145 0A dated
December 31, 2020 |
| Content： |
1. These Operating Guidelines are duly enacted by the Council of
Agriculture, Executive Yuan (hereinafter referred to as COA,
or Council of Agriculture) in accordance with Articles 4 and
5 of Regulations Governing Agricultural Product Certification
Bodies for implementation of the accreditation operation over
Organic Agricultural Product Certification Bodies.
2. The accreditation conducted by the Council of Agriculture on
organic agricultural product certification bodies shall be
classified into the following scope in accordance with the
contents of the certification conducted by the certification
bodies:
(1) Organic agricultural food products,
(2) Organic agricultural processed products.
(3) Organic livestock products.
(4) Organic livestock processed products.
(5) Organic aquatic products.
(6) Organic aquatic processed products.
3. An institution, school, juristic (corporate) person or entity
who applies for being accredited into an organic agricultural
product certification body, or a certification body who
applies for extended assessment or for reassessment
(hereinafter collectively referred to as Applicants) shall,
before going any further, apply to a specific assessment body
which has satisfactorily passed the review by the Council of
Agriculture and shall satisfactorily pass the conformity
assessment for organic agricultural product certification
bodies before filing application to the Council of
Agriculture.
An applicant shall, while filing the aforementioned
application to the Council of Agriculture, fill out the
accreditation application for organic agricultural product
certification body (Cf. Appendix 1) and shall submit the
certificate issued by the specific assessment body.
4. An applicant for being accredited as a specific assessment
body shall file the application to the Council of Agriculture
along with the following supporting documents for review.The
Council of Agriculture will advise the applicant of the
result of review in writing:
(1) Multi Lateral Arrangement mutual recognition for product
certification of International Accreditation Forum.
(2) Documents regarding handling of conformity assessment
operation of the organic agricultural products certification
bodies:
a. Quality manual.
b. Assessment standards.
c. Accreditation procedures, surveillance procedures,
extended assessment procedures and reassessment
procedures.
d. Rough calculation of costs and rates for charges.
e. Regulations regarding screening/selection, training,
performance rating, dispatch and assessments of
assessors and experts.
(3) Conformity Commitment of the Specific Assessment Body
(Cf. Appendix 2).
5.The Council of Agriculture reviews based on the following
conditions and requires continual compliance of the specific
assessment bodies:
(1) Assessment based on compliance—The accreditation bodies
provide General Requirements for Accreditation Bodies
Accrediting Conformity Assessment Bodies (ISO/IEC 17011),
and set up the system of conformity assessment of
certification bodies to put them into implementation
accordingly.
(2) Participate in international accreditation forums. The
Council of Agriculture has duly executed the Multi Lateral
Arrangement mutual recognition for the accreditation fields
of product certification bodies.
(3) Render conformity assessment services for organic
agricultural product certification bodies. The assessment
criteria are the same as norm for Accreditation of Organic
Agricultural Product Certification Bodies.
(4) The procedures documents set forth in Paragraph 2,
Subparagraph 3 of the preceding Article shall be consistent
with the contents of Article 5, Paragraph 1 of Regulations
Governing Management over Agricultural Products
Certification Bodies.
(5) Organic agricultural product certification bodies shall
submit implement performance reports of the rendered
conformity assessment services to COA on a set period
annually.
(6) Coordination with the Council of Agriculture in
supervision over the audit under Subparagraph 5 of the
preceding paragraph.
The enactment and implementation of the accreditation
procedures, surveillance procedures, extended assessment
procedures and reassessment procedures by a specific assessment
body which has satisfactorily passed the review by the Council
of Agriculture shall be deemed as the enactment and
implementation of the various procedures enacted and
implemented by the Council of Agriculture in accordance with
Article 4 of Regulations Governing Management over Agricultural
Products Certification bodies.
The initial assessment, extended assessment or reassessment of
the certification body conformity assessment conducted by
specific assessment body shall submit an assessment decision
report and copies of relevant issuance and replacement of the
accreditation certificate within three days after assessment
decision made to COA.
The COA shall have the name list of the specific assessment
bodies disclosed onto the COA website.
6.COA shall, after receipt of application from an organic
agricultural product certification body for accreditation,
extended assessment or reassessment procedures, inform the
certification body of the acceptance in writing after
confirming the completion of application form and enclosed
documents. COA will conduct document review over the
compliance with the accreditation guide for an organic
agricultural product certification body after receipt of the
submitted documents under preceding article third paragraph
from specific assessment body:
(1) That the applicant has received no penalty of being
annulled or abolished under Article 10, Paragraph 2;
Article 21, Paragraph 2; Article 23, Paragraph 2 of the
Agricultural Product Production and Certification
Management Act within three years prior to the date of
application.
(2) That the organizational operation of the organic
agricultural product certification body and capability of
the competence of its personnel should live up to the
General Requirements for Bodies Operating Product
Certification Systems (ISO/IEC Guide 65), the Council of
Agriculture’s specific requirements of the personnel of
the organic agricultural product certification body and
testing laboratories, (CF. Appendix 3), Agricultural
Product Production and Certification Management Act and
laws and ordinances concerned, laws and ordinances,
administrative rules and promulgations promulgated by
other administrative authorities.
Where as necessary when the Council of Agriculture conducts
the documented review as mentioned in the preceding
paragraph, the Council of Agriculture may organize the
review panel to conduct the headquarters assessment or
witness assessment upon the applicants, or may request the
specific assessment bodies to provide relevant information.
7. The applicants shall satisfactorily pass accreditation,
extended assessment or reassessment and may receive issuance
or replacement of the accreditation certificates
(Cf. Appendix 4) in accordance with Article 7, Paragraph 1;
Article 8, Paragraph 3 and Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the
Regulations Governing Agricultural Products Certification
Bodies if the review results prove that the applications are
consistent with the accreditation guide of organic
agricultural product certification bodies.
8. To check and verify that the organic agricultural product
certification bodies are continually consistent with the
accreditation guide in the validity period of the
accreditation certificates, the Council of Agriculture may
conduct the surveillance by assigning personnel to conduct
documented verification, headquarters audit or witness audit.
For certification bodies, whose part or entire qualification
of conformity assessment was annulled, shall be regarded as
its part or entire ability of certification operation in
scope of accreditation a demerit under norm of accreditation. |