The landmark deal, which is the EU’s first bilateral recognition with a Latin American country, commits both sides to recognising the equivalence of their organic production rules and control system.
The EU-Chile agreement on trade in organic products also aims to ensure a high level of respect for the principle of organic production.
The wide-sweeping agreement includes all EU organic products, and will allow for products produced and controlled according to EU rules to be directly placed on the Chilean market and vice versa.
A significant part of the understanding relates to both the EU and Chile protecting organic logos as well as providing for increased co-operation, information exchange and dispute settlement in organic trade.
New generation
The EU-Chile agreement on trade in organic products is considered to be the first of the 'new generation' agreements in trade in organic products.
Until now the EU has only concluded administrative arrangements with regard to organic equivalence recognition or, in the past, it has only unilaterally recognised the equivalence of a countries organic production rules and control systems.
The EU hopes that the agreement will pave the way for other agreements in trade in organic products.
In February this year FoodNavigator reported how the EU and the Government of Colombia had started the first round of talks aimed at securing a bilateral agreement on trade in organic products.
Once concluded, the deal will result in a larger market for organic farmers as well as increasing the amount of organic products available in both the EU and Colombia.
Commenting on the EU-Chile agreement, EU Commissioner Phil Hogan said: "The European organic sector continues to be one of our most dynamic production sectors and Chile has great potential in developing opportunities for organic farmers and businesses.”
Hogan added: This agreement will contribute to creating jobs and growth for both partners, with the guarantee for the consumer of solid control systems."