| Legislative： |
1.Enacted under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 0981046142 dated January
22, 2009
2.Amended under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 0981048477 dated September
8, 2009
3.Articles 4 amended under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 1001053766 dated
July 5, 2011
4.Article 3, 4, and 12 and Appendix 8 of Article 11 amended
under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 1041071067A dated December 29,
2015
5.Appendix 1 of Article 2 and Appendix 2 of Article 3 amended
under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 1061069245A dated June 26, 2017
6.Abolished under Order Nung-Liang-Tze 109107145 0A dated
December 31, 2020 |
| Content： |
1.The operating guidelines are duly enacted by the Council of
Agriculture of the Executive Yuan (the Cabinet) (hereinafter
referred to as COA or Council of Agriculture) in an effort to
provide uniform specifications to review documents to approve
application by importers for organic labeling of imported
organic agricultural food products and organic agricultural
food processed products (hereinafter referred to as Documents
to Approve Organic Labeling in brief).
2.The operating procedures for application, review and issuance
of Documents to Approve Organic Labeling: As provided in
Appendix 1.
3.An importer shall, before filing application for issuing
Documents to Approve Organic Labeling for the first time,
fill out the application form for importer registration (Cf.
Appendix 2) and submit it along with the profit-seeking
enterprise registration certificate affixed with seals of
the importer and its responsible person to the Council of
Agriculture for issuance of importer registration code.
The Council of Agriculture shall inform the importer in
writing when issuing importer registration code in accordance
with the preceding paragraph.
The importers who have received the approval for Organic
Labeling issued by Council of Agriculture before December 31,
2009 shall apply for importer registration code based on
Paragraph 1 on or before December 31, 2010.
4.An importer shall, while applying for issuance of the
document to approve organic labeling, fill out the
application form (Cf. Appendix 3) and submit the following
documents to the Council of Agriculture for the application
process:
(1) A photocopy of the profit-seeking enterprise registration
certificate affixed with seals of the importer and its
responsible person.
(2) An Organic Certificate of imported organic agricultural
food products and organic agricultural food processed
products.
(3) An accreditation document demonstrating that the foreign
certification body has been accredited by an accreditation
body in a country or international organic accreditation
body (organization) promulgated by the Council of
Agriculture under Article 6, Paragraph 1 of Agricultural
Product Production and Certification Management Act
(hereinafter referred to as the Act). Such certificates
may be dispensed with, nevertheless, if such foreign
certification body has been registered with the Council
of Agriculture.
(4) A photocopy of the import declaration with its import and
export permit blank filled with the pre-generated number
of the approval document for organic labeling. But for
those importations prior to December 31, 2017, a photocopy
of the import slip of import declaration shall be attached
instead.
(5) A certificate of quarantine inspection or a certificate of
quarantine compliance issued by the import and export
animal quarantine authority or plant quarantine authority,
except for those items that are exempted from the
quarantine requirement.
(6) Review fee to be paid in a postal money order.
If the supporting certificates specified in Subparagraphs 2 of
the preceding paragraph submitted is found to contain false
information and the following documents reissued by the foreign
certification body have yet reached the importer, a photocopy
affixed with the seal of the company and responsible person
stamped and a mark indicating that the document is identical
to the original copy should be submitted, and the original copy
should be supplemented in one month starting from the next day
of the day when the photocopy is submitted. In cases of overdue
or inconsistency between the photocopy and the original copy,
the issued labeling approval documents will be voided, and the
violating importer shall only be allowed to apply with the
original copy within 3 years of the due date of original copy
submission.
Proving documents specified in Subparagraph 3 and Subparagraph
5 of Paragraph I can be substituted with photocopies that are
affixed with the seal of the importer and responsible person
and a remark indicating that the document is identical to the
original copy.
The information of the foreign certification bodies registered
with the Council of Agriculture mentioned in Paragraph I,
Subparagraph 3 shall be disclosed through the website of the
Agriculture and Food Agency, Council of Agriculture.
An applicant should file application mentioned in Paragraph I
through an agent by issuing the Power of Attorney (Cf.
Appendix 4).
5.While applying for issuing document to approve organic
labeling, the applicant shall, based on the numbering and
coding principles for organic labeling set forth in the
remarks of the application form, complete coding process and
enter the codes into the appropriate box of the application
form and shall duly file application along with the
accompanying documents specified in the preceding paragraph.
6.Where an application is found inconsistent with the specified
process but where remedy proves possible, the case shall be
handled in accordance with the following manner:
(1)The applicant shall complete the remedial actions within
one month after receipt of the notice from the Council of
Agriculture.
If the applicant fails to complete remedial process within
the specified time limit without a justifiable reason, the
Council of Agriculture shall dismiss the application with
a receipt and with statement of the reasons of dismissal.
The review fee already paid by the applicant shall not be
returned.
(2)Where the applicant has submitted remedial action in
response to the notice received from the Council of
Agriculture but the remedy is still found inconsistent with
the specified process, the applicant is deemed as having not
submitted the remedy. The Council of Agriculture shall
dismiss the application with a receipt and with statement of
the reasons of dismissal. The review fee already paid by
the applicant shall not be returned.
