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 assessment s 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 Council of Agriculture adopts the General Requirements for Bodies Operating Product Certification Systems (ISO/IEC Guide 65) and the Council of Agriculture’s specific requirements upon the personnel of organic agricultural product certification bodies and testing laboratories (Cf. Appendix 3).  The Council of Agriculture further assures compliance with Agricultural Products Production and Certification Management Act and laws and ordinances concerned, laws and ordinances, administrative rules and promulgations promulgated by other administrative authorities.
(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) Coordination with the Council of Agriculture in supervision over the audit under Subparagraph 4 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 Council of Agriculture shall have the name list of the specific assessment bodies disclosed onto the Council of Agriculture website.

6. The Council of Agriculture shall, after receipt of application from an organic agricultural product certification body for accreditation procedures, extended assessment procedures and reassessment procedures, conduct documented review over the compliance with the accreditation guide for an organic agricultural product certification 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, Agricultural Product Production and Certification Management Act and laws and ordinances concerned, laws and ordinances, administrative rules and promulgations promulgated by other administrative authorities.
(3) The organic agricultural product certification bodies shall satisfactorily pass the assessment process for organic agricultural product certification bodies conducted by the specific assessment bodies.  The scope of assessment shall include the scope of accreditation under application and the assessment
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.