On January 31, the Mexican government published a new draft of the Conformity Assessment Procedure (CAP) related to NOM-223-SCFI/SAGARPA-2018: commercial denomination, specifications, and labeling of Cheese. The document was published on the Federation's Official Gazette for a 60-day public consultation period. Mexico also notified the members of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade. An unofficial English translation of the Cheese draft Conformity Assessment procedure is available here.

Under the scope of the draft CAP, domestic or imported cheese producers and traders must follow the procedures of NOM-223 (Cheese) to demonstrate the conformity of their products. The CAP is intended to apply to any product presentation, which implies that it will apply to pre-packaged cheese and cheese products produced, commercialized, and imported in bulk or as a raw material.

To demonstrate the product's compliance with the specifications of NOM-223, the CAP requires the following schemes:

• Inspection by lot of product or family of product.
• Periodic testing of the product or product family and evaluation of the production process.
• Product certification under a scheme of regular product testing and auditing of the production control process.

All the schemes must be conducted by third-party conformity assessment bodies (inspection units, testing laboratories, or certification bodies) that shall be accredited (recognized) by Accreditation Entities and/or competent authorities in Mexico or the country of origin of the product.

Comments are due on April 1., 2022, and they must be submitted in Spanish to the following email addresses: dgn.alimentaria@economia.gob.mx, jespinosa@agricultura.gob.mx, and homobono.perea@agricultura.gob.mx. Under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), interested parties may request an extension of the deadline for submitting comments for up to 90 days.

USDEC will develop comments to the draft CAP and welcomes member feedback by February 28. Member feedback may include an estimate of the cost of the current proposal, additional test methods you would like to see approved, and alternative proposals for conformity assessment. We also encourage you to share your concerns with your importers and customers so that they may also submit comments on this proposal. Please send all comments to Oscar Ferrara at oferrara@usdec.org.