On June 26 in Minsk as part of the business program of the 4th Eurasian Economic Forum, Valentin Tataritsky, Minister in charge of Technical Regulation of the Eurasian Economic Commission, held a panel session "Eurasian Integration in the Field of Technical Regulation: from Strategy 2025 to Declaration 2030".
The results and prospects of the Strategy 2025 implementation in the field of technical regulation became the main topic of the event.
A number of Union decisions were discussed, both already adopted and those in progress, ensuring systematic integration in this area, including in the context of shaping the action plan for the Declaration 2030.
"The series of our discussions, among other things, covers the issues of digitalization, e-commerce, combating "gray" authorizations and increasing trade and economic expansion of external markets," the EEC Minister stated.
The discussion agenda touched upon increasing the role of standardization for the purposes of technical regulation within the Eurasian Economic Union and the development of a mechanism for assessing the scientific and technical level of safety requirements for products, taking into account innovations in the legal framework of the EAEU. These include the Procedure for Coordination of Work in the Field of Standardization, the Procedure for Conducting Mandatory Periodic Assessment of the Scientific and Technical Level of the EAEU Technical Regulations and Lists of Standards to Them and the corresponding plan for such STL assessments until 2030.
The session participants discussed systemic problems in protecting the EAEU market from unsafe products. Their settlement, according to the meeting participants, can be achieved, among other things, through harmonizing national accreditation procedures of conformity assessment bodies. The procedure for mutual comparative assessments by accreditation bodies will ensure that relevant differences in conducting such procedures are identified for their subsequent elimination.
Additional discarding of "gray business" issuing authorizations in the field of technical regulation will be ensured by a relevant register of test protocols. The procedure for its establishment and maintenance is already in development.
The EEC Minister also expressed particular concern about varying supervisory practices in the Union countries in terms of controlling compliance with the EAEU technical regulations.
In particular, in order to develop a mechanism for quick and synchronized response of countries to non-compliant products, the work on a unified Procedure for interaction of state supervision bodies with customs authorities and accreditation bodies, as well as on the Procedure for consideration and settlement of disputes arising between the Member States on the results of state supervision has been significantly intensified at the Union.
Prospects for improvement of control and supervisory activities by the EAEU countries are also seen through the integration of resources relevant to technical regulators (in particular, the register of conformity assessment documents) with the resources of digital labelling, which is used for the purposes of traceability of goods and anti-counterfeiting. The acceptability of the approach to such integration is being actively debated.
The session paid special attention to the implementation of the project "Digital Technical Regulation within the Eurasian Economic Union". When considering the topic of electronic commerce, the event participants emphasized the inadmissibility of unsafe products entering the EAEU market through e-platforms.
