On October 5, 2020, the forum «Technical Regulation as a Tool for Eurasian Integration»was held as part of the Russian Business Weeks.
The role of technical regulation in the integration processes of the EAEU, issues of accreditation in the context of the implementation of the regulatory guillotine mechanism, the development of standardization as a basis for technical regulation, and opportunities for industry within the framework of the EAEU Business Council were discussed during the videoconference.
In his welcoming speech, the President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, noted that today's event is another confirmation that the crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic has not become an obstacle to discussing systemic issues.
«The RSPP Committee on Technical Regulation, Standardization and Conformity Assessment has for many years ensured the effective participation of industry in the work on improving the system of technical regulation, including within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union», Alexander Shokhin said.
«A significant part of the work is related to the implementation of the regulatory guillotine, in which it is always necessary to build a balance between eliminating excessive barriers to business and maintaining the requirements that are fundamentally important for ensuring the safety of products and their production processes. There are new topics at the junction with other functional areas, in particular, the fight against counterfeit goods,» the president of the RSPP added.
According to him, the most important task was to develop and improve standards for the digital environment. With companies increasingly moving online, there is a growing demand for digital solutions in interaction with suppliers, customers, employees, and regulators. The platform of the specialized working bodies of the RSPP in the field of technical regulation and digitalization can become optimal for the development of systematic approaches and standards in this area.
«The work on the creation of marking and traceability systems has been intensified. However, while the business has a lot of questions about how they work. Not so long ago, the RSPP sent proposals to improve the marking system to the President of the Russian Federation, including the need to harmonize existing and existing marking and traceability systems. But the most significant task is to form a unified concept and roadmap for the introduction of labeling and traceability in Russia, including taking into account the development of integration at the level of the EAEU, «Alexander Shokhin concluded.
Member of the Board (Minister) for Technical Regulation of the EEC Viktor Nazarenko outlined the main tasks and prospects of technical regulation. He elaborated on the basics of the common market of the EAEU with common mandatory requirements and rules for product access to the market.
He noted that at the moment the EEC has adopted 48 technical regulations, another 13 are under development. It is important to create competitive products with which we could enter the market, Viktor Nazarenko stressed, adding that today the volumes of exports and imports are incommensurable.
«The area of special complexity of regulation is food products. This is a problem area related to the duplication of requirements and procedures, « Viktor Nazarenko said. Among the problems, he identified double regulation, a double burden on the industry, on processors, and the lack of clear distinctions in some cases.
Viktor Nazarenko stressed that the treaty framework of the Eurasian Union is in development. In the near future, the EEC will sign an agreement on the procedure and conditions for removing technical barriers in mutual trade with third countries.
Viktor Nazarenko called the creation of a mechanism for assessing the levels of technical regulations the most important condition for the development of industry. «We need the assistance of the standardization council, we need a targeted program. We call for the creation of a Eurasian quality system, for the development of cooperation not only in the field of product safety, but also in all other areas, « he said.
The Director of the Department of state policy in the field of technical regulation, standardization and uniformity of measurements of Ministry of industry and trade of Russia Vyacheslav Burmistrov talked about improving the system of technical regulation subject to the enforcement.
«In the near future we will be making in the EEC document on amendments to the government decree No. 293, which will remove the burden on business by eliminating the need to reissue certificates if you change the legal form or address of location of legal entities», - he said.
The head of the Federal Accreditation Service, Nazari Skrypnik, said that the pandemic has made its own adjustments to the work of the department – about three thousand organizations received a postponement for inspections.
«The national accreditation system has more than 9 thousand accredited persons, more than 10 million tests are provided annually,» said Nazariy Skrypnik.
According to him, the reset of the national part of the Unified Register involves the launch of the classifier of electronic classification areas, thanks to which some control processes will disappear as unnecessary.
Nazariy Skrypnik outlined the main directions of digitalization of the department's work – the introduction of an electronic archive, the introduction of a classifier of electronic classification areas, the expansion of the composition of information transmitted within the framework of interdepartmental interaction, the creation of an electronic interaction service for NSA participants.
Alexey Abramov, Head of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology, spoke about the development of standardization as a basis for technical regulation.
«In the Eurasian dialogue, we would need to highlight new areas of use of standardization in the interests of the development of the entire economic integration within our union. I believe that to focus only on technical regulation means not to give standardization opportunities for development, « Alexey Abramov said, stressing that the development of interstate standards should be a key priority.
Chairman of the Republican Association of Industrial Enterprises «BelAPP» (Republic of Belarus), Chairman of the Presidium of the Business Council of the EAEU Anatoly Kharlap elaborated on the approaches to assessing the compliance of products with the requirements of technical regulations and the implementation of state supervision.
As the most problematic issues, he mentioned the transition to common interstate standards, the termination of the use of national standards, the introduction of common mandatory requirements for products throughout the territory of the EAEU. Anatoly Kharlap focused on the difference between the standards of the Russian Federation and Belarus, in particular, in food products, and the need to bring them to unity.
Stanislav Naumov, Executive Secretary of the EAEU Business Council, Director General of the Eurasian Center for Integration Studies and Communications, pointed to the low degree of consistency of «those fundamental foundations that are important for technical regulation at the supranational level» and supported the need for an additional round of consultations on such issues as labeling of goods.
«Business cannot follow the departments that create a road map for themselves and eliminate one disagreement at a time. We cannot start business projects when we have so many internal inconsistencies and barriers. One discrepancy brings all our agreements on the same food market to naught, and it has a negative impact on the business climate,» Stanislav Naumov said.
First Deputy Chairman of RSPP Committee for technical regulation, standardization and conformity assessment the President of the Council for technical regulation and standardization under Minpromtorg of Russia, Andrei Lotsmanov noted that, despite the conditions of a pandemic, experts of the RSPP's Committee continue discussion of bills, regulations, basic standards and other documents. In the first 9 months of 2020, 49 projects of the Russian Federation's NPA were discussed. He noted that important amendments were made to the law of the Russian Federation «On Standardization». The RSPP and the forum participants supported the need for the priority development of the technical regulations of the EAEU «On the safety of construction materials»Constructive engagement of entrepreneurs, the Ministry of industry and trade, Rosstandart, industrial enterprises and scientific community has reduced the number of standards to cancel the schedules of any change in the old, but the documents needed.
Time makes its own adjustments to the legislative framework. Thus, a number of upcoming changes in the 102-FZ «On Ensuring the Uniformity of measurements»are dictated by the increasingly introduced electronic document management.
Summing up the meeting, Andrey Lotsmanov stressed that in order to restore the economy and protect the interests of bona fide producers of the EAEU countries, it is necessary to introduce mandatory conformity assessment procedures based on standards; to ensure effective uniform control of compliance with the requirements of technical regulations in all the EAEU countries; to create a system for promptly informing about products that do not meet the mandatory requirements. In addition, he stressed the crucial role of digitalization of the standardization system.
