In April, FDA recognized the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as having a comparable Food Safety System to the United States. Australia follows New Zealand and Canada as the third country to receive this recognition. U.S. Importers may receive exemptions from certain requirements in their Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVPs) if their suppliers are in “good compliance standing” with a recognized country’s regulating authority.
As of this writing, the three recognized countries have not published lists of firms in good compliance standing. As a result, suppliers in these countries are unable to benefit from the competitive advantage that more relaxed FSVP requirements for importers would grant them.