7.Where an application is to be accompanied with samples for
inspection, the application shall be handled in the following
manner:
(1)Where the applicant is advised by the Council of
Agriculture to submit samples for inspection, the applicant
shall submit samples in two portions in the smallest
possible packaging based on the notice for submittal of
samples issued by the Council of Agriculture (Cf. Appendix
5)to the Council of Agriculture within one month of the
issuance of import clearance. If the samples are not
submitted within the specified time limit without
justifiable reasons, the Council of Agriculture shall
dismiss the application with a receipt and with statement
of the reasons of dismissal. The review fee already paid
by the applicant shall not be returned.
(2)Upon receipt of the samples submitted by the applicant,
the Council of Agriculture shall issue a receipt of
samples received(Cf. Appendix 6) to the applicant in
response.
(3)Where the samples submitted by the applicant are found
inconsistent with the requirements but remedy proves
possible, the procedures set forth in preceding paragraph
shall apply.
(4)Where the samples submitted by the applicant prove
inconsistent with the requirements after the inspection
process, the Council of Agriculture shall dismiss the
application with a receipt and with statement of the
reasons of dismissal.The review fee already paid by the
applicant shall not be returned.
8.Where samples submitted in an application case prove necessary
to receive inspection, the case shall be handled in the
following manner:
(1)The applicant shall submit the inspection fee and samples
enough for inspection and for archiving to the inspection
body specified by the Council of Agriculture (hereinafter
referred to as the Specified Inspection Body) based on the
notice for submittal inspection issued by the Council
of Agriculture (Cf. Appendix 7) within one month of the
issuance of import clearance. If the fee and the samples
are not submitted within the specified time limit without
justifiable reasons, the Council of Agriculture shall
dismiss the application with a receipt and with statement
of the reasons of dismissal. The review fee already paid
by the applicant shall not be returned.
(2)The Council of Agriculture shall serve a duplicate copy to
the Specified Inspection Body when advising the applicant
in accordance with the preceding paragraph.
(3)The Specified Inspection Body shall, after completing the
inspection of the samples, serve the result of inspection
to the Council of Agriculture and serve a photocopy of
the result to the applicant.
(4)In the event that the submitted samples fail to pass
inspection and the applicant does not apply for recheck
within the time limit specified under Article 10, and if
application for recheck is not permitted, the Council of
Agriculture shall dismiss the application with a receipt
and with statement of the reasons of dismissal. The
review fee already paid by the applicant shall not be
returned.
9.The volume of the “samples enough for inspection and for
archiving” mentioned in Paragraph 1 of the preceding Article
shall be duly determined based on Rules on Sampling Methods
and Quantities of Agricultural Food Products and Agricultural
Food Processed Products.
10.Where an applicant objects the inspection results under
Article 8,Paragraph 3, he or she may pay inspection fee and
apply to the original Specified Inspection Body for
re-inspection within fifteen days after receipt of the notice.
The applicant may apply for re-inspection only once.
The re-inspection mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall
be conducted only upon the original samples. If the original
samples have been deteriorated, no re-inspection shall be
permitted.
After the re-inspection mentioned in the preceding paragraph
is completed, actions shall be subsequently taken in
accordance with Article 8, Paragraphs 3 and 4.
11.After an application case satisfactorily passes the review
process, the Council of Agriculture will issue the receipt of
review fee to the applicant and will issue the document to
approve organic labeling based on the code of Approval for
Organic Labeling (Cf. Appendix 8).
12.Important notes to an importer who applies for issuance of
the document to approve organic labeling:
(1) The document verifying certification of review over the
imported organic agricultural food products and organic
agricultural food processed products under application
shall be duly issued by the certification bodies duly
accredited by a National or an International Organic
Accreditation Body (Organization) promulgated by the
Council of Agriculture in accordance with Article 6,
Paragraph 1 of the Act.
(2) The imported products applied for review shall be
agricultural food products the content of the organic
raw materials of which shall not be less than 95%.
(3) The quarantine inspection for the imported organic
agricultural food products and organic agricultural food
processed products under the application shall be
consistent with the requirements set forth in
Certification Criteria of the Imported Organic
Agricultural Food Products and Organic Agricultural
Food Processed Products of the Republic of China.
(4) The Chinese labeling of the imported organic agricultural
food products and organic agricultural food processed
products under the application shall be consistent with
the specified requirements.
(5) In the event that the documents specified under Article
4 are not in Chinese version, the applicant shall submit
a copy of Chinese translation version which shall be
affixed with the seals of the importer and its
responsible person and shall be remarked
“identical to the original”.
(6) A file number for organic labeling for the application,
under Article 5 shall not repeat another number.
(7) The import declaration numbers and items entered shall
be consistent with that entered on the import
declaration. The total weight (volume) shall be filled
referring to the net weight figures on the import
declaration.
13.In case of a change in the entries of the document to approve
organic labeling, the case shall be subject to review anew in
accordance with these Operating Guidelines.
14.Issues to be handled by the Council of Agriculture under
these Guidelines shall be implemented by the Branches of
Agriculture and Food Agency (Cf. Appendix 9）. |