Common use of Conformity Assessment Procedure Clause in Contracts

Conformity Assessment Procedure. In case a Party requires a positive assurance of conformity with technical regulations on EMC or safety of covered products, the following rules shall apply:5 (a) conformity assessment procedures shall not be prepared, adopted or applied with a view to or with the effect of creating unnecessary obstacles to trade with the other Party; (b) except as otherwise provided under this Annex, including the transitional arrangements set out in Article 4, each Party shall accept products on its market6 on the basis of one or more of the following procedures as positive assurance of conformity to its technical regulations on EMC or safety of covered products: (i) a supplier’s declaration of conformity without requiring the intervention of any conformity assessment body or testing of the product by recognised testing laboratories; (ii) a supplier’s declaration of conformity based on a test report from any testing laboratory in the other Party’s territory that has been notified by the Party at the entry into force of this Agreement or in any subsequent notifications. The notifying Party shall be solely responsible for notifying any laboratory which is competent7 to perform the relevant tests in its territory, without prior approval or verification by the importing Party. The importing Party may require that the declaration of conformity is submitted by the supplier before the product is placed on its market and 4 In case no such international standards exist, or where a Party has adopted any standard, technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure which differs from that under international standards, the Party shall limit its standard, technical regulation or conformity assessment procedure to what is necessary for the achievement of legitimate objectives on safety and other public interest requirements and, wherever appropriate, base them on products requirements in terms of performance rather than design or descriptive characteristics, in accordance with Chapter Four (Technical Barriers to Trade). 5 Either Party reserves its right to require in the future positive assurance of conformity for any product currently not subject to positive assurance of conformity, in which case the Party has to comply with its obligations under this Annex.