eu withdrawal of equivalence for processed organic products in july 2014 india indicated its concerns with the eu withdrawal of equivalence for processed organic products which it had previously recognized since 2006. the equivalence agreement with the european union provided that processed and unprocessed organic food products from india could be exported to the european union pursuant to certification from the bodies accredited under indias national programme for organic products npop . in order to expand its exports in september 2012 india had published guidelines that would permit certain imported ingredients products. these guidelines which provided that the percentage of imported ingredients would be within the range of 5 were shared with the european union who made no comment. however eu regulation no. 125 2013 with effect from 1 april 2013 removed processed organic products from the equivalence agreement on the grounds that the agreement required that all of the ingredients must be grown in india. india clarified that no processed organic products containing imported ingredients were exported to the european union. india requested that the equivalence recognition be restored as it had withdrawn the 2012 guidelines. the european union responded that indias concern was not an issue under the scope of the sps agreement. this position had previously been communicated to india during bilateral meetings held in april 2014 and on the margins of the current meeting of the sps committee. the european union reiterated its commitment towards engaging with india at a technical level on this issue within the appropriate framework. india explained that the criteria for designating a product as organic were far more stringent than the requirements for non-organic products and as such notification of these requirements would fall within the scope of the sps agreement. india requested clarification from the secretariat in this regard including a list of notifications regarding requirements for organic products. india also queried whether the international standard-setting bodies had undertaken any work in this regard. the secretariat noted that most notifications regarding organic products had been submitted under the tbt agreement as could be seen from the sps and tbt information management systems ims . there was no wto legal interpretation addressing organic products. the codex had undertaken work regarding in particular the labelling of organic food products but as confirmed by the representatives neither the ippc nor the oie had any activities in that regard. the information provided by the secretariat was subsequently issued in g sps gen 1354. in october 2014 the secretariat informed members about inaccuracies in document g sps gen 1354 which provided information about sps and tbt notifications on organic products and on relevant codex work. these inaccuracies would be corrected and a revised document would be circulated as soon as possible g sps gen 1354 rev.1 dated 7 november 2014 . india reiterated its concerns with the eu withdrawal of equivalence for processed organic products which it had previously recognized since 2006. the equivalence agreement with the european union provided that processed and unprocessed organic food products from india could be exported to the european union pursuant to certification from the bodies accredited under indias national programme for organic products. in order to expand its exports india had published guidelines in september 2012 that would permit certain imported ingredients such as herbs flavours additives and colours to be blended with indian organic value-added products. these guidelines which provided that the percentage of imported ingredients would be within the range of 5 were shared with the european union who did not comment. however eu regulation no. 125 2013 had removed processed organic products from the equivalence agreement on the grounds that the agreement required all ingredients to be