4. Approval Granted Following Recognition of Compliance

4.1 In order to obtain approval, all organizations certifying products accepted from outside of Québec must submit an application to the CARTV and pay the fees applicable to initial recognition application. The application form must be duly completed and signed by a person in charge from the organization, with all required documents attached and then sent to the CARTV agent responsible for the Québec Product Acceptance Program. Any document submitted to the CARTV in a language other than English or French must be accompanied by an official translation of the document

4.2 Should any information be missing, the agent shall contact the applicant in order to obtain it. Once the agent has determined that the documentation submitted is complete, the Committee appointed by the CARTV shall evaluate the application and then recommend an appropriate decision to the Board either recognition of compliance or denial

4.3 When the Board has endorsed a recommendation for compliance recognition, an approval shall be granted to the certifying body, as attested by the compliance certificate delivered to it by mail, and be valid for one year. In order to determine the areas from which products are accepted, the Board shall set the geographic limits of the accepted origins for products certified by each approved certifying body. When the latter was accredited by an official accreditation body, according to the ISO/IEC Guide 65 : 1996 criteria, or alternatively that of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) accreditation criteria, products accepted may originate from anywhere except Quebec. If the certifying body was only approved by a competent government authority, the products accepted may only originate from the country including the territory governed by the competent authority. The name of any certifying body that was granted compliance recognition shall appear on the list of approved certifiers, which is published on the CARTV’s Internet site. This list shall also include the accepted origins for products certified by each certifying body approved by the CARTV.

4.4 The approval granted to a certifier shall authorize the sale on Québec territory of products certified outside of Québec, according to the conditions set down by the CARTV. As such, products must only originate from countries from which these particular products may be accepted.